Sunday, January 08, 2006

Ritual at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura

I like Kamakura and I take a walk in and out of the town 5 or 6 times a year. There are a lot of nice places.
What I’ll show you today is a ritual called “Joma-Shinji.” Several years ago I happened to see this ritual at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine on New Year's Days. Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, who established the Kamakura Shogunate, moved a shrine which his ancestor had reared, and worshipped the Hachimangu Shrine as a guardian god of Minamoto family. Joma-Shinji is a rutual for a professional archery to put an arrow in the target in order to expel the evil spirits.



1 comment:

Barba said...

Summary in Japanese (日本語要約)

【鎌倉鶴岡八幡宮の神事】

鎌倉が好きで、年に5~6回町の内外を散策する。素敵な場所がたくさんある。今日ご紹介するのは、『除魔神事』と言う儀式である。数年前にたまたま八幡宮でこの神事を見た。八幡宮は、鎌倉幕府をつくった源頼朝が、先祖が建てた神社を移して、源氏の守護神として祭ったもの。
除魔神事は、弓道家が弓矢で的を射て、悪魔を払うというもの。