Meiji Jingu Shrine
Today I want to take a little break from the usual assortment
of weird
stuff from Japan and write about one of the places I went to today
that's a bit different from the usual hustle and bustle of donwtown
Tokyo. Oh...don't worry...soon after this post I'll be covering maids
again...but hey, I can be serious now and again too!
Today I
would like to introduce you all to the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Harajuku.
It is located in the Harajuku ward near Shibuya in Tokyo. Yes, the same
Harajuku where girls go and dress up in crazy costumes and such. I'm
sure most of you have seen my various posts from there including this one.
Feel free to take a look.
However, in a typical Tokyo sort of way of traditional Japan clashing
with the modern, literally right behind that madness is a huuuge forest
and deep inside is the Shinto shrine. Once you take maybe a few steps
into the woods after passing under the tori gate and it's like you're
in a totally different world.
Very quickly the sounds of traffic fades away and, even though at times
you may hear a train, the woods are so deep most external sounds are
muted and all you hear is the soft conversations of people around you
and the sound of your feet walking over loose gravel. It's quite
peaceful actually. And really beautiful.
It was drizzling a bit today
but the woods helped stop most of the rain and I never had to put up an
umbrella the entire walk.
After walking for a bit and enjoying the walk, you soon come to another
huge gate (not as big as the one before though...I mean the picture
above doesn't do it justice...it is HUGE and each pillar is made of one
single trunk from a tree!) and you find yourself looking at the
enterance to the shrine itself.
The Meiji Jingu Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the souls of
Emperor Meiji and his consort, the Empress Shoken. Some of you may
remember the Meiji Emperor as the emperor that presided over the Meiji
Restoration starting from the opening of the Japanese ports after the
arrival of Commodore Perry and his black war ships. How much he had
anything to do with the Restoration is of debate but, needless to say,
he was the figurehead of this country during one of the biggest events
in our history.
The Emperor passed away in 1912 while the Empress passed away in 1914.
Soon after, the Meiji Jingu shrine was built and and their souls were
enshrined on November 1, 1920.
The complex is quite big and absolutely beautiful. Surrounded by
nature, it doesn't have the "tourist trap" feeling of Asakusa. You
first enter the front gate which leads you into the main courtyard.
Looking back, here is a nice shot of the front gate from inside the
inner courtyard.
The inner courtyard is a very large open space that's very well taken
care of. The pictures do not do it justice. At all. But here is a
panorama. But you really really want to click on it and get a bigger
size picture. I've scaled it down to less than 500KB so check it out!!
It's worth it (^_^)
Moving on to either sides of the courtyard, on to the left, there are 2
very large trees that seem to blend into one as it rises. These are
considered holy and you can see the rope with the white Shinto
talismans that are tied between the two tree trunks. For any of you
that may have seen My Neighbor Totoro (or Tonari
no Totoro in Japanese), you may remember seeing a similar
thing tied around the trunk of the big tree in the hills outside their
house. Usually, in every mountain or forest, there is one big tree,
usually the oldest, that is considered the master of that domain.
On the other side of the courtyard on the right is another large tree
but around this one are a bunch of wooden tiles called an ema.
These are hopes and prayers and thanks that people have written and
left there for the priests to convey to the gods. The plates are sold
nearby at 500yen each and it is written in almost every language
possible. Japanese, English, German, Thai, Chinese, Korean.....the
variety was impressive.
Here is the official discription by the shrine.
I picked one up too and left my own hopes. Figured along with asking
for the continued health and happiness of my family and friends, I
might as well take this time to also ask for continued safe travels as
I go back and forth so often these days.
On the other side of the courtyard is another building where you can
make an offering and give a prayer. After I did that, I took a quick
picture of the inner building on the other side. This is off limits and
is the inner sanctum of the shrine.
It was a nice cool day and I wandered around quite a bit in the temple
area. There were a good number of people there from all over the world
but because of the size of the area and also the fact that it was
slightly rainy (though the rain let up soon after I entered the woods
and didn't rain again until I left. Lucky!) it never seemed crowded and
it was quite comfortable.
Now and again I'll see some ladies in
traditional kimonos and one group in the corner was doing a prayer
ceremony with the Shinto priest chanting and the participants bowing
deeply reminding us that this is indeed a working shrine and not just a
tourist location.
On the way out, I ran across a couple getting their wedding pictures
taken. This is what a traditional Japanese Shinto wedding dress looks
like.
The elaborate headdress she is wearing is called a tsunokakushi
literally translated as a "horn cover". Traditionally it is worn by the
bride during the wedding ceremony to "hide her horns" (aka jealousy,
anger, disobedience, etc...) and symbolizes her commitment to be a good
wife. Old fashioned? Sure. Do people still take it literally? Eh. Just
like certain meanings behind the Western wedding ring and the veil and
such are a way to bind the wife to the house of the husband, it's the
same thing.
It was very beautiful though. Once again, the picture does
not do it justice. The photographer's assistant must have teaked that
fold in the front of her tsunokakushi for what must have been the 100th
time between each picture to get it JUUUST right.
In the end, I eventually walked back out into the real world. On the
way back I picked up a few omamori (charms) sold by the shrine maidens
and I stopped by a small gift shop (even a nice peaceful shrine like
this in the woods might as well make some money off the tourists!) to
browse (nothign special) and have a quick lunch outside. I kind of felt
sad when I saw Harajuku again. It was nice being in the woods.
Well, there you go. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!
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