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Kari Grohn's Home Page - Japan - Takekiri-eshiki |
Takekiri-eshiki
竹伐り会式
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Takekiri-eshiki, Takekiri-eshiki
is a bamboo-cutting ceremony based on a story about the monk Buen （峯延）. The
legend is that one day while Buen was undertaking austerities in the
mountains monstrous male and female serpents attacked him. After the
monk cut and killed the male serpent by chanting a powerful mantra the
female serpent pleaded for mercy and promised to help people to make a
stream from the mountain. The serpent kept her word and since then the
villagers could enjoy affluent water and worshiped the serpent by
creating a little shrine. In
the annual ceremony eight male parishioners clad in costumes of warrior
monks form two teams. Upon a signal the teams rush out to cut 4m long
and 10cm thick green bamboo poles with strokes of mountain swords into
eight pieces. The poles symbolise the serpents, which are incarnations
of evil. The ceremony is performed to pray for a bountiful harvest. The
area represented by the winning team will enjoy rich harvests that year. The teams of Omi
and Tanba represent the eastern and western sides of Mt Kurama. In
ancient times the area around The
pieces of cut bamboo are believed to guard homes against misfortune. At
the end of the ritual, a female bamboo, roots intact, is returned and
replanted in the grove from which the male trees were taken. |
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Monk Gantei Kurama
temple has its origin in the monk Gantei who had a dream about being guided to a sacred place on the
saddle of a white horse. He followed this spiritual transmission and the
horse brought him to the foot of the mountain, where he built a small
thatched temple to Bishamonten. Years later, Isendo Fujiwara was also
guided on horseback to the mountain with the intent of building a temple
to the Thousand-armed Kannon Bodhisattva. Gantei’s temple became known
as Kurama-dera (Horse-saddle temple) due to Gantei and Fujiwara both
being guided there on saddle-back. |