Post 4/4
3. A very popular class of Kagura:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WffOHgPQkjk[/media]
Kagura showing heavenly Kamisama Susanoo-no-Mikoto defeating the Yamato-no-Orochi in grand fight :woowoo:
and rescuing his soon to be wife Megamisama Kushi-Inada-Hime, thus bringing relief to her parents the Earth Kamis.
(Must say: despite being drunk on Sake, the fearsome 8-headed and 8-tailed Orochi put up a scary fight...)
4. Not about Kagura anymore but still on Shinto festivities
Shintos - like Taoists and Hindus - like to transport the utsavamoorties of their Gods from one shrine to another sacred site. Hindoos tend to have rathas and Shintos and Taoists tend to have palanquins and floats.
In this way, Kami can be taken to visit other Kami too (like reuniting husband and wife Kamis during sacred festivals). Kami utsavam palanquins are called "Mikoshi", while:
eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=303
Matsuri featuring such floats:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt8CwU_0FKc[/media]
Kawagoe Festival floats 2012 (automated translation of title reads "Kawagoe Festival faith Festival floats")
shinto.enacademic.com/385/Kawagoe_matsuri
shinto.enacademic.com/357/Kanda_Matsuri
So Shintos have a great many Gods ("Land of 8 million Kami"), countless temples ("100,000 shinto shrines in Japan"), ritual dancing, music, martial arts, and ratha yatras. Very like Hindus and Taoists, etc. (If I was an ET briefly visiting planet earth, I might not be able to tell the difference on first glance...)
Don't know why modern Hindus/vocalists always threaten that they are "the last pagans, the last pagans". Or that their religion is special for being allegedly "the only one" to have the above features. [Or for having "deep philosophy/metaphysical notions" or for being "the only religion that has the concept of monism" or more such -false- claims to uniqueness. Hindoos' heathenism is unique - but for the same reason that other heathenisms are unique: it's tied to the geography inhabited by a pantheon of Gods and their kindred/ethnic populations.]
3. A very popular class of Kagura:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WffOHgPQkjk[/media]
Kagura showing heavenly Kamisama Susanoo-no-Mikoto defeating the Yamato-no-Orochi in grand fight :woowoo:
and rescuing his soon to be wife Megamisama Kushi-Inada-Hime, thus bringing relief to her parents the Earth Kamis.
(Must say: despite being drunk on Sake, the fearsome 8-headed and 8-tailed Orochi put up a scary fight...)
4. Not about Kagura anymore but still on Shinto festivities
Shintos - like Taoists and Hindus - like to transport the utsavamoorties of their Gods from one shrine to another sacred site. Hindoos tend to have rathas and Shintos and Taoists tend to have palanquins and floats.
In this way, Kami can be taken to visit other Kami too (like reuniting husband and wife Kamis during sacred festivals). Kami utsavam palanquins are called "Mikoshi", while:
eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=303
Quote:Dashi
A float decorated with variously shaped objects (spear, mountain, human images, etc.), and carried or drawn on wheels to the accompaniment of festive music (hayashi). The name dashi is said to have originated in the fact that the upper part of the float's central "spear" (hoko) is a plaited bamboo receptacle (higeko) whose unwoven ends are tasseles or "protrusions" (dashi). Historically, the floats called dashi derive from the objects called shirushi no yama which were drawn during in the Great Festival of Enthronement (Daijà Âsai) during the Heian period, and served as a sign (shirushi) of the presence of the kami during the festival. With time, however, the addition of elaborate decorations and musical accompanied saw the evolution of dashi into the foci of popular entertainment. In the Kansai (Osaka) region dashi may be also called danjiri, while in the Kantà  area they also go by the name yatai. See also yamahoko.
Matsuri featuring such floats:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt8CwU_0FKc[/media]
Kawagoe Festival floats 2012 (automated translation of title reads "Kawagoe Festival faith Festival floats")
shinto.enacademic.com/385/Kawagoe_matsuri
shinto.enacademic.com/357/Kanda_Matsuri
Quote:Kawagoe matsuri
A festival held in its full form every other year at the Hikawa jinja, Saitama. It features huge, richly decorated floats which clash at night in the centre of town in an exciting ceremonial contest called hikkawase ('pulling against each other'). As the floats collide noisy hayashi bands compete to make the bearers of the rival float lose their rhythm. The floats are said to be replicas of those used at the Kanda matsuri before tall floats were banned from Tokyo in the late Meiji period.
Kanda Matsuri ââ¬â One of the three biggest festivals of Edo (Tokyo), celebrated from May 12 16th (or 13th 18th) at the Kanda jinja where the so chinju (overall protective deity) of the central Tokyo Nihonbashi and Kanda districts is enshrined
A Popular Dictionary of Shinto
So Shintos have a great many Gods ("Land of 8 million Kami"), countless temples ("100,000 shinto shrines in Japan"), ritual dancing, music, martial arts, and ratha yatras. Very like Hindus and Taoists, etc. (If I was an ET briefly visiting planet earth, I might not be able to tell the difference on first glance...)
Don't know why modern Hindus/vocalists always threaten that they are "the last pagans, the last pagans". Or that their religion is special for being allegedly "the only one" to have the above features. [Or for having "deep philosophy/metaphysical notions" or for being "the only religion that has the concept of monism" or more such -false- claims to uniqueness. Hindoos' heathenism is unique - but for the same reason that other heathenisms are unique: it's tied to the geography inhabited by a pantheon of Gods and their kindred/ethnic populations.]