Thank you for reading this blog. The next update will be on July 14th.

The Importance of Shinboku (神木)

There is a word called “Chinju-no-mori(鎮守の森).” “Chin” means to becalm or a weight. “Ju” means care taking or protect. “Mori” is forest. With all the meanings combined, it implies that something precious is protected in a calm manner in the forest(=yashiro/shrine).

In the ancient Ko-Shinto, they wrote,「神社＝もり」so people would read Jinjya (shrine) as mori (forest). In the ancient days, shrines did not exist. People payed a visit to the forest and mountains. One part of the forest was segmented as kapu - a sacred ground. It was prohibited to step inside the area. And people sent offering of the gratitude energy.

One of the origin of a shimenawa(注連縄) comes from placing it in front of the kapu area in the forest. They put a rope to close the area. A forest without any human invasion is a space full of oxygen produced by the plants. By the energy of gratitude sent by humans reaching into this space, I could see both plant energy and the gratitude energy intertwining in a spiral form. This ki would reach and purify the local area that will influence the heart of the local people.

One of the origin of a Shinto priest (shinkan) is the person who stood inside a shack by the kapu rope. He was the keeper protecting the forest. Therefore, a shrine without a forest or many trees is not a true shrine. Without the trees, the divine energy cannot descend to the place. The trees in a shrine with divine energy descending, grows very well. In the country, we often come across a shrine with trees growing abundantly. You could tell whether the shrine is a good shrine or not by looking at the trees.

By protecting the forest with a kapu area, they were protecting the plants. At the shrines of today, each tree, a shinboku – sacred tree, in the shrine site represents a forest. Therefore, you must not touch the trees. When it is touched by many humans, the ki will be disturbed and it could block the divine energy to descend.

When there are kenzokus, the guardian spirits watching over the shrine, whoever touched the tree may get into trouble. The kenzokus will be angry at you. Sometimes they could be like the wasps and unmerciful.

At The Grand Shrine of Ise, I often see an oni demon kenzoku guarding the shinboku. I have catched them in my camera few times. They could punish you by breaking a bone. If you had touched or even worse hugged the shinboku, please apologize in your heart.

You could have your own shrine at home. The sakaki leaves and water would become the forest on your kamidana altar. Send your gratitude to the sakaki leaves and the water. Do have a sense of manner to wash your hands before you touch the sakaki.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

Everything will return into Oneness

In India where Buddha was born, creating a grave was never a custom. Today, it is still the same. They cremate the body and flow it in the river, returning to the ocean.

Originally, all creatures came from the ocean and eventually evolved to live on land. So it’s a natural cycle to return to the ocean at the end of one’s life. The idea of running through a river returning to the ocean is much similar to the idea of Shintoism.

The place where Buddha was born never had a grave. But in Japan, Buddhist temples are full of graves. Buddha would not know any of the manners or rules we have in Japanese Buddhism. He wouldn’t know any of the sutras that are chanted.

If he is listening to the sutras that Japanese are chanting, he should be amazed of the meaningless sounds. All of the sutras were made few hundred years after his death.

It is scary when you think of this. The Japanese Buddhism has no spiritual foundation. They are sending the deceased back to heaven with a method Buddha has never heard of but in the name of Buddhism. It is natural to think that the deceased is not sent to heaven properly.

So before the Buddhism became popular in Japan, how did people take care of the deceased?

In Jōmon Period (apprx. 12000 yrs ago ~), I sense that people had a joint burial mound.

When people died, they inhumed the body in the ground in a location separated from the residential area. They would bury next to each other and once it had spread too far, they started to pile them on top of each other. It would look like a small hill.

I sense that this form of a small hill became the style of a tomb for the Imperial mound.

In the ancient days, people died and returned to the nature. Nature was God. So we returned to the nature and became a part of god.

The original idea of Shintoism was about being grateful for the great nature=god. Thus sending gratitude towards ancestral spirits came natural, considering the spirits returning to nature.
People gathered to send their gratitude to ancestral spirits at certain times of the year. And the timing was determined accordingly to the movement of the sun.

The modern Buddhist funeral ceremony in Japan seems to be overly expensive with too many unnecessary rituals. Disappointingly, the most important gratitude sending seems to be neglected. I sincerely wish that each sect would add some words that express gratitude towards the deceased. At the same time, I wish that the Buddhist priests would do their service only by donation.

It was a mistake that the Shinto gave the funeral ceremonial service to the Buddhist.

The idea of “kegare(穢れ)” made the Shintoist wanting to separate god and the dead apart. Since it was separated in the Jōmon Period, the righteous spirituality disappeared from Japan. Shintoists monopolized the Gods and turned it into a business as if they had the patent rights. Different sect would have each of their own norito having too much self-assertiveness. This kind of egoistic approach will never reach to the gods.

It is very important NOT to separate the gods and the deceased. Simply send gratitude to both of them. This ancient and original idea must revive.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

The Flying Tadpoles

From June 9th, comment from a reader:
There was a strange news on TV about tadpoles flying from the sky… what do you think of this?

Answer from Ise-Hakusun-Do-Ryman :

The professionals say it’s hard to think that the birds have anything to do with this. This was the first time anyone has seen this happen.

I deleted my comment to this reader’s question because the fact that this has to do with agrochemicals, I thought it might scare people and create anxiety.

I don’t know what the scientist would say but in my opinion the cause definitely comes from agrochemicals.

The tadpoles didn’t die from it, but the sensitive birds that tried to eat the contaminated creatures had thrown-up the tadpoles. That is what happened.

The rice and other vegetable fields are polluted by the agrochemicals. That's one of the reasons why I bought all my brown rice last year for the next 3 years. The agrochemicals are now 100% bought from foreign countries. They use much stronger chemicals than that of Japanese. The non-Japanese chemical may have been used for a while but the effect to the DNA, I sense it started from last year. The problem is that all the organically grown items are much expensive and many of us who are suffering from the recession will not be able to afford them.

So what is the solution?

My retainer god tells me to drink warm water. He tells me that as long as we drink lots of warm water, we will be fine. The point is that the water must be brought to a boil.

Use mineral water or filtered water and boil. Then let it cool down to apprx. 40℃.

I hope you find this information useful.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

Thank you for reading this blog. The next update will be on July 2nd.

Gathering the White Stones

One of the most important event held during the sengu at The Grand Shrine of Ise is the Oshira-ishi-mochi-gyouji (お白石持行事).

The event is to bring the Oshira-ishi stones from the riverbed of Miyagawa of Ise city that is used to cover the sacred ground of the honden main shrine.

The stones hold the electro-magnetic energy of the gods. They are like a battery. So, it is a very important event that has a significant spiritual purpose.

The stones that are now at the sacred ground had been there for the last twenty years. I sense they are covered with spiritual filth and worn-out. Looking at these facts, I know that sengu is necessary in order to purify the whole place.

As mentioned in the past blog, in the ancient days, I sense that these “white stones” were brought all the way from Haku-san to Ise.

The area where Hakusan-chukyo-jinjya (白山中居神社) is located, has a another name, Itoshiro (石徹白). It can be translated as “gathering white stones”. I sense that they used to gather the white stones from Haku-san and transported to Ise passing through Itoshiro. They would check the location of the sun as they walk. This is the original archetype of Sun Worship.

The religious archetype of the ancient civilization existed on the top of Haku-san. The Three Stone Pillars stood there where God Spirits resided. It stood in a perfect triangle.

“Three Pillars” or “a triangle form” is a fundamental secret in all religions in the world.

I sense that the human race started from the area of Haku-san. Therefore, it is natural to think that the religious basis of all religion comes from this area.

When you look at the Three Pillars from the sky, it makes a perfect triangle. The Star of David, the symbol used in Judaism is made out of two of this triangle. Many temples or shrines in the world are secretly using three pillar methods in building the main part of its building.

In Japan, the torii gate at the Shinto shrines used to be made out of three poles in a triangular shape. There are still remains seen in different parts of Japan.

The woods used to build the new shrines for the sengu are cut off in a special manner. They call is Mitsuo-giri (三ツ尾伐り - photo of the ceremony:http://www.yoitokose.jp/ise/sengu/00003.php). Three shrine carpenters put their axes from three different sections to make a triangular end. This is a trace from the three pillar tradition.

The sacred mountain Haku-san - there lays a secret of the original human races. Adam and Eve is the same spirit as Izanami and Izanagi.

All Haku-san Shrines worship Izanami and Izanagi as the main gods.

The couple may well have lived around the area of Itoshiro…


Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

The Divine Revelation on the Summer Solstice

Wrote : June 21st



Today is 夏至(geshi), the summer solstice. The longest daytime during one year, which means the sun is with us the longest. In Japanese Shinto, the supreme god is the Sun Goddess. Thus, this is one of the most important day.

The day of the summer solstice is when all of the Shinto shrines hold festivals to charge up the spiritual energy from the sun goddess, Amaterasu-Ohomikami.

Through out Japan, the shrine holds the Nagoshi-no-Ooharae (夏越の大祓), the grand purification of the summer. During this festival, a ceremony called Chinowa-kuguri (茅の輪潜り) is held. The ceremony is to pass several times through a large loop made out of kaya-kusa, sedges, and bamboos. The turn goes from left and then right and then left again making the shape of an eight, three times. By doing so, it is said to cleanse you from sins and epidemics, and clear away evil spirits.

This morning I chanted the Ooharae-no-kotoha (大祓詞). Just when I finished the chant, a divine message came through.

“ Unfortunately, a right turn fylfot (the opposite to 卍) has an image of an evil design because it was used by Hitler who was influenced by a Western mystic who told him to use this design as his logo. But for the World of Gods, both right turn and left turn fylfot is equally important. It has been used in many different ancient civilizations, and there are many traces throughout the world. It is a design to show one significant pattern of movement of divine energy."

The god tells me, thanks to all of you, "the vertical divine energy between Haku-san and Ise is now activated. For the past 1500 years, the yin energy of the left turn 卍had been dominant which made Japanese Buddhism prosper. From now on, the right turn fylfot, the yan energy will become dominant.”

Right now, the vertical line has appeared and it needs to grow the horizontal line to complete the fylfot shape. The key places for this shape to appear will be the Togakushi-Jinjya (戸隠神社), Kumano-Hongu-Taisha (熊野本宮大社) and Tamaki-Jinjya (玉置神社).


From now on, when you are visiting a shrine, please make sure you are in silence and no thoughts in your head until you reach the main Honden shrine. An only send gratitiude. The kenzokus will be watching you. If you are not serious about this, you might experience some bad luck - unnecessary spiritual incidents may occur.

Once the fylfot is completed and start turning clockwise, the gate that is now hiding the Great Dragon god of Japan will be unlocked. When the Dragon is set free, all the people living in this dragon shape Japan will be awakened.

When my morning ritual was done, the sakaki leaves on the altar had blossomed. Just before the chant, the flowers where still a closed bud. The sakaki flowers are white and have five peddles. It looks like the Star of David. I felt this was a very good sign.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live