Sanctuary

The sanctuary of the kami - the holiest room in the shrine - looms before you.



About the Honden (本殿):
The sanctuary or honden (本殿), also called shinden (神殿) is the most sacred building at a shinto shrine, intended purely as a dwelling of the enshrined kami, usually symbolized by a mirror or a statue. The building is normally in the rear of the shrine and closed to the general public.



The shrine priests enter only to perform rituals. You witness the rite of opening the doors - an important part of the shrine's life.

Open the honden doors

Inside the honden is the goshintai (御神体), the sacred body of the kami:


The truth shall set you free

About the Schoolgirl:
A schoolgirl is a girl attending either primary or secondary school, generally aged between 6 and 17 years old.

The sailor outfit (セーラー服, sērā-fuku) is a common style of uniform worn by female middle school and high school students, and occasionally, elementary school students. It was introduced as a school uniform in 1920 in Heian Jogakuin (平安女学院) by the principal of Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University (福岡女学院), Elizabeth Lee. It was modeled after the uniform used by the British Royal Navy at the time.


The uniform generally consists of a blouse attached with a sailor-style collar and a pleated skirt. There are seasonal variations for summer and winter: sleeve length and fabric are adjusted accordingly. A ribbon is tied in the front and laced through a loop attached to the blouse.

Shoes, socks, and other accessories are sometimes included as part of the uniform. These socks are typically navy or white. The shoes are typically brown or black penny loafers.


A schoolgirl uniform fetish is a sexual fetish in which someone derives sexual pleasure from viewing others dressed like schoolgirls or someone enjoys dressing in the uniform of a schoolgirl.

In Japanese pornography, the female often wears a Japanese school uniform, known in the sex industry as burusera (anglicized Japanese slang for "bloomer/sailor" outfit, they are comprised of "bloomer" as bottoms of gym suits and sailor suit as school uniforms).

Sailor outfits, along with other styles of school uniform, play an undeniably large role in otaku culture and the Japanese sexual canon as evidenced by the large amount of anime, manga, and dōjinshi featuring characters in uniform, Sailor Moon being one of the most popular examples.



The schoolgirl image may appeal to women because it allows them to project a more youthful, innocent image. These same reasons can explain part of the look's appeal to males as well. It may also have a less sexual aspect of nostalgia, recalling memories of a simpler time in one's life.

GO BACK TO THE COURTYARD

Read More......

Hall of Worship

You hear chanting in the hall up ahead and approach...




























To give an image offering to the Schoolgirl Shrine, send them to theenvoyoftefa@yahoo.com

About the Haiden (拝殿):
A worship hall at a Shinto shrine, usually placed on the same axis as the offering hall (heiden, 幣殿) and the main sanctuary (honden, 本殿). Some shrines built in mountainous areas have only a haiden because deities are thought to live in the surrounding mountains.

GO BACK TO THE COURTYARD

Read More......

Yukio Mishima

Writer. Samurai. Lunatic.

It is hard to find a single word to fully sum up Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫), a celebrated Japanese writer in the 1950s and 1960s, widely known today not foremost for his words, but for ending his life after the manner of the samurai.


Childhood
Mishima was born Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威) in pre-war Tokyo.

His grandmother, Natsuko (夏子), was the illegitimate granddaughter of a daimyo (大名) and grew up in the household of Prince Arisugawa Taruhito (有栖川宮熾仁親王). Even after marrying a bureaucrat of common blood, she maintained considerable aristocratic pretensions.

Natsuko separated Mishima from his immediate family during his childhood. And so he spent most of his formative years in the shadow of his grandmother's sickroom. Due to little Mishima's frail physique, she barred Mishima from stepping into the sunlight, playing sports or having any male companions.

He spent much of his time alone, an exceptionally bright child who made up entire worlds of imagination...he once wrote that there are three equally real parts of his world-view as a child - the one of the world outside, the one of the day to day (family) affairs and the one in your mind.

His only playmates were his female cousins and their dolls. He was also subject to Natsuko's frequent violence and morbid outbursts. It was during this time too, that he realized his latent homosexual desires and obsession with suicide (likely due to Natsuko's influence).

In school at the elite Gakushuin (学習院), things weren't any better: he was constantly bullied by the other boys for his feminine speech and odd gait as he walked. Mishima's story Tabako (煙草 The Cigarette) describes some of the scorn and bullying he faced when he confessed to the school's rugby team that he belonged to the literary society.

Mishima returned to his parents at 12, but his unconventional upbringing did not stop there. His father was a man with a taste for military discipline, who once held the young boy up to the side of a speeding train to test his courage.

A Young Writer
It was also during this time that Mishima began to write his first stories. He read the works of both Western and Japanese authors and also became the youngest member of the school's editorial board in its literary society.

He wrote a short story for the Gakushuin School literary magazine titled Hanazakari no Mori (花ざかりの森 The Forest in Full Bloom), a story in which the narrator describes the feeling that his ancestors somehow still live within him.

Greatly impressed with his work, Mishima's teachers recommended it for the prestigious literary magazine, Bungei-Bunka (文芸文化 Literary Culture). To protect him from his schoolmates, his teachers coined the pen-name "Yukio Mishima".

His father, however did not approve of Mishima's writing. He often raided his son's room for evidence of an "effeminate" interest in literature and ripped up Mishima's manuscripts.

Mishima, however, continued to write secretly every night, protected by his mother, who was always the first to read a new story. Attending lectures during the day and writing at night, Mishima graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1947. He obtained a promising position as an official in the Finance Ministry.

Working day and night took its toll, however, and Mishima had exhausted himself so much that his father agreed to his resigning from his position during his first year in order to devote his time to writing.

Fame
Mishima was a disciplined and versatile writer. He wrote not only novels, popular serial novellas, short stories and literary essays, but also highly acclaimed plays for the Kabuki theater and modern versions of traditional Noh drama.

In January 1946, he visited famed writer Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) in Kamakura, which led to Tabako being published in the new literary magazine Ningen (人間 Humanity).

Mishima's first giant success is Confessions of a Mask, an account of a young latent homosexual who must hide behind a mask in order to fit into society (which is actually a biography of himself). It made Mishima a domestic and international celebrity at the age of 24.

The writer traveled extensively; in 1952 he visited Greece, a place which captivated his fascination since childhood. Elements from his visit appear in Shiosai (潮騒 Sound of the Waves), which drew inspiration from the Greek legend of Daphnis and Chloe.

Making use of contemporary events in many of his works allowed him to stay in the news. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (金閣寺) is a fictionalization of the burning of the famous temple in Kyoto. Like in Confessions of the Mask, the protagonist of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a young monk, is a latent homosexual with morbid thoughts.

Mishima was also considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature three times, but never won.

Sexuality and Nationalism
The celebrity writer visited gay bars in Japan and staged mock roleplays of his death via seppuku, having his young gay lover "slice" his head off after he "cut his stomach". According to an interview of his lover by writer Christopher Ross, Mishima ejaculated during these sessions without ever touching himself.

Like many other Japanese homosexuals, however, Mishima married a woman and fathered children in order to "fit in" with society.

Although he received a draft notice for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, Mishima was mistakenly diagnosed for tuberculosis during his medical checkup and declared unfit for service. Having being denied the chance to die in the service of his country, he sought to transform himself from a girlie boy to the very opposite: taking up body-building, kendō and other martial sports.

Mishima espoused a very individual brand of nationalism. He was hated by leftists, in or his outspoken commitment to bushidō (the code of the samurai) and by mainstream nationalists for his contention, in Bunka Bōeiron (文化防衛論 A Defense of Culture), that Hirohito should have abdicated.

In 1968 he formed the Tatenokai (Shield Society 楯の会), a private army of young students who who swore to protect the Emperor. Mishima trained them himself. Under Mishima's ideology, the emperor was not necessarily the reigning Emperor, but rather the abstract essence of Japan.

The End...Banzai?
On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai, under pretext, visited General Mashita of Japan's Self-Defense Forces. Inside, they barricaded the office and tied the general to his chair.

With a prepared manifesto and banner listing their demands, Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the soldiers gathered below. This was intended to inspire a coup d'etat restoring the powers of the emperor. Not surprisingly, they did not take well to his speech.

He finished his planned speech after a few minutes, returned to the commandant's office and committed seppuku.

The kaishakunin duty at the end of this ritual had been assigned to Tatenokai member Masakatsu Morita (森田必勝), but Morita could not perform the task: after several painful attempts, he allowed Hiroyasu Koga (古賀浩靖) to behead Mishima. Morita then committed seppuku himself.

His biographer, translator and former friend John Nathan suggests that the coup attempt was only a pretext for the ritual suicide of which Mishima had long dreamed.

He left a legacy of 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, and at least 20 books of essays, one libretto, as well as one film (Patriotism 憂国):


This entry is a submission to the January Japan Blog Matsuri, hosted by Loneleeplanet.

If you like this article, soc it here.

Read More......

Hall of Sacred Dance and Music

You approach what appears to be an open air hall, and notice several performances scheduled for the year:

Miko kagura

Dances performed by shrine maidens - miko (巫女). The miko channels the god - kami (神) - in these dances: speaking, singing and dancing as the god.

Shishi kagura

A group of dancers take on the role of a lion and parade around the town. The lion mask and costume embodies the spirit of the lion. Lion dances are, however, more closely associated with Chinese culture - where it is performed during Chinese New Year, house warming and business opening ceremonies.

Daikagura

A dance form derived from rituals performed by priests who travel to villages to help the locals by driving away evil spirits. Acrobatic feats are a regular sight in these rituals.




More modern dance rituals dedicated to the schoolgirl kami:




About the Kaguraden (神楽殿)
An outdoor area where ritual dance and music are offered to the gods during shrine festivals. It had a roughly square roofed stage raised several steps above the ground, and was open on all four sides. Entrances could be placed on any side.

GO BACK TO THE COURTYARD

Read More......

Water Purification

The trickling of water can be heard nearby. The fresh smell of moisture permeates the air. You approach the chōzuya (手水舎) and pause a while, listening to its water flow.

Instructions: Washing your left hand, right hand, mouth and finally the handle of the water ladle before entering the main shrine.


You lift one of the ladles, and proceed to purify yourself with the schoolgirl shrine's holy waters:


About the Chōzuya (手水舎):
A Chōzuya (手水舎), or a Temizuya, is a Shinto water ablution pavilion for ceremonial purification known as Temizu. The temiyuza is an open area where clear water fills stone basins. Wooden dippers are available to worshipers.

Water-filled basins are used by worshipers to purify themselves before approaching the main Shinto shrine (社殿). This symbolic purification is normal before worship and all manned shrines have this facility, as well as many Buddhist temples.

Originally, this purification was done at a spring, stream or seashore and this is still considered the ideal.

GO BACK TO THE COURTYARD

Read More......