The day after our camp, we went over to Kentaro's parents' house so the boys could take part in a Children's Day festival at the local shrine.
It's a common ritual in Shinto to carry portable shrines (mikoshi) around the streets. The deities enshrined in the main sanctuary are temporarily transferred to the mikoshi for the duration of the parade. In this particular festival, they were carried down the hill to the large Buddhist temple at the bottom, then up the steps to the Buddha hall so the deities could pay their respects to the Buddha enshrined there (Japanese religion is nothing if not syncretistic!). At that point everyone takes a well-earned break and chugs down a beer or two (fruit juice for the kids) before heading back up the hill to the shrine again.
Because it was Children's Day, two small mikoshi were brought out, one for girls and one for boys. Normally adults carry them on their shoulders, but the children's ones are carried by adults at hip height while the kids pull on two long ropes. When they reached the steps up to the temple, fathers stepped in to hoist them up. Even though they're relatively small, they're pretty heavy, and Kentaro had a bruise on his shoulder by the time the boys' one was finally at the top.
The adult mikoshi is much larger, and the guys carrying it were all pretty drunk by the time the festival rolled around, so there was a fair amount of both merriment and unease as it went up the steps. Mothers kept their children well away ... it has been dropped before now...
It was our first ever festival. Previously I'd managed to avoid taking part in Shinto events, out of a residual sense of unease at participating in non-Christian religious rituals. As faith has slipped imperceptibly away, I've finally let go of that inhibition too. It'll be fun for the boys to take part in our local shrine festival with their friends this autumn.
1 comment:
Dan's love affair with the camera lense is well underway! If you want money for private schooling in the future--have you considered getting him on a kids modeling agency's books? I didn't do it with the girls because basically without being able to drive it would have been hellaciously (is that a word? if it is, I spelled it wrong didn't I?) difficult to get around to assignments. . . but that couple I knew through B.E. Academy (American Dad, Japanese mom, they had a son and daughter) made a BUNDLE on modeling jobs with their kids. I could just so see Dan in an L.L. Bean kids catalog!
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