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)

Preparations are next made for the Cooking Pot (Kamado) Ceremony, which lasts about 30 minutes.  A senior spirit medium will drum and chant, as the ritual Cooking Pot filled with water is heated by charcoal. Most of the time, the pot evenually emits a strange, resonating hum. Worshippers line up to deposit rice grains and salt in the boiling water.


As the speeches conclude in the Shinden hall during the intermediate phase, one of the shrine's senior kamisama spirit mediums prepares the Cooking Pot, making sure that the coals are properly heated.

SEE VIDEOS OF THE COOKING POT RITE

 


Website developed by Ellen Schattschneider (Brandeis University)