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| Column The Blessings of Water IWAI Hiromi Professor of Folklore, Tezukayama University |
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| Mikumari God, Kawakami God | |||
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Water is a blessing from another world. It flows down the sides
of mountains, through villages, and finally into the sea. Because water is indispensable
to villagers farming the land, since ancient times, Japanese have prayed to gods
to ensure water for their villages. Mikumari, one of these gods, presides over running water. The "kumari" portion of the name comes from the word "kubari", which means distribution. |
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| The god's name is therefore often found in the names
of shrines dedicated to water gods and located at the sources of rivers and watersheds.
In terms of folklore, the Kojiki (*1) states that the
gods Ame-no-mikumari and Kuni-no-mikumari appeared as the children of two other
gods, Haya-akitsu-hiko and Haya-akitsu-hime. The Engi Shiki
(*2) mentions four "mikumari" shrines"Katsuragi Mikumari Shrine
in Katsuragi-gun, Yoshino Mikumari Shrine in Yoshino-gun, Uda Mikumari Shrine
in Uda-gun, and Tsuge Mikumari Shrine in Yamabe-gun-in Yamato-no-kuni (today's
Nara Prefecture) along with Take Mikumari Shrine in Ishikawa-gun in Kawachi-no-kuni
(Osaka Prefecture) and Ame-no-mikumari Toyoura-no-mikoto Shrine in Sumiyoshi-gun,
Settsu-no-kuni (also in Osaka Prefecture). As sacred distributors of water, the
mikumari were also often the object of prayers for rain. The
Shoku-nihongi (*3) tells that in April of 698, the second year of Emperor
Monmu, a horse was presented to the god Yoshino Mikumari as a rain offering. The god Kawakami also presides over water. The Engi Shiki mentions the god Niu-Kawakami in Yamato-no-kuni. Today's Niu Kawakami Shrine is made up of three sites, Kami, Naka, and Shimo, wherein "kami" refers to the top, "naka" to the middle, and "shimo" to the bottom. The Kami Shrine mainly deifies Takaokami-no-kami, while Naka Shrine deifies Mitsuhahime-no-kami and Shimo Shrine Kuraokami-no-kami. These kami (gods) all preside over water and have been worshiped as rain gods since ancient times. In Kyoto, Kibune Shrine deifies Takaokami-no-kami, who is worshiped as a rain god. It is described in the Shoku-nihongi, the Nihon-koki (*4), the Shoku-nihon-koki (*5) , the Montoku-tenno Jitsuroku (*6), and the Sandai Jitsuroku (*7) that from 765, the seventh year of Tempyohoji, people prayed almost every year to Niu-Kawakami and Kibune for rain. They are said to have offered a black horse when they wanted the rains to start and a white horse when they wanted the rains to end because it was believed that the spirit of the gods descend to earth on a horse. Black is the color for casting a rain spell as it symbolizes dark clouds bringing rain. In contrast, white is the symbol of the bright sun. These prayers were held as national events. |
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| Water for Purification | |||
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Water flowing down from mountains empties into the sea. Because
the ancient Japanese believed that the sea was another world where gods lived,
touching seawater was called "misogi", or purification of the self.
In preparation for welcoming the spirit of the gods and holding a feast, people
had to avoid impurity and perform monoimi (*8) while
waiting for the day to arrive; misogi was performed for this purpose. |
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| People believed that seawater, a way to connect with that other
world, was a strong purifier, so misogi originally involved bathing in seawater.
People in Kyushu have long practiced customs known as "paddling seawater,"
"kicking seawater" and "taking seawater." And in a fishing
village in Shima, Mie Prefecture, the custom is for villagers to bathe together
in the sea on New Year's Eve. It is said that bathing in the sea around the festival
days of Sumiyoshi Shrine in June has the miraculous effect of prolonging life;
this activity has been named "Sumiyoshi-no-o'yu" (Sumiyoshi Bath). And
even those from mountain villages who go all the way down to the beach to do misogi
have names for this journey: "hama-ori" (going down to the beach) and
"hama-iki" (going to the beach). Today, small mounds of salt are sometimes
seen in public locations, a reminder of misogi with seawater. The Engi Shiki tells us that when people went to worship at Ise Shrine, they performed their misogi at landings along the Miyagawa River, the largest river in Iga-no-kuni (Mie Prefecture). During the Edo period, Many people traveled to the shrine by crossing the Miyagawa River by boat. Reaching the other side of the river meant entering the precincts of the gods, so landings on the shrine side of the river with such names as "Sakura-no-watashi (Cherry Tree Landing)," "Yanagi-no-watashi (Willow Landing)," "Iso-no-watashi (Seashore Landing)," and "Kamijo-no-watashi (Kamijo Landing)" were designated sacred places in which people could perform misogi before they actually entered the precincts of the gods. Fishing for ayu (sweetfish) in the sacred Miyagawa River was prohibited until the Edo period because the fish were used as offerings during shrine services. In areas far from the sea, people began to perform misogi in rivers, believing that seawater entered the rivers during high tides. Thus the act of misogi spread inland. People also grew to believe that wells led to the other world, so well water also came to be used as water for misogi. |
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images Copyright. 1997 Kansai International Public Relations Promotion Office. All Rights Reserved. |
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