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Iwakura (Yorishiro)
refers to the belief in rocks as Yorishiro containing Kami in ancient Shinto. It also refers to the rock itself, which is the object of worship. Overview Nature worship (spirit worship, animism), which has existed in Japan since ancient times, is a type of base faith. In Shinto rituals, gods descended from shintai, a rock, and made his yorishiro (called himorogi) and divine power the center of the ritual. As time went on and temples, where gods were believed to be always present, became more permanent, the object of worship moved away from the body of the god and toward the shrine itself. In many cases, sacred trees and sacred stones adorned with shimenawa ropes still exist in their precincts. In addition to rock, other examples of belief in nature include the Chinju no Mori ("Mori" itself refers to the shrine, and the forest is the forest itself), the "island" as an forbidden area, the Munakata Taisha's Okinoshima of Munakata Taisha, belief in "mountains" such as Rokko Him ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Himorogi
in Shinto terminology are sacred spaces or altars used to worship.Sugiyama, "Himorogi" In their simplest form, they are square areas with green bamboo or ''sakaki'' at the corners without architecture. These in turn support sacred ropes (''shimenawa'') decorated with streamers called '' shide''. A branch of ''sakaki'' or some other evergreen at the center acts as a ''yorishiro'', a physical representation of the presence of the ''kami'', a being which is in itself incorporeal. During the Aoi Festival in Kyoto the ''himorogi'' is a square space surrounded by green branches with an evergreen tree at the center as a ''yorishiro''. A more elaborate ''himorogi'' can also be made with a straw mat on the ground with on it a ceremonial 8-legged stand called an ' decorated with ''shimenawa'' and sacred emblems. The etymology of the word is unclear, but it appears already in the '' Nihon Shoki'' and in the ''Man'yōshū''. The term "himorogi" refers equally to the focal point "tree" and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kōgoishi
Kōgoishi (神篭石 or 神籠石) are earthenwork structures, on a stone foundation, constructed in Japan during the Asuka period, particularly in areas around Fukuoka, on the island of Kyūshū. The name "''kōgoishi''" means "stones of divine protection," a name given them by the Meiji period archaeologist Tsuboi Shōgorō, who conjectured that they served as spiritual or practical protection for sacred sites. ''Kōgoishi'' date to the 6th or 7th century CE, and are found predominantly in northern Kyūshū and on the shores of the Inland Sea. The longest one to be found, at 2.3 km in length, lies near the summit of Mount Kōra Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ... ( :ja:高良山), near Fukuoka. The stones there are roughly one meter long, 50 cm high and 70 cm thick. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kannabi
refers to a region in shinto that hosts a mitsumashiro or yorishiro (yorishiro) in which the divine spirit (Kami or Goryo) resides. Or, the natural environment as Kamishiro (shintai). In the Manyoshu, there are seven occurrences (22 poems, 23 examples). Shintai is a mountain or forest where a deity "sits" or "dwells in seclusion," a forest that serves as a shinzoku or ganza, a shinboku or shintai, or a shintai or Sacred mountain 霊峰富士など。 山岳信仰を参照 as well as sacred areas with distinctive rocks (Meoto Iwa) and waterfalls (Nachi Falls). It is also a generic term for a roughly woven area and a rock throne. There is also "Kannabino," where there are no forests or rocks to serve as a shrine. Outline There is a theory that the word "kannabi" is derived from "", which means "god alignment", or that "nabi" means "hiding" and is a place where "gods hide and bask". The latter, however, has been denied by the discovery of the Kamisai special kana script. Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shinto Shrine
A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meaning: "main hall") is where a shrine's patron ''kami'' is/are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dictionary The ''honden'' may be absent in cases where a shrine stands on or near a sacred mountain, tree, or other object which can be worshipped directly or in cases where a shrine possesses either an altar-like structure, called a ''himorogi,'' or an object believed to be capable of attracting spirits, called a ''yorishiro,'' which can also serve as direct bonds to a ''kami''. There may be a and other structures as well. Although only one word ("shrine") is used in English, in Japanese, Shinto shrines may carry any one of many different, non-equivalent names like ''gongen'', ''-gū'', ''jinja'', ''jingū'', ''mori'', ''myōjin'', ''-sha'', ''taisha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kofun Period
The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is the earliest era of recorded history in Japan, but studies depend heavily on archaeology since the chronology of historical sources tends to be distorted. The word '' kofun'' is Japanese for the type of burial mound dating from this era. It was a period of cultural import. Continuing from the Yayoi period, the Kofun period is characterized by influence from China and the Korean Peninsula; archaeologists consider it a shared culture across the southern Korean Peninsula, Kyūshū and Honshū. On the other hand, the most prosperous keyhole-shaped burial mounds in Japan during this period were approximately 5,000 in Japan from the middle of the 3rd century in the Yayoi period to the 7th century in the Asuka period, and many of them had huge t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellations likely go back to prehistory. People used them to relate stories of their beliefs, experiences, creation myth, creation, or mythology. Different cultures and countries adopted their own constellations, some of which lasted into the early 20th century before today's constellations were internationally recognized. The recognition of constellations has changed significantly over time. Many changed in size or shape. Some became popular, only to drop into obscurity. Some were limited to a single culture or nation. The 48 traditional Western constellations are Greek. They are given in Aratus' work ''Phenomena'' and Ptolemy's ''Almagest'', though their origin probably predates these works by several centuries. Constellation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jōmon Period
The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American zoologist and orientalist Edward S. Morse, who discovered sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated it into Japanese as ''Jōmon''.Mason, 14 The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay and is generally accepted to be among the oldest in the world. The Jōmon period was rich in tools and jewelry made from bone, stone, shell and antler; pottery figurines and vessels; and lacquerware.Imamura, K. (1996) ''Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press It is often compared to pre-C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, ''Eohippus'', into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies ''caballus'' are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, and po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude (literature), verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern human beings as the main characters rather than gods, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths generally do not. The Brothers Grimm defined ''legend'' as "Folklore, folktale historically grounded". A by-product of the "concern with human beings" is the long list o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hayagriva (Buddhism)
In Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese Buddhism, Hayagrīva ("having the neck of a horse") is an important deity who originated as a yaksha attendant of Avalokiteśvara ''or'' Guanyin Bodhisattva in India. Appearing in the Vedas as two separate deities, he was assimilated into the ritual worship of early Buddhism and eventually was identified as a Wisdom King in Vajrayana Buddhism. In Tibet In Tibet, Hayagriva was promoted especially by Buddhist teacher Atiśa and appeared as a worldly dharmapala. His special ability is to cure diseases, especially skin diseases even as serious as leprosy, which is said to be caused by nāgas. According to the myth, Hayagriva is the wrathful form of Vajrasattva, who assumes the form Avalokiteshvara and turns into Hayagriva in order to defeat the powerful demon Rudra, who has submitted the gods. He is accompanied by Vajrapani, who assumes the power of Tara and then becomes the wrathful Vajravārāhī. The two are cosmically related to Rudra, as in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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