Transcription
Well, it has begun. My partner for this trip is Mr. Morikawa. I look forward to seeing you. This time, I will be in Nara, so I would like to take a stroll around Kasuga Taisha Shrine and the other area around Naramachi.
But we've come to Nara Park, so thank you very much. The staff will connect the rice crackers. Thank you very much for your support today. Thank you very much. [Laughter] Right. [Laughter] [Music]
This program is a program by Toshin. Mr. Murase, a popular high school lecturer, takes a stroll with an old map in hand, comparing the city's present and past. The setting for this trip is Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara, the head shrine of the approximately 3,000 Kasuga shrines across the country, which is also registered as a World Heritage Site.
One of the cultural assets of Nara [Music] There is a little-known legend about it, and it is said that if you find the three planes, you will become rich overnight. And it is a sign of respect for the gods. So they left this terrain and built this building. What's more, the food is delicious, thank you.
This time, we will explore the various charms of Kasuga Taisha Shrine. The start of our stroll through history. First, we came to the first torii gate. It's a magnificent torii gate, isn't it? It's over 7m tall, and it's one of the three largest wooden torii gates in Japan. It's long, isn't it? It's roughly the size of the Tokyo Dome.
So, if you convert that to 6 Tokyo Domes, it's the equivalent of 23. It's about 1.4km from Yanko to the main hall, and it's like a national highway. This is an old map of the area. What do you think? It's quite far back. We still have a long way to go. We can't even see the main hall yet.
So we're going to go now. We'll walk. We'll walk about one kilometer along the mountain path, which has remained almost unchanged since the Heian period. To the second torii gate [music] From here, Mr. Akita from the public relations department will guide us.
We are finally getting closer to the gods. The atmosphere has changed a bit, and it feels cooler and deeper. From here, go through two more torii gates. The atmosphere has changed a lot, and just as you said, I feel like I've gotten closer to God.
I actually passed through the second bird, which is God's messenger, and something bigger than before. You can see that the atmosphere is different. You can see that the atmosphere is different. There were some things there, but when you go through these two birds, the number of things that are extremely different doesn't increase.
It's not a deer. [Laughter] I thought you might say something like that, but there are quite a few elementary and junior high school students who mistake it for a grave in a cemetery, which is of course a big mistake. It's actually a lantern.
Kasuga Taisha Shrine has the largest number of lanterns among all shrines and temples in Japan. [Music] [Music] [Music] Kasuga Taisha Shrine has about 3,000 lanterns. Today, there are many lanterns in temples and Japanese gardens. It is installed as a memorial lantern, and its prototype is this lantern made in the Muromachi period.
First, the two of them visit Hanaedo Shrine near the second torii gate. As the name suggests, they purify their penises and then head to the main shrine. There are many different lanterns, and among them, there is one that is very interesting. The names of parents and children are usually carved into the poles of these stone lanterns.
After the war, most of them were engraved for Kasuga Taisha Shrine, but among the approximately 2,000 stone lanterns, it is said that there are 15 machines, and the names of the gods are engraved on them. The eight gods are collectively called Kasuga Daimyojin, and the name Kasuga Daimyojin is there are 15 lanterns carved into the ground, and if you find one, you'll become rich overnight.
[Music] There might be a chance in the future, 15 out of 2000, but this time it's a bit special. Well, I don't really want the camera to take wide shots. I'll tell you in secret, [Music] It's overwhelmingly more common, but I actually said something like that on a TV show a while ago, and a celebrity found out.
What happened? They were married, but they broke up. Whether you believe it or not is up to you. Why don't you try looking for it too? [Music] Next, we head to the main shrine. Kasuga Taisha Shrine is a shrine for Heijo-kyo Chingo.
From Kashima in Ibaraki Prefecture, Takemikazuki no Mikoto is sent to the top of Mikasayama in Nara. [Music] After that, in 768, by imperial decree of Emperor Shotoku, the Fujiwara clan built a shrine at the current location and enshrined the God of the Night Pillar as the presiding deity.
Thank you very much. Well, that camera can't take pictures of the back, but in the back are the five night pillars, which are the center of Kasuga Taisha Shrine. In fact, just like Ise Shrine, Kasuga Shrine has a once in 20 years event.
There is a system called the Shikinen system, and since the Nara period, buildings have been remodeled 60 times. The Shikinen-gyou is written as a remake, and the Ise Shrine moves its location, but the position of the five points here does not change. Without being able to buy a single point, the god was temporarily placed in a temporary shrine, and then the building was demolished and rebuilt in the same shape with new materials, and the god was returned.
The temple remains unchanged, but it has been remodeled, so it is called an expansion. [Music] For 1,200 years since its foundation, the temple has been in the state of rites, and the style, scenery, and facts have been passed down. [Music]
In front of the main hall, lanterns of famous warlords, including the fifth Tokugawa Shogun Tsunayoshi, are hung, showing the history of the temple that has been revered since ancient times. Next, we will visit the East Coast, an important cultural property. [Music]
It's nice. That's right. As you walk along this path, it's always on an incline. If you go here, you'll see that it's the center of Kasuga Taisha Shrine, and the middle of Mikasayama, the new Mount Taizan. It stands on a slope.
The shrine was built here in the 2nd year of the Keio era at the end of the Nara period, but as far as the eye can see, it is not as wide as you would think. So, with the technology of the time, it was flattened. I thought I could build a building there, but this is a mountain for the gods, a place for the gods, and humans shouldn't damage the ground so much.
So I tried to preserve the topography as much as possible and build this building. So, these range windows at the back, each one of them, is adjusted to the slope of the ground, and normally range windows have an angle of 90 degrees, but this one at the very back is at an incredible angle.
Well, it's no longer a parallelogram. [Music] So the carpenters built this building by carving each piece of wood to fit the terrain. It's an incredible feat. Furthermore, hunting and logging have been prohibited in the Kasugayama primeval forest since the Heian period, and it has been protected as a sacred area of Kasuga Taisha Shrine for over 1,000 years.
It is extremely rare for a forest to remain in its natural state so close to the city, and it has been registered as a World Heritage Site. Next, we pass through a corridor and arrive at Mikasayama, the sacred place closest to the rhythmic gymnastics of Kasuga Taisha Shrine. [Music]
This is actually right behind the main hall. Right behind this shrine are five ridges. The ridge continues all the way from the main hall to the summit. So, from the summit, this ridge continues all the way to the west, past the main hall, and at the west end connects to the Daigokuden Hall of Heijo Palace, where there is another sacred place, the roof.
It's a sacred place, and a very special place for roofers. If you turn around, you'll notice that the materials are different. And they’re shingled. If you stand here, you'll see that the roofs are made of three different materials.
This is a sacred place for roof fetishists, where you can worship the mountain. It's a bit shady here. When you use cypress bark roofing, moss and other things like that tend to grow on the wood. I don't really know why they changed it to tile roofing.
After the two of them finished praying and returned to the main store, Mr. Akita said, "So, this area has hardly changed at all since ancient times." Thanks to the Shikinen Sotai system I mentioned earlier, the buildings have really remained unchanged for hundreds of years.
But among them, this is the only one. There are things that have changed a lot, but what could it be? It is deeply related to the faith of Kasuga. Even if you look at the things from the Heian and Kamakura periods, they are almost the same. The only thing that is growing and changing is nature.
Well, it's a living thing. I see. Go over there. The correct answer is, it's a tree. This is a cedar tree. It's said to be 800 to 1000 years old. It's a sacred tree here. That's what it's called, and by the way, in the picture scrolls of the Kamakura period, there is a shrine right next to it.
A small tree is depicted in a picture scroll from the Kamakura period. It has grown this much in 800 years. [Music] But if there is such a thing, it means that it has grown naturally. [Music]
Next up is Wakamiya. The deity enshrined at Wakamiya is the child deity of the third and fourth shrines of Omiya, and you can also see the main shrine, built in the same Kasuga style as the main shrine, up close. The ceremony was just held in the fall of 2022.
You can see the beautiful colors created using precious pigments called honshu, which are only permitted to be used in the main hall of Kasuga Taisha Shrine. Have you noticed anything about this orientation? Yes, it looks like the mountain is behind it.
This book is about the direction, so which direction is it facing musically? The main shrine of this Wakamiya shrine faces west. The main shrine of Omiya faces south and was built with the idea of how many angels there are.
On the other hand, the main shrine of Wakamiya Shrine was built facing the Nara Basin and the people of Nara. So, in other words, the shrine was built so that the young prince could continue to watch over the seven people. [Music]
The people of Nara believe that the east side of the shrine is Mikasayama, and that the sun is also there. It is the direction in which the sun rises, right? Traditional beliefs have been deeply rooted here for a long time, and the people of Nara pray to this Wakamiya Shrine.
Omiya Shrine is a shrine where people pray for peace and prosperity for the people of the country. Wakamiya Shrine was a place of prayer for the people of Yamato, so it was also a place of prayer where personal wishes could be granted.
People would visit the shrine thinking about the country and other such things. When you come here, you can make a personal request. The Nakama Lantern Festival is held in August, and you can see the fantastic sight of 3,000 lanterns being lit up in the temple grounds. [Music]
Next, we went to Kasuganouchi-chaya, a teahouse built in the late Edo period. The name of the place comes from the "carrying teahouse," where people used to carry tea boxes and tea kettles on a pole in the temple grounds and serve tea and song to worshippers.
The signature dish is a rice porridge that changes monthly, and in August, a cold dish made with matcha. [Music] Looks delicious. [Music] It's really refreshing, and the base is really nice; this original blend of matcha and the plum seasoning is amazing.
Thank you so much. [Music] It's really delicious. Thank you so much. [Music] There is a place called Manyo Botanical Garden. I put in different seasonal vegetables every month, and in the summer, I use matcha to make it more refreshing, and I also put in seaweed every day.
On top of that, the shop mixes seaweed in various ways, and when you eat it with that, you can enjoy Manyo rice porridge, which is served with seasonal vegetables related to the Manyoshu. In the adjacent Manyo Botanical Garden, there are about 300 kinds of Manyoshu-related vegetables.
Planting the plants, you can enjoy the changing seasons. [Music] This is the end of our stroll through history. As you can see, the map we visited shows Kasuga Taisha Shrine, which was built in Heijo-kyo to pray for the prosperity of the people.
I realized that it has not changed and is a source of comfort for many people. Next time, we will have a real kick around Naramachi. Surprise! Look forward to it!