Early in my Japan trip, I experienced something almost no tourists experience, in part because I speak a ton more Japanese than most tourists, but more importantly because I got lucky as hell.
I was on a train somewhere around the Ōmiya area, and I started a conversation with an older Japanese woman. Of course, those of you who've spent some time in Japan probably know that trains aren't really a place for conversation, but I guess a guy like me doesn't need to always play by the rules. Anyway, it turns out she's really into this religious organization, called Fujitaisekiji. Fuji means Mt. Fuji, tai means big, seki means rock, and ji means temple. Fujitaisekiji means, Temple of the Big Rock of Mt. Fuji. If you have Japanese fonts, the kanji is 富士大石寺.
She was pretty astonished when she found out I can actually read a little Japanese. It's rare enough for a westerner to speak the devil's tongue, much less read it! Once she found that out, she produced this book and gave it to me:
The big white writing on the right says something to the effect of: "Japan, which opposes (some big holy person), will surely be destroyed".
One of the things they make a big deal of in this organization, is repeating a daily mantra, morning and night. They believe that by repeating these holy words, they'll be filled with strength and energy, healed of sickness, and that it will create miracles in their lives. I can't remember the words exactly now, they were something like, "na myo hyo re ki" or something.
I was invited to come to a service at Fujitaisekiji in a few days. Well, I'm never one to turn down adventure!! Fujitaisekiji, here I come!
THE SERVICE
I met my guide a few days later in the Omiya train station by the Mamenoki:
(Click for high resolution version) We jumped a few local trains and came at last to the temple. The temple is surrounded by some really impressive gardens, I wish I had taken more pictures. The building itself bore more resemblance to a western church than the usual exotic temples of Japan. It was quite large and there were lots of people present. I only have this one pic from the temple. The lady there is the guide I met on the train. Click for high-resolution version.
We went inside, up some stairs and through some halls, taking our shoes off before entering the main room. There, everyone was sitting on the floor, watching a big screen at the front of the room. On the screen, there was a pre-recorded service, but unlike western Church services, it consisted of lots of people taking turns to speak. I'm not sure whether they were special officials in the temple, or just regular members who had volunteered to give part of the service, or what. To be honest, the Japanese they were using was very fast, very complicated, and I could make out almost none of it. I'm sure I probably missed some very interesting stuff!
After the "short speakers" had all spoken, there was a brief intermission during which everyone stood up to stretch their legs. And then, the main dude came on the screen, at least I assume he was the big head of the organization, everyone seemed to be acting that way. Again, his Japanese was mostly incomprehensible to me, but I did notice he was speaking with a very familiar, informal Japanese, whereas the others had largely been using keigo and teineigo, the polite formal Japanese which so many language learners are so scared of.
Then, the best part of the service: everyone bowed and chanted the holy mantra in unison. With so many people chanting it at once, I could literally feel the vibration of the chant in the air. Quite impressive, and you can't help but feel a surge of energy just from the act of chanting in unison with so many people. The NLP expert in me wants to theorize about how the words work: the chanting-in-unison creates a natural buzz of energy and good feeling, which gets associated to the words in a fashion similar to the Pavlov's Dog experiment. Then when the members repeat the mantra, they get a little of that feeling again. By recharging it every week, they keep the anchored feelings from wearing out. Well, that's the analytic in me theorizing. Who knows, maybe the words actually work. If there really are magic words in the world, leave it to the ancient Asian cultures to figure them out!
After the service, I went back outside with my guide and a few other Japanese people. Everyone was pretty excited and surprised that a foreigner was there at this temple! Anyway, I was invited to another, more private ceremony, and of course being the crazy adventurer that I am, eagerly agreed to that too. The catch was I had to officially register with the organization. It quickly became apparent they had no idea what to make of my United States mailing address. It was obvious they didn't have to deal with foreigner registrations very often! Who knows, maybe I was the first foreigner to ever join. Evidently they must never have figured the address out, cuz I've yet to receive any newsletters or donation requests from them. Kind of a pity, that'd be pretty cool to receive here in Ohio!
THE PRIVATE CEREMONY
We went to this very holy-seeming room. On the wall they had a scroll with lots of very coolly written kanji on it, and apparently the scroll was believed to be sacred. Lots of really exotic vessels and altars under the scroll... I really wish I could've taken a picture, but they wouldn't allow that!
A woman I can only assume was some sort of priest, or at least higher-ranking member of the organization, came in and I was given a little "prayer book", a booklet full of prayers which were written entirely in kanji with no hiragana or katakana (the Japanese alphabet)! (Fortunately, there was furigana, Japanese pronunciation aids, so I can actually read the thing) Here's the booklet, and a couple sample pages, click for high-resolution version:
Me, the guide, a couple witnesses, and the priestess(?), proceeded to chant some of these prayers in unison. I should mention, this was one of the hardest things I had to do the whole trip. See, I can read furigana alright, but to follow along in these chants, I had to read blazing fast. I was struggling to follow along but somehow I managed.
Oh, we also had to hold some "prayer beads" while doing all this. Here's a picture of the prayer beads. Click for high-resolution version:
The private ceremony was basically my official induction into the organization. Even though obviously I haven't done anything with it since. Anyway, this way cooler than a lot of things a tourist gets to see. I could never have done any of this if I hadn't studied a LOT of Japanese.
Here are some other things I've written. Read them night and day and you'll be filled with strength and energy!
Pictures From Japan
Meeting The Geisha
A Goldmine Of Engrish
No Regrets - Regret Is A Useless Emotion
I was on a train somewhere around the Ōmiya area, and I started a conversation with an older Japanese woman. Of course, those of you who've spent some time in Japan probably know that trains aren't really a place for conversation, but I guess a guy like me doesn't need to always play by the rules. Anyway, it turns out she's really into this religious organization, called Fujitaisekiji. Fuji means Mt. Fuji, tai means big, seki means rock, and ji means temple. Fujitaisekiji means, Temple of the Big Rock of Mt. Fuji. If you have Japanese fonts, the kanji is 富士大石寺.
She was pretty astonished when she found out I can actually read a little Japanese. It's rare enough for a westerner to speak the devil's tongue, much less read it! Once she found that out, she produced this book and gave it to me:
The big white writing on the right says something to the effect of: "Japan, which opposes (some big holy person), will surely be destroyed".
One of the things they make a big deal of in this organization, is repeating a daily mantra, morning and night. They believe that by repeating these holy words, they'll be filled with strength and energy, healed of sickness, and that it will create miracles in their lives. I can't remember the words exactly now, they were something like, "na myo hyo re ki" or something.
I was invited to come to a service at Fujitaisekiji in a few days. Well, I'm never one to turn down adventure!! Fujitaisekiji, here I come!
THE SERVICE
I met my guide a few days later in the Omiya train station by the Mamenoki:
(Click for high resolution version) We jumped a few local trains and came at last to the temple. The temple is surrounded by some really impressive gardens, I wish I had taken more pictures. The building itself bore more resemblance to a western church than the usual exotic temples of Japan. It was quite large and there were lots of people present. I only have this one pic from the temple. The lady there is the guide I met on the train. Click for high-resolution version.
We went inside, up some stairs and through some halls, taking our shoes off before entering the main room. There, everyone was sitting on the floor, watching a big screen at the front of the room. On the screen, there was a pre-recorded service, but unlike western Church services, it consisted of lots of people taking turns to speak. I'm not sure whether they were special officials in the temple, or just regular members who had volunteered to give part of the service, or what. To be honest, the Japanese they were using was very fast, very complicated, and I could make out almost none of it. I'm sure I probably missed some very interesting stuff!
After the "short speakers" had all spoken, there was a brief intermission during which everyone stood up to stretch their legs. And then, the main dude came on the screen, at least I assume he was the big head of the organization, everyone seemed to be acting that way. Again, his Japanese was mostly incomprehensible to me, but I did notice he was speaking with a very familiar, informal Japanese, whereas the others had largely been using keigo and teineigo, the polite formal Japanese which so many language learners are so scared of.
Then, the best part of the service: everyone bowed and chanted the holy mantra in unison. With so many people chanting it at once, I could literally feel the vibration of the chant in the air. Quite impressive, and you can't help but feel a surge of energy just from the act of chanting in unison with so many people. The NLP expert in me wants to theorize about how the words work: the chanting-in-unison creates a natural buzz of energy and good feeling, which gets associated to the words in a fashion similar to the Pavlov's Dog experiment. Then when the members repeat the mantra, they get a little of that feeling again. By recharging it every week, they keep the anchored feelings from wearing out. Well, that's the analytic in me theorizing. Who knows, maybe the words actually work. If there really are magic words in the world, leave it to the ancient Asian cultures to figure them out!
After the service, I went back outside with my guide and a few other Japanese people. Everyone was pretty excited and surprised that a foreigner was there at this temple! Anyway, I was invited to another, more private ceremony, and of course being the crazy adventurer that I am, eagerly agreed to that too. The catch was I had to officially register with the organization. It quickly became apparent they had no idea what to make of my United States mailing address. It was obvious they didn't have to deal with foreigner registrations very often! Who knows, maybe I was the first foreigner to ever join. Evidently they must never have figured the address out, cuz I've yet to receive any newsletters or donation requests from them. Kind of a pity, that'd be pretty cool to receive here in Ohio!
THE PRIVATE CEREMONY
We went to this very holy-seeming room. On the wall they had a scroll with lots of very coolly written kanji on it, and apparently the scroll was believed to be sacred. Lots of really exotic vessels and altars under the scroll... I really wish I could've taken a picture, but they wouldn't allow that!
A woman I can only assume was some sort of priest, or at least higher-ranking member of the organization, came in and I was given a little "prayer book", a booklet full of prayers which were written entirely in kanji with no hiragana or katakana (the Japanese alphabet)! (Fortunately, there was furigana, Japanese pronunciation aids, so I can actually read the thing) Here's the booklet, and a couple sample pages, click for high-resolution version:
Me, the guide, a couple witnesses, and the priestess(?), proceeded to chant some of these prayers in unison. I should mention, this was one of the hardest things I had to do the whole trip. See, I can read furigana alright, but to follow along in these chants, I had to read blazing fast. I was struggling to follow along but somehow I managed.
Oh, we also had to hold some "prayer beads" while doing all this. Here's a picture of the prayer beads. Click for high-resolution version:
The private ceremony was basically my official induction into the organization. Even though obviously I haven't done anything with it since. Anyway, this way cooler than a lot of things a tourist gets to see. I could never have done any of this if I hadn't studied a LOT of Japanese.
Here are some other things I've written. Read them night and day and you'll be filled with strength and energy!
Pictures From Japan
Meeting The Geisha
A Goldmine Of Engrish
No Regrets - Regret Is A Useless Emotion
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment