Ise-Kogakkan Study Program 2023

    First came the terms, background, and key points to see and appreciate the invisible but living art of preparing, serving, and receiving tea these past 400 or more years in Japan (and now outside Japan, too). Then the teacher led us to the serving rooms, one of authentic materials and scale, christened the JitsuGetsu-An (日月庵), then the larger tatami space equipped for groups of aficionados. This video clip shows the first group of servers under the teacher's instruction. Later, the sides change and the one serving now takes the role of guest. Covid-19 complications intruded in the visual delight of reading faces and enjoying the company of others. But to be on the safe side, all touching of bowls and serving began with hand sanitizer and then rather than wiping the shared bowl according to custom for all to drink from the same vessel, now each round required separate bowls to be supplied. tea practice room & the adjacent authentic Tea Hut According to the teacher, it takes

  Learning about the pilgrim hostel and ryokan, Asakichi After learning about two of the customs particular to Ise in the morning's lecture (full-year display of the shimenawa ; also the 20-year shrine renewal events for residents to participate in), it was natural to visit some of the old neighborhoods of the city center. But first we followed up with a second lecture that introduced the routes to get to and from Ise in the middle ages and then during the feudal centuries when a huge proportion of the people went to visit the worship centers at Ise and places en route (as well as off route). After lunch we went to three locations connected to the Edo period and later pilgrimages. This photo shows the last old-style inn for pilgrims along the Sangu Kaido route that connects the Outer and Inner Shrines of the Ise Jingu. After 200 years and various extensions and refurbishing, the Asakichi still offers food and lodging to guests. While the remaining guest houses, theaters, eateries,

   Monday brought visits to Nachi Taisha in the morning and Hongu Taisha in the afternoon. This video clip shows the reverse journey from there along route 168 back to Shingu then north to Ise on route 42, all together about 3 hours. A few of the seminar participants remarked how wonderful it is to visit all three in one excursion; and that six months ago none of us would have imagined such a thing. Not so many Japanese are able to do this and even fewer foreign researchers and tourists. Thanks to the great weather, the excellent planning, our experienced driver, and our Shinto professors to help make sense of all the unfamiliar sights, sounds, rituals and words, everyone was able to increase their knowledge and feeling for the traditions of the Kumano San-zan. The next video clip shows the famous waterfall at Nachi in the surrounding setting of mountains and the buildings and services there, too. During our reception with the head priest at the Hongu Taisha we learned of the shared

   Our bus stopped in Owase along the old Ise Route to the Kumano pilgrimage mountains. There we had expert guidance at the newly opened Kumano Kodo Center to see and hear the background to the people and places we would be visiting. At the first shrine visit in Kumano city we happened upon the annual ceremony by the Osaka branch of the Izumo Taisha society as they gathering late Sunday morning at the site where the deity of Izanagi is memorialized at the Hana-no-Iwaya shrine. The sound of the pacific Pacific ocean was faintly audible just across the nearby Route 42 that runs along the coastline here at Shichiri-hama (the beach of 7 Ri, about 28km). An old-style milestone showed the distance to Ise city at 144 km. This video clip was a highlight of the day that surpassed even this chance encounter with the worshipers in Kumano city. It comes later in the afternoon in Shingu after having vistied the Hayatama Grand Shrine (taisha), one of the three in this region of Kumano Kodo pilgrimag

   Before 7 a.m. the sound of kitchen preparations for the morning food offering at the Outer Shrine can be heard with other quiet morning sounds at the same time. To the left of the big tree a small interior light is glowing even as the daylight is brightening. There is some of the passing jet's low rumble, the call of the crows, the crunching gravel of people in the early morning, as well as a few train sounds in the distance. Juxtaposing the kitchen sounds of generation after generation, day after day to the 2023 sounds of early Saturday morning in the outside world is a source for reflection: about the timelines of consumer attention (short) versus the endless arc of the shrine services performed without fail (longest of human timescales). But the contrast of outside world to kitchen sounds also is a chance to reflect on the kami (something well beyond human imagination or efforts to contain and comprehend) versus the human-created structures, rituals, language, and all the o

Futami-ura near the Meoto-iwa and shrine of Futami During the morning lectures we found out about the Ise Jingu pilgrims by boat and the sea communication with Edo in the feudal decades, as well as the local salt-makers recorded in history for the coastal areas between Ise and the Bay of Ise: Ominato, Kami-yashiro, and Futami. Then came the 1498 earthquake and tsunami which remains in the records of the time as catastrophic, not least for altering the river course of the Isuzu, destroying people and economies of the coastal zone for the next 100 years, and setting the stage for ship building to begin. Next we gained a preview of the places to see two days from now in the mountains of the Kumano Kodo and its three major shrines (San Zan). After lunch we went to see where the Ise Jingu salt for daily kami offerings of food comes from. It is also used for purifying and banishing filth. Isuzu estuary > Mishio-hama > Mishioden shrine 御塩殿神社 (concentrated brine storage) Our bus crossed

   The day began with lessons on Ise's own accents and vocabulary in the past and still today. The second subject was the literature of Kokugaku and one of its most prominent champions, born only a short distance from Ise in the city of (today) Matsuzaka. Thanks to Motoori Norinaga , the ideas from the Genji Monogatari ( mono no aware ) have gained prominence, along with the methodology of using one ancient source to get insight into another one (reading Kojiki to understand Man'yoshu and vice versa, for example). The Edo-period magazines and books on display at the front of the room added a special vividness to the discussion. looking closely at long-ago publications In the same powerful way that touch makes the subject easier to grasp for literature, the afternoon of observing, then talking about ritual processes and forms which priests in training practice once a week during all four years of college made a big impression on everyone. The reality of the priestly work became

kitchen of the 1866 house is next to the main entrance Wednesday was focused on the pilgrims to Ise, as well as local businesses and services. Pr. T. talked about the onshi system of host/guides that people in faraway villages built lasting relationships with. Generation after generation, some villagers would go to Ise (this area during Edo times was Yamada) and lodge with the people at the Maruoka Sodayu hostel, enjoying the local knowledge, advice, souvenirs, food and shelter in order to make the most of the visits to the Inner and Outer Shrines of Ise Jingu. The man leading the group this afternoon at the last remaining hostel is the 18th generation in this line of the Maruoka house. The system was abolished by the Meiji government in its fourth year (1871) so the onshi shifted to the ryokan innkeeper title, while maintaining preexisting relationships to villagers in the hinterland (in Maruoka's case, 8000 households from the Osaka and Nagano areas). The next lecture in the morn

Tourism created before-during-after WWII (bomb damage photo) Pilgrimage during the feudal years of Tokugawa times included elements of modern tourism (seeing sights, buying souvenirs, engaging in things out of the ordinary, dreaming of going, recounting after returning home), but the concept of "leisure" and the logistical possibility of recreational traveling as something named "tourism" (kanko, 観光) came closely associated with rail service around the country in the 1910s and later, including for school graduation excursions, for instance. Pr. H. brought illustrations, photos, words and music from a period wind-up record player for 78 rpm disks to bring all this to life from 100 years ago, along with picture postcards and 1-sen coins of the daily life 100 years ago.  Following on from the roots of tourism and the Jingu visits by people from near or far, Pr. S. presented the several varieties of rituals conducted annually and more infrequently at the Inner and the O

Torii at left, Tokugawa hollyhock marked tiles, birdseye display In the continuing sunny weather of late winter we learned about the religious landscape of sun and sea and mountains from Pr. H. to begin the day and then moved to the top floor of one of the biggest buildings on campus to enjoy the view over Ise city on the one side and the line of the mountains tied to Mt. Asama on the other side. There Pr. T. invited impressions from the international gathering of seminar participants on the subject of how best to describe Japanese relationships to (organized) religion. Certainly there are institutions that cultivate knowledge and experience, train experts, and care for people's needs during and after life. Moral direction and connections between the living and the dearly departed can be seen all around Japan today and in other times, but underneath the many facets that have some religious significance there is a foundational orientation to family and higher powers in some form wh

At the Outer Shrine visitors await the bus to the Inner Shrine  Much sun and moderate wind made Sunday a fine day to avoid the Outer Shrine crowds and walk along the Setagawa River, and then turn at the Ise Furuichi Sangu Kaido (伊勢古市参宮街道) where it meets the river and walk along the rising narrow road as it curves this way and that way until it reaches the history center, the 伊勢古市参宮街道資料館, Ise Furuichi Sangu-kaido Shiryokan. According to the man in the office it was not until cars began to appear that the gravel surface was paved and thereby raised (between 1920 and 1930). The standard travel time in the Edo decades to get to Ise Jingu from the Tokyo (Edo) area was between 15 and 20 days on foot; about 5 from Kyoto or Osaka if making 30 km per day or faster. In those days the precincts around the Outer and Inner Shrines had some of the biggest, most well-known pleasure quarters - in the top five around the islands. Married pilgrims might see local sights (the view atop Mt. Asakuma, the

  shaping chopsticks, then burning a pattern in the wood Saturday morning we set off for the outskirts of Ise by bus, accompanied by several members of the international exchange volunteers to make something compact, functional, and with a bit of beauty - at least in the eye of the beholder. We sanded, shaped, and burned patterns or words into our very own chopsticks. Coming a day after a field trip to the Sengu-kan at the Outer Shrine, where refined work of weaving, forging, gilding, joinery, and so many other forms of skilled craft are documented, our own efforts were so much more modest. However, by sharing in something enjoyable together, it was easy to exchange experiences and ideas freely, getting to know each other a little better. The weather was brilliant blue skies with strong gusts of wind on and off. So after the group dispersed at the station near the hotel it was a good chance to walk around the city center in search of the Ise city library. A helpful staff member there

adjacent to the worship ground for the kami, Tomouke  Pr. S. talked about the shrine grounds of the Geku in connection to the surrounding residential and business streets of Yamada, long before today's Ise City combined this town with several others in the surrounding land. This lecture was followed by the development of Ise more generally by Pr. T. who concluded by showing how instrumental the Ise Jingu has been (and is still today) to the way that decisions were made, priorities were established, and lives were lived out in feudal times and what followed with industrialization, democracy, and the reign of consumerism now. After lunch we ventured aboard an unexpectedly full city bus to reach the Geku not far from our hotel.  There Pr. S. guided us through some of the highlights at the Sengu-kan , an exhibit hall made from the renewal work last completed in the 2013 cycle of 20-year, generational building of shrines to replace the old ones. The light rain persisted, so our group mo

 The mild day ended with bouts of sun breaking through the clouds to shine on the crowds of visitors both distant and ones closer to home. This video clip shows the sakaki sprigs that ring the no-camera, sacred interior of the place to pay one's respects to the kami, Toyouke. There is something wondrous about the flutter of the zigzag paper strips or the leaves of trees moving in the passing breeze. The subject of tradition comes to mind and the way each generation takes the baton with its own hands and with some influence of its own time. Researchers have shown that non-verbal rituals, in particular, can transmit forms well for many generations, but also that the definition of tradition involves one generation giving up control to the next one. So there is usually some small change along the way. Indeed, certain practices that people suppose existed "forever" have a birth date of their own; that is, the ritual or verbal art began in some moment. Question-1 : for the root

   Today was the first chance to test the commuter bus IC cards to ride to the campus and walk up the hill to the library, where sessions are being held during the university's spring break. We learned about the history of the Ise Jingu (collective group of lands, shrines, kami, religious specialists and traditions, as well as all those coming to pay their respects) from Pr. I and after a short break we continued in lecture and question-answer with Pr. S, who features most prominently in the 2023 cycle of the Ise and Japan Study Program as field trip guide, lecturer, and source of encouragement to the seminarians. For the Wednesday morning session, we learned about the afternoon's subject to visit, the Inner Shrine of the Jingu, known as the Naiku or Kotai Jingu , ( map ) where one of the earliest and most prominent kami is celebrated, Amaterasu-no-Omikami ( 天照大御神 ). No cameras or recording beyond the bottom step to the Kotai Jingu . Being encouraged to offer our own respec