immortal wishes:
labor and transcendence
on a Japanese sacred mountain

Ellen Schattschneider

Duke University Press (2003)

TEACHING RESOURCES

Akakura Mountain Shrine Rituals

The Great Summer Festival (Taisai)



A Shinto pries t(the adopted son-in-law of the founder of the shrine's junior branch) passes an offering tray, containing mochi rice cakes, to a visiting priest.  A large white mochi cake is underneath a small red mochi cake, creating a miniature mountain (yama), an appropriate opening prestation to the mountain kami.

For a discussion of the aesthetics of offerings in the shrine, see Immortal Wishes, Chapter Four, "Miniature Mountains: Offerings and Exchange", pp. 121-144.

Website developed by Ellen Schattschneider (Brandeis University)