Miko Part.2

The shrine is famous for its god of delivery of child, so a lot of people purchased the good "delivery" charms for their upcoming babies.
In very ancient time, there were a couple of small stones here.
The empress at that time who had a strong wish for a baby came to this shrine and strode them, and later she got pregnant. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a boy and he grew up healthy and became an emperor!
The stones had been replaced later, but still many married couples come here for getting the blessings from the sacred stones.
We Japanese, who have accomplished a certain level of economic success, still strongly believe in this sort of superstitious things like we always have been. Because we commonly believe sacredness dwells in natural objects.





This is a dancing stage. When people celebrate something, they dance here for the gods.



Aren't we all young?? Yes, only SINGLE & YOUNG women can become Miko.
Pureness is an important word for Shinto, so they don't have married or old Mikos.

In Japan, we pay visit to a shrine to celebrate the new year.
A lot of people do that in the midnight of the New Year's Day.
So that means we had to work overnight! We took two-hour nap every two hours..
and we had to stand outside under a tent!!!! It was sooo freakin' freezing!!!!
I think it was around 0℃ or something...


I purchased some good luck charms for me and my family. The bracelet above is mine with beads and a comma shaped stone. Comma shaped stone has been regarded as the emperor's treasures.
So it's very auspicious stuff! May this bring me a lot of happiness!!

.. and these are the gifts the family of the shrine gave us.

A bag of candies and a kind of hand towl with pictures of cow. (This year's Cow's year.)

..and they even treated us sushi!!!!!!

I've never had a more delicious lunch than this at my work!

The head shrine priest gave us some teachings during our duties. He was not preachy at all, , he was rather friendly & funny guy.

One of the impressive ones was "Please be a good mother, that will make your country better"

I will definately visit this shrine when I get married to wish for a baby!

But before that, I will have to come back here when the plum trees in their back garden will be in full bloom in March.

Happy New Year!!!!

How was your last year??
Well, I met so many people, maybe a lot more than ever in my life!!
It was very inspiring and fun! I should say..

At the end of the last year, I spent very memorable time at a local shrine.
Because I had a chance to work as MIKO around the New Year holidays..!!


Miko is a shrine maden, dressed in kimono and skirt!
I applied for the temporary Miko at a local shrine in November.
Because I wanted to know a lot more about Shintoism.

So this is the shrine I worked for..
The building on the left is a "temporary" main building.
Because there was recently repair work on the "regular" main building next to it.
It would be not safe for GODs who are enshrined there, so they moved them to the temporary one.

These are some of the mikos.. oh, there is me in the middle:)

We are selling good luck charms(on the desks),

and offering a little sake for visitors from the barrel on the left.

Real, or professional mikos do some purification rites as well.

But if you want to do that, you have to get a qualification by going to a Shinto college.

So temporary mikos end up being just a sales clerk:)

Often times why girls apply for temporary miko is that they simply want to wear

the traditional costumes. But of course among them there are some who are interested in Shintoism like me.

By the way I had some sips from the sake barrel too,,, wow,,, it was sooo good!

To be continued...