Suwa Taisha

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The Heihaiden ( 幣 拝 殿 ) of Haru-miya

The Suwa Taisha ( Japanese 諏 訪 大 社 ; roughly: "Grand Shrine of Suwa") is a Shinto shrine near Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture , Japan. It is one of the oldest shrines at all and is already mentioned in the Kojiki . It is the main shrine of about 10,000 other Suwa shrines across Japan. The bun-rei distributed by him (in which the mitama of the kami are transferred to other shrines) are made of metal, the meaning of their strange shape is unknown.

The priesthood at Suwa-Taisha is hereditary, according to the tradition of the shrine the family should consist of direct descendants of the local kami . These are Ō-kuni-nushi's son Take-mi-nakata-no-Mikoto ( 建 御 名 方 命 ) and his wife Yasakatome-no-mikoto ( 八 坂 刀 売 命 ).

According to legend, Take-mi-nakata crossed Lake Suwa from Hongū in winter to visit his wife Yasakatome in Haru-miya. The path he used forms the line O-miwa-tari ( 御 神 渡 ), where the ice on the lake should begin to break up first.

Mount Akadake is venerated here in Akadake-jinja (a massha , i.e. side shrine). The 13 children of the gods are in the waka-miya.

The shrine actually consists of two parts, the Upper and the Lower Shrine, which are located on opposite sides of Lake Suwa.

Upper shrine

Its actual name is Kami-sha ( 上 社 ). It is located in the city of Suwa ( 諏 訪 市 ; -shi). Originally there were ten temples around him, nine of which were destroyed in the course of the Shinbutsu-Bunri . It consists of two parts, the hongū or hon-miya with Take-mi-nakata as the only kami (the heathen is called jukken-rō ) and the mae-miya (also zengū , with Yasaka-tome as the kami; in its uchi -mitama-den , the nigi- Mitama of Kami in honden revered).

The shintai is said to be a tree (himorogi) .

Lower shrine

Kagura-den (dance hall) of Aki-miya
The Heihaiden ( 幣 拝 殿 ) of Aki-miya

Its actual name is Shimo-sha (下 社), it is located in the village of Shimosuwa ( 下 諏 訪 町 ; -machi) in the district of Suwa ( 諏 訪 郡 ; -gun). In it the pair of gods and Koto-shiro-nushi (another son of Ō-kuni-nushi) are worshiped as kami. It consists of two honden (Haru-miya ( 春宮 ; spring shrine) and Aki-miya ( 秋 宮 ; autumn shrine)), in which the kami stay six months of the year and then in a happy festival (O-fune -matsuri) on February 1st or August 1st in the other.

Festivals

According to the entry "Sacrifice (Japan)" in Michel Revon's Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, 75 deer were sacrificed in the shrine every year until the beginning of the 20th century.

Senza-Matsuri

The Senza-Matsuri ( 遷 座 祭 ) is the festival that takes place twice a year in which the Kami of Shimo-sha are carried from one dog to the other. The Ofune Matsuri ( お 舟 祭 り ; boat festival) on August 1st, which is also celebrated at other shrines, is part of it and is celebrated much more exuberantly.

The “boat” is a kind of raft made of sticks (shiba) and keyaki (Zelkova serrata), with the symbol for the kami (in the form of a crow) on it. The whole construction weighs about eight tons and is carried from shrine to shrine by members of the community in the main part of the festival.

Onbashira-sai

Every six years (either in the year of the tiger or in the year of the monkey) from April 2nd to May 10th, Suwa-Taisha celebrates the great festival Onbashira-sai ( 御 柱 祭 , also Mihashira-sai; the full name is shikinen zoei mihashira-sai , which means holy tree trunk festival ). The last one took place in 2016, the next one will take place in 2022.

It is said to date from the time of the rule of Kammu -tennō and originally, even before that, it was a complete sengu . It is an immensely famous celebration that was reported to have been watched by 1.78 million viewers in 1998. In the meantime, several dozen other shrines in the vicinity of Lake Suwa also commit to it, albeit on a smaller scale.

Three years before the start of the festival, 4 old fir trees (a total of 16 fir trees) are selected for each shrine on the slopes of the mountains Yatsugatake (for the Kami-sha) and Kirigamine (for the Shimo-sha). These are called Onbashira (sacred tribes) and each weigh 12-13 tons and are about 16-17 meters long. At the end of the festival they are set up at the corners of the shrines.

The first part of the festival then begins in April of the corresponding year. From the 2nd to the 4th (Kami-sha) or the 9th to the 11th (Shimo-sha) of the month, the tree trunks are transported down from the mountains in the so-called Yamadashi Festival ( 山 出 し 祭 ). In this and all other sections traditional kiyari are sung, originally songs by woodcutters.

In Kiotoshi ( 木 落 と し or 木 落 し ) the trees are moved down the slopes, with about a thousand people taking part and young men sitting on them. Hills and rivers are crossed. Often one or two participants have a fatal accident, others are injured.

After the trunks have been pulled through freshly thawed rivers and washed clean (Kawagoe ( 川 越 え ) or Kawagoshi ( 川 越 し )), they are stored for about a month.

In the second part of the festival, the Satobiki festival ( 里 曳 き 祭 ), the bark is stripped off the trunks (only the 2nd of the Hon-miya keeps his), cleaned and polished and then drawn to the shrines with elaborate parades. There the Tate-Onbashira ( 建 御 柱 ), the setting up of the Onbashira takes place (3rd to 4th May on Kami-sha, 8th to 10th May on Shimo-sha).

The Tate-Onbashira became particularly famous when it was recreated as part of the opening ceremonies for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics .

Web links

Commons : Suwa Taisha  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 36 ° 4 ′ 31 ″  N , 138 ° 5 ′ 29 ″  E