(This post was actually written two days ago, but I'm posting it now that I'm less jet-lagged.)
(これはおととい書いたけど、時差ぼけのせいで今載せている。）
Hey, everyone! It’s
time for AIRPLANE BLOGGING. I am
slightly sleep deprived, so please forgive how incoherent/weird I may be.
こんにちは、皆さん！私は今飛行機を乗っている。六時間が残っているので、ちょっとみそぎ神社について書こうと思う。
Anyway, Misogi Shrine!
Sunday before last I walked down to Gosha Shrine to meet with Nakano-san
and the Sekihara family (both parents and Yushin-kun) to begin our epic journey
across Japan . For those of you who aren’t intimately
familiar with Japanese geography, Misogi Shrine is located in Yamanashi Prefecture ,
two prefectures and a three hour drive away from Nagoya .
This meant five of us in a car for three hours, driving through Nagano . Needless to say, I heard of lot of exciting
stories. We wound up stopping for lunch
at a rest stop, where I got some surprisingly good kara-age (fried chicken).
先週の日曜日に中野さんと関原家と五社宮で会った。みそぎ神社は山梨県にあるから、車で３時間ぐらいかかった。だが、皆の面白い話のおかげで全然つまらなくなかった。
Being the brilliant person I am, I brought my camera…but
managed to leave my camera card at home.
Great. So I don’t have any
pictures, which is a huge shame, because it was beautiful.
カメラを持っていたけど、カメラカードを全然忘れてしまったので、写真はない。ごめんね。
Misogi Shrine, by the way, is unaffiliated with Jinja Honcho
(the Association of Shinto Shrines), which means it’s technically not part of “Shinto.” Rather, it’s part of one of the 13 sects of “Sect
Shinto,” which is the term used post-Meiji Restoration to designate “religious”
Shinto as being separate from the “non-religious” Shinto used by the state. Although the religious/non-religious
distinction ended with the war, there’s still a difference between “Sect
Shinto,” each sect of which is seen as a New Religion based on Shinto, and “regular”
Shinto, which is governed by Jinja Honcho.
ところで、みそぎ神社は神社本庁に入っていない。「普通」の神道ではなく、教派神道の一派のみそぎ教だからだ。「教派神道」というのは明治維新後に作った言葉だ。政府が使っている神道は非宗教として考えられたので、宗教的神道のための言葉は必要だった。戦後、教派神道と神社神道は両方宗教として扱ってきたけど、今でも教派神道が神社本庁の神道と違う。教派神道は神道に基づいた新興宗教として考えられている。
今日の歴史のレッソン、以上です。（笑）
We were planning on attending a fire purification ceremony
that was starting at 2 p.m., but we arrived at about 1:30, so we had some time
to look around the shrine and drop into the shrine office. The shrine grounds include a fully functional
noh stage that overlooks a small pond—apparently there are sometimes concerts
and performances on the stage during festivals.
２時に特別な火の祓いに参加する予定だったが、１時半ごろ到着したから、祭りの前に社務所に行ったり、神社の境内を見たりした。境内は本当に綺麗だった。社の以外に池と能舞台がある。
Anyway, before the ceremony we wrote out wishes on little
blocks of wood to be burned in the ceremony (although I think our particular
blocks were burned in the next ceremony, not the one we attended).
The ceremony itself was pretty unlike anything I’ve ever
observed before. For one thing, fire
purification ceremonies are incredibly rare in Shinto—they’re much more
commonly performed in Buddhist temples.
Also, normally no one aside from the priests speaks during ceremonies,
but everyone chanted together during this one.
みそぎ神社のお祓いは他の神社のお祓いと結構違った。例えば、火を使っているお祓いは神社神道で結構珍しい。それと、普通のお祓いだったら、参拝者は全然喋らないけど、みそぎ神社のお祓いで参拝者の皆さんは清めのために言霊を言った。
After the ceremony, Nakano-san introduced me to a few of the
priests, including her husband. (Yeeeep,
her husband works at Misogi Shrine.) It
was interesting talking to them, ‘cause the shrine technically doesn’t have
ujiko (‘cause it’s Sect Shinto), so it’s an interesting contrast with the
shrines I’ve been studying.
お祓いが終わってから、神主とちょっと話した。教派神道のみそぎ神社は氏子がいないので、私が研究した神社と比べるのは面白い。みそぎ教に関する本を見つけたらいいなと思う。私が知らないことが見つかったら、いつも「図書館に行こう！」と思う。（笑）教授になりたい理由かな。。。
After that we hung around the grounds for a little bit, and
chased dragonflies around. (Okay, Yushin-kun* and I chased dragonflies
around. The adults were too dignified to
do such a thing, and also had cameras so they could take actual pictures.)
その後で、池で鯉を見たり、トンボを見たりして、楽しかった。
After we left, we stopped by a cheese store. Apparently cheese is a big deal in
Yamanashi? They had AMAZING cheese cake
(I tried a sample and nearly melted into a puddle of OH GOSH DELICIOUS all over
the floor; I may be suffering from cheese cake deprivation) as well as…really
odd cheese. Like wasabi cheese. And sausage cheese. And regular cheese which was still kind of
odd. Of course, given that the majority
of the cheese I have eaten in Japan
was, in fact, filched** from Louki (DUTCH CHEESE IS DELICIOUS, OKAY***), I may
be mildly biased. But the cheese cake
was amazing. (Japanese cheese is weird,
though, okay?)
神社から出発した後で、ちょっとお土産を買うためにチーズの店で止まった。その店のチーズケーキは本当に素晴らしかった。まあ、チョコレートケーキの他に一番好きなケーキはチーズケーキだけど、日本のチーズケーキはアメリカのよりふわふわで味が弱い。（日本のチョコレートケーキはほとんど味がないから、買うのより自分で作ったほうがいい。）いいチーズケーキを食べたのは久しぶりだったから、たぶん普通より感動した。（ケーキで感動するのはちょっとありえないでしょう。）
Aaaand then we returned home! The Sekiharas were nice enough to drive me
back to my dorm, so I didn’t even need to walk back in the dark. Thank you!
そして、帰った。関原さんが寮まで運転してくれて、ありがとう！
All in all, a pretty awesome trip!
素晴らしい体験だった！
*Can I take a moment to talk about what a trooper Yushin-kun
was? He is 6, and is potentially the
best behaved kid I have ever met. I
mean, he dealt with being in a car for six hours better than many of the
teenagers I know. He gets ALL THE
WELL-BEHAVED FIRST GRADER AWARDS. (He is
also adorable. Just saying.)
**Well, filched with permission.
***In other news, I think Louki and Kim have officially
broken my brain, ‘cause I have started mentally referring to things as “Dutch”
when I actually mean they are orange.
WHAAAAAAAT. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO
ME????
