The Mountain God Ceremony -- 山の神祭 (Patreon)

Hello, Everyone ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪ How are you all holding up?

I haven't been working on the house too much (um, at all). Instead, been trying to catch up with the book and learn the ropes of doing the whole podcast by myself. I'm spectacularly re-energized about both and just found it's quite possible to step over bags of old clothes and dig through boxes to find certain books and think nothing of it. I'll get back to cleaning up soon. I promise.

I wanted to put up the Mountain God Ceremony post. This happened back on February, by the way.

So my friend (wearing black, taking photo below), reached out when I was going through some stuff and while he didn't even know that, he asked if I wanted to attend the Mountain God Ceremony that he and his partner had been trying to get invited to for years. They finally through an extraordinary series of coincidences got invited. I said: YES!

We arrived just as the Shinto priests (Kannushi -- 神主) arrived, as well as a gaggle of Mountain Men (as I like to call them). The Mountain Men were just regular guys who lived in the area, but they all worked in the mountains so had a cool vibe to them.

The ceremony itself, I learned, has been continued annually for over a thousand years and so old and important that it's registered in a "Shinto Book of Ceremonies" which sounded very important and a little top secret.

Speaking of top secret, there were only a handful of people in attendance and my friend, his partner, and I were the only outsiders/first timers. It was only until very recently that women were allowed to attend and it was acknowledged that I was the first non-Japanese to ever be a part of the event. My friend very graciously said, that made me one level cooler than Lafcadio Hearn. I said, no way! But am incredibly grateful he asked me to come along.

It was very interesting and kind that they welcomed me and told me I could take photos and video (although I didn't take too many, didn't want to be rude and wanted to experience it more than have my phone up to my face). They just asked me not to tell anyone the exact location it took place. I said, of course I wouldn't!

I guess traditionally the Mountain god doesn't stay in the mountain all year. In early spring (around Feb. 8th, when this was) it descends and becomes the deity of the rice fields. It remains there until the fall when it returns up into the mountains again once more.

The Kannushi mentioned that there were two types of Mountain gods, one that looks after hunters and tree fellers, the other protection and crops. We met the latter. And I mean that "we met". You'll see in a minute.

Here we are walking up.

Amazing synchronicity. As we were hiking up and throughout the ceremony I kept looking down and finding feathers. Not buried in the dirt, just laying right on top of a rock as if someone had put them there. And, no, they weren't part of the ceremony. That would be funny if I was stealing ceremonial feathers. But, nope, just there for me to find.

So my friend's partner is incredibly knowledgable about Shinto and loves all the gods and goddesses and told me that this ceremony is so old there is no building, no anything to go to to worship. Back then, the gods descended into rocks and trees or special spots and going there was enough to properly worship. So this ceremony is "pre" shrine building. A shrine was eventually built in 644 and it still stands.

It has a very unique torii gate called a mitsutorii (or three torii). This is the actual one. The way the shrine has been built onto over the years it's hard to get a good photo.

We hiked to a very interesting spot where this rocks were kind of stacked. That is called an iwakura -- 磐座, or "seat of the gods". A makeshift altar was placed on that. To our right was a steep drop off into a rocky stream. We were told many times not to fall in. No one fell in.

Above the kannushi were getting more fancifully dressed. Purple is the highest ranking priest.

The next video is them shooting arrows with bows made from green bamboo and wisteria vines. They shoot into the four directions and that is what encourages? signals? the mountain deity to descend into the rice fields. In the actual ceremony, the kannushi mentioned that with this is also a prayer for protection, health, and of course good harvests and prosperity.

Oh, the bit of twine I held out in the video actually flew over and landed on my shirt. I learned back when we used to go to the fireworks festivals on the coast that when holy things (like literal chunks of fireworks) rain down on you, it's a good sign and a lucky item. I didn't think I was close enough to get any fallout from the shooting, but that was cool that I did.

Here is a close up of the altar they constructed.

Next was the really fun part. We all got to drink a bit of blessed nihonshū, served in small cut pieces of bamboo. Just like they did back in the olden days.

After the ceremony ended we all talked for awhile then came back to the car and that's when it started very lightly flurrying. In Japanese, kazahana -- 風花 -- wind flowers. This was quite incredible because it doesn't snow in Shizuoka and it almost never flurries. This day really wasn't so cold either...so it felt like a little sign from the Yama no Kami, a little thank you, maybe.

Everyone have a Mountain God blessed kind of weekend. I added ten more ad free episodes over for kitsune and above patrons in the collections. I'll put more up tomorrow when I get a chance. Take care and stay well, XOXO,

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