I went for a bike ride earlier (am I inhuman to spend 99.9% of my time outside of work alone?) to check out the story behind the spanking new 'torii' gate I saw the other day.
The man fiddling with the flag pole was really friendly.
You know a person's really friendly in Japan when they say, 'Goodo afternoono' in English.
We slipped between English and Japanese and I learned that I had just missed the festival at this temple, which was yesterday, doh, but he said, 'Come in the New Year! I'll buy you a sake!'.
He must have noticed that I had the florid complexion of an alcoholic.
Anyway, the temple attached to this new spiffy gate is a new one, 15 years old, and whilst there are older gates leading up to the temple (I'm guessing that the templesite is hundreds of years old, but temples are often knocked down and rebuilt in Japan), I'm reckoning this was the gate they had been hankering for, because it's on the main road, and temples in modern times need to advertise their presence, hunt and gather new families, to keep such temples or shrines going.
Most temples and shrines are family-owned, family-run, but as you can imagine, the new generations aren't as keen to carry on the family trade, and 'congregation' numbers are falling anyway, with many families avoiding official affiliation so as to avoid incurring the fees charged for various events throughout the year, and for the money needed when the priest visits your home for funerals, commemoration of deaths and so on.
For example, during the first 49 days of death, a number of services are held.
Services are then held to commemorate the following years of passing; the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 13th year.
So things could get pricey.
The man fiddling with the flag pole was really friendly.
You know a person's really friendly in Japan when they say, 'Goodo afternoono' in English.
We slipped between English and Japanese and I learned that I had just missed the festival at this temple, which was yesterday, doh, but he said, 'Come in the New Year! I'll buy you a sake!'.
He must have noticed that I had the florid complexion of an alcoholic.
Anyway, the temple attached to this new spiffy gate is a new one, 15 years old, and whilst there are older gates leading up to the temple (I'm guessing that the templesite is hundreds of years old, but temples are often knocked down and rebuilt in Japan), I'm reckoning this was the gate they had been hankering for, because it's on the main road, and temples in modern times need to advertise their presence, hunt and gather new families, to keep such temples or shrines going.
 |
| This gate is going to look lovely framed by fall leaves |
Most temples and shrines are family-owned, family-run, but as you can imagine, the new generations aren't as keen to carry on the family trade, and 'congregation' numbers are falling anyway, with many families avoiding official affiliation so as to avoid incurring the fees charged for various events throughout the year, and for the money needed when the priest visits your home for funerals, commemoration of deaths and so on.
For example, during the first 49 days of death, a number of services are held.
Services are then held to commemorate the following years of passing; the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 13th year.
So things could get pricey.
 |
| Taking down the festival decorations |
4 comments:
Wow. Thanks for that Maria. I didn't know about the family owned nature of Japanese shrines. Benkyo no narimashita. X
Doitashimashite!
Ganbarre ne!
I was just going to say that ;-)
Heh. Here's a place where we could learn something from the Japanese: Religion is a subscriber-paid service focused on local delivery!
Post a Comment