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Nature Spirits Kami
Spirituality Shintoism
The customs of Shinto practiced
by the common people gradually grew into a complex form of festivals and rites
that sometimes included elements of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism called
Minzoku Shinto or Folk Shinto. The numinous Kami were venerated; as well as, the
ancestral guardian spirits and the spirits of national heroes.
Since the Kami could take various forms and there was no
separation between the material and the spiritual in Shintoism, there were three types of
artistically landscaped Japanese Garden Designs. They were Chaniwa Tea Gardens,
Karesansui Gardens, and Tsukiyama Gardens. The effortless simplicity of the Chaniwa Tea Gardens
were atheistically pleasing.
Usually stepping stones
led towards the tea houses where the sado tea ceremonies were held. There were
stone lantern shrines and a tsukubai stone basin where guests could purify themselves before
participating in the customary ceremony. The Karesansui Gardens were
dry gardens used for meditation that had also been keenly affected by Zen
Buddhism.
This type of Japanese artistically landscaped garden utilized moss,
gravel, sand and stones to represent aspects of the natural landscape like
islands, mountains and rivers In Tsukiyama Gardens there
were replicas of hills. Variable in size and perspective, they comprehensively
depicted a renown Japanese setting with bridges, flowers, trees, paths, ponds,
streams and stones. Many of the larger Tsukiyama Gardens had circular scrolling
paths.
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Shinto veneration of of the kami of rocks and mountains has
been prevalent since ancient times. At hallowed rock formations called iwakura,
kami were invited to make them their abodes. Iwakura were considered divine and
food offerings were left for the kami on the stones.
Iwasaka stone altars or mounds were often erected as Yorishiro
for the kami to inhabit during Shinto veneration rituals. Kami took many forms
including that of mountains like Mount Fuji in Japan. A Shinto Kumano Shrine
enshrined the three Kumano Mountains of Hongu, Shingu, and Nachi.
There were more than three
thousand Kumano Shrines in Japan. Each of the Kumano shrines received its kami
by the bunrei or kanjo propagation process from another Kumano Shrine. The
original Kumano Sanzan Shrine complex consisted of the Hayatama, Hongu and Nachi
Kumano Taishas in Wakayama Prefecture.
The Kumano Taisha in the picture above was a historic Kumano Shinto Shrine in
Miyauchi, Nayo City in the Yamagata Prefecture of Japan. Today over four million Japanese often visit Shinto shrines to pray for good fortune; to keep away evil
spirits before special events; and to procure talismans.
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