(C)Niigata-ken Professional Photographers Society
Mt.Myoko Sekiyama shrine fire festival.
This unique festival is held on every July.(the third Saturday and Sunday)
We have countless Shinto rituals all over Japan especially in summer season.
Photo by wikipedia
This is the Mount Myoukou and Sekiyama shrine protects this mountain.
In Japan,sacred nature is needed to protect by shine to avoid ruin.
People can't ruin the area if there are shrines.
Shrines are important points for nature protection.
This mountain has been known as sacred place
and many Yamabushi(Mountain priests) were training in the mountain.
Also,Sekiyama shrine was training hall for them.
That stick battle-like ceremony is called Bou-dukai.
One of the highlight event of the festival.
Those young men are called Kari-Yamabushi.(temporary-fake Yamabushi for the festival)
Old true Yamabushi people tried to protect self religion and Mount Myoukou against an attack
from Oda Nobunaga,a famous powerful samurai daimyo warload of Japan in the late 16th century.
So, Bou-dukai ceremony is a historical legacy.
Yamabushi people were practicing like that for defense.
Originally,Yamabushi was derived from ancient Hebrew people who visited ancient Japan.
(Photos)
Shinto is Japanese original religion but Judaism essence was added in ancient time.
But those two religions are not separated from the beginning.
Japan and Israel are man and woman in the Earth.
Many people don't know about it yet.
But some Japanese people already know that.
There are leader and second leader in every group.
Country,city,town,region,company,house...every group has two main people.
(President and vice president)
In the Earth,Japan has important place to worship the Sun and the Polaris.
In Grand shrine of ISE,there are two main shrines in there.
One is the place for the Sun.(Motherhood)
The other one is the place for the Polaris.(Fatherhood)
Those two places and sacred ceremonies in there are really important.
In Shinto,we Japanese especially worship the Sun goddess AMATERASU.
Meanwhile Jewish people worship the Polaris as a star of david.
Jewish people don't know that the star mark means the center of Universe.(= Polaris)
We Japanese have more than 85,000 Shinto shrines in Japan.
All shrines exist for the top shrine,Grand shrine of ISE.
God of nature enter into the Mikoshi box temporally,
and local people spread the sacred power to their town for purifying.
People is shaking the Mikoshi to increase and knead nature god's divinity.
People are shouting like this "washhoi,wasshoi".
That is no mean in Japanese language.
That words are shouted only in Mikoshi ritual.
It is said that that words mean "Here comes god" in old Hebrew language.
Mikoshi was derived from the Ark of the covenant.
Of course,Mikoshi ritual is held all over Japan.