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)


During the first phase of the Great Summer Festival, a high ranking visiting Shinto priest prays in front of the Honden, the Kami sanctuary, upon which various offerings will be placed.  A gohei (Shinto ritual purification wand) stands on the altar to his left.  In the right background are visible oshirasama ritual figurines.

For this important morning rite, the rear wall of the Shinden hall has been opened up, so that worshippers may look directly at the Honden. Priests walk across a small bridge that links the Shinden and the Honden







Website developed by Ellen Schattschneider (Brandeis University)