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More photos? Oh, why the hell not – it is a holiday weekend…
Just a few pics today from my old haunt, Kanda Myojin. They’re holding their Daikoku Matsuri this weekend. Folks line up by the hundred to symbolically get bonked on the head by the guy on the right (Kids – this is what steroids will do to you), Daikoku-sama, with his lucky mallet. It’s especially popular with coming-of-age participants – it’s their holiday which gives everybody the day off Monday.
Daikoku is combines with a couple of other New Year rituals, one of them being the Misogi, where people douse themselves with cold water for purification from this scary-looking tub. It’s also the time for the bi-annual Oharae purification ritual, the summer version of which we saw on Gingitsune. Last stop was this very pretty building I’d never noticed before, tucked away behind the shrine. It’s an old merchants house and shop that’s been moved a couple of times before landing here, and being declared a tangible cultural property and turned into a tea ceremony venue.
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elianthos80
January 11, 2014 at 11:25 am:,> tasty culture post is tasty.
Tea ceremony venue? *_* Are you going to try that one day if you haven't already?
admin
January 11, 2014 at 12:41 pmToo expensive there (¥3500). I have done them, though not at any place fancy and formal like that – more like at culture fairs and the like. There are places in Kyoto where you can do the tea ceremony relatively inexpensively in a more traditional setting.
Ronbb
January 12, 2014 at 10:03 am@elianthos80: why is that you and I always think alike? I was thinking of asking Enzo about the tea ceremony, too…but you beat me :-P.
Kanda Myojin certainly adds colours and brightness to its surroundings. Enzo, I'd assume that you didn't douse yourself because that tub looked like something that you would put in a construction site and hold any water dripping from above.
elianthos80
January 12, 2014 at 12:39 pm@Ronbb: one more evidence I don't go around calling people 'sister' – or any other term of endearment – for nothing you know, online or otherwise :p.
Ronbb
January 13, 2014 at 4:18 amI'm starting to think that we must be sisters sent to different parents living in different countries but reunited at LiA. We have to thank Enzo for pulling the threads…lol.