Journey : Ise ~ Kumano to Tenkawa 2&3

After arriving to Ise, I went straight to Gegū. It was a nice sunny day. The sando path way was well swept which made me feel even better. I went to the honden main shrine and requested a mikakiuchi-sannpai (御垣内参拝). This type of visit allows you to go inside the fence with a priest leading you to the front of the honden. I like this walk. As I walk on the pebbles, every step I feel cleansed. The donation for this visit can be from 1000 yen and up. I think it’s reasonably priced and worth the experience. Spiritually, this is priceless. The pebbles on this sacred ground is an iwakura*(磐座) and it is like an electric field of god’s energy. To apply for this type of visit, you can go to the shrine office. You should wear formal. Men should wear a suit with tie. Women should wear a simple modest outfit either all black or all white.

As always, our family applied for the seishiki-sannpai (正式参拝) , the formal visit, at both Gegū and Naigū. At both shrines, a young priest attended the ritual, but both of them were very impressive with their performances. I can see how hard they have trained. If you are working in the guest service field, I highly recommend you to see how they attend and move. It is not easy to train the young people these days to this high level. It was interesting to see the difference in feature of the priest of Gegū and Naigū. It must be the god’s will, to whom is chosen to be at the particular shrine. The priests at Gegū looks gallant and clean-cut, where as the priests at Naigū looks more friendly and warm. Their features reflect the god worshipped at each shrine.

At Gegū, I applied for the shinon-kansha (gratitude sending to the god) as a representative of Ise-Hakusun-Do. As we went inside the ceremonial hall, the first thing I recognized was the sakaki branches offered on the big altar. It was about two meters high beautifully growing to all directions. I heard there is a sakaki forest within the sacred ground of Ise specially grown for the rituals held at the shrines. This time, I was happy to see the sakaki leaves looking much healthier than last time.
The priest who chanted the Ooharae-no-kotoba showed dignity in his attitude. The priest of last time had a softer image and his voice was soft as well. The chant was chanted as if he was speaking gently. This was very unusual.

During the ritual, the movement of this priest gave me a vision of a rooster. It was the white rooster with a long tail, which resides at this sacred ground of Ise. When we were here last time, I didn’t see it on the other priest. He looked human until the end of the ritual. However, the priest of this time was different. I recognized that he had become one with the god. As I continue to use my psychic vision to look at the musicians in the back, four of them were regular human figure and the two in the back lane were sparrows.

The other figure of the priest being the white long tailed rooster signifies that he has attended the path in a serious and sincere manner for many years. He has become a true high priest.

A thought came into my mind, if I was able to view the Emperor in this way, I am sure that he will be more than a white long tailed rooster, but a phoenix.

In Shinto, birds have always been the messenger of the gods from the ancient times. The mythology tells about a three legged crow and at The Grand Shrine of Ise, the white long tailed rooster greets the sun. Even the costume of the priests l think originates from the rooster. (see photo of rooster at Naigū).　

Next place to visit will be the forest of Ise.
To be continued..

(the other photo is at the new Uji Bridge at Naigū. I felt strong energy in my gut.)

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu
Thank you for letting us live

*Iwakura – to see a giant rock as a form of god

Hidden Shrines of Ise - 1

A local man of Ise, Mr. H and I planned to make a trip to visit secret sites. We met at the parking lot of Gekū. He says, “Well lets see… where shall we go.. hmmm… Lets go to a place most people wouldn't know.” There was an entrance behind the parking lot of Naikū. There was a small shrine close to the entrance. He said it is Uji Shrine. An Uji-gami, a regional god who protects the Naikū region, resides at this shrine. The shrine has another name “God of Feet.” Mr. H said that a famous marathon runner comes to this shrine before his race.

We went further deep inside the forest tracing the source of Isuzu River. When we were passing the shrine, I sensed a presence of a strong fox spirit. Unfortunately, today wishful prayer business is thriving and the real purpose of the shrine is hidden. But according to Mr.H, this shrine has been here even before the establishment of the Naikū and has been a sacred place for the local people of Ise. Some people say that this shrine could be the original Ise Shrine. At this point, my Kenzoku-shin, a retainer god, reacted. So I decided to pay a visit to this shrine on the way back. The road becomes very narrow from here. This whole area is a sacred land. Only the local people and the priests are allowed to enter. The road was very narrow but there were quite a few local people driving down the road. It took quite a skill to pass by. The land around the Isuzu River was once owned by the Ise Shrine, but after loosing the WWII it was controlled by the GHQ and later sold to the commoners.

The river became narrower as we went further up. What surprised me was the size of the rocks. In this narrow river, there were numerous rocks in the size of a house. I have never seen such a place. Giant rocks are called Iwakura (磐座) where god spirits reside. The rocks hold the memory of the electro-magnetic energy of the god spirits. The bigger the size the more it can hold the energy. I feel that one of the reason why Amaterasu-Ohomikami chose this place, Ise, as the central sacred land is because of its geological formation. I would assume that many giant rocks as big as a house exist under Naikū and Gekū. And those rocks could hold an immense amount of energy of the god spirits.



After observing the giant rocks, we returned to Uji Shrine. At the main shrine, the name of the worshipped god was stated on a board. However, there were other names of a historically famous people written on 30 poles next to the god’s name. That was a little bit awkward for me.

When I went to the front of the main shrine and looked up to the small mountain behind it, I felt the shinki (神気), a sense of the divine. I would assume that this small mountain is made out of one giant rock. I could see in the ancient times, people used to worship all of these giant rocks as Iwakura. The rumor about this shrine being the original Naikū may well be true.


We continued our journey to go to another hidden shrine. (to be continued)

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

The Matrix to be in Oneness

Around Meiji era (1868-1912), the form of 二礼二拍手一礼 “two bows, two claps, and one bow” started to become the official form of worship when visiting a shrine. It became the official form through out the Chain of Islands of Japan.

When you come to the front of a shrine, you first bow twice then clap your hands twice, and bow again at the end. As for the priests, the numbers of clapping hands may differ due to the tradition of the area. For example, the Izumo chain shrines where God Kunitsu-kami (国津神) is worshipped, the formal way is to clap four times. The formal way in Ise Jingu or The Grand Shrine of Ise is to clap four times x 2, which makes it eight times. It is called yahirade(八開手).

I am sure that Izumo Shrine has their own story of how it became four claps, but in my vision I see that it is worshipping the Four Gods of Purification, Haraedo-Yonshin (祓戸四神) lead by Susanoo. As for the eight claps of the Ise method, if you count four claps as one, it becomes two that is the original idea of the official form of today. In Shinto, the number eight has always been a sign of good omen since the ancient times.

People express their joy and excitement by clapping hands. It is an act of instinct seen all over the world. Babies clap their hands when they are having fun. It was the same in the ancient times. The ancient people clapped their hands to express their gratitude and sense of awe by the presence of god. They were actually able to see the gods. At an Iwakura (磐座)) - a landing place for the gods in energy form, the ancient people witnessed the energy form twisting and swirling up like it was dancing. The people naturally start clapping as they watched this magnificent thing happen. It seems that how many times you clap wasn’t really so important.

In my personal opinion, the reason why the offical form of worship settled to “two bows, two claps, and one bow” after much meandering, is because the “two bows” represents Izanagi and Izanami who are a husband and wife couple gods, and the official two gods who are the originator of the later gods. The “two claps” signifies to show respect to the two gods. The last “one bow” signifies that your innate god is one with the originator. It is a matrix to be in oneness.

Ikashite-itadaite Arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live