Story by Lawrence I. Charters
Photos by Anna Black
Seahawk, September 28, 1984, pp. 6-7.
To many Americans, “ancient tradition” seems to mean anything more than a week old. Japan, a far older nation, has a much richer cultural history, and the recent Hachiman Shrine Festival in Kamakura provides dramatic evidence of how this ancient land keeps in touch with the past as it rushes on into the future. The story, naturally, starts long, long ago . . .
While the adults enjoyed the festivities happening during the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine Festival, children fed and chased pigeons that “live” at the shrine.
A thousand years ago, while most Europeans were still debating whether or not to become civilized, Japan already had an old and vigorous culture. But age and vigor did not mean peace; constant skirmishes between various bands of nobles kept the country in an almost constant uproar.
Young Taiko drummers entertained crowds with drum music throughout the entire festival.
Battles between two families, the Taira and Minamoto, were particularly fierce, raging back and forth across Japan for decades. Finally, under the guidance of Minamoto no Yoritomo, the Minamoto gained the upper hand in 1185 after a spectacular sea battle involving over a thousand ships. Granted the title Shogun in 1192, Yoritomo established Japan’s first national warrior government, providing a structure for national direction which survived with little change until 1868.
A common sight at the Hachiman Shrine is watching people perform “purifying” rites by taking a drink from a shrine spring.
Since warfare had looked kindly upon Yoritomo, Yoritomo in turn looked kindly upon Hachiman, the Shinto god who watches over warriors. High on a hillside overlooking his capital of Kamakura, Yoritomo set up Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in 1191, and over the years the shrine became the religious and cultural center of the entire city. When the Minamoto clan faded from the political scene, their successors from the Hojo, Ashikaga, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa clans also lavished attention on the shrine. Partially because of this support Hachiman has remained a very popular deity even today, with over 25,000 Hachiman shrines scattered throughout Japan.
The horses that are used during the yabusame ceremony are given a lot of care before and after the ceremony by competent grooms.
Held every September 15, the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine Festival is a celebration not only of the shrine and its origins, but also of the community and culture it represents. A series of giant red torii (gates), spanning Kamakura’s central avenue, link the shrine to the sea, indicating the importance of the shrine in the life of the city. Every spring, millions of cherry blossoms form a broad pink band pointing straight up this same avenue to the shrine. Not surprisingly, even the heavy rain this year could not prevent thousands of residents and visitors from coming to the shrine; clouds of umbrellas sprang up to keep the clouds overhead from dampening spirits.
Before the actual shooting begins, the horsemen and their retainers parade past the crowd. It takes a lot of skill to be able to shoot arrows at targets while on horseback. Notice that the bow is taller than the rider.
Supplying the guests were hundreds of street vendors selling hot, fresh cooked food, cold drinks souvenirs, toys, and religious items. An ikebana (flower arrangement) display provided an opportunity to quietly contemplate art, while not too far away a swarm of children watched, fed, chased, and were chased by pigeons. Taiko [drum] groups invigorated the crowds with their characteristic martial flair and the shrine’s famous dance pavilion was put to good use as several groups performed a variety of traditional dances.
The archers of yabusame are dressed in the traditional samurai hunting “uniform” of the Kamakura era.
Highlight of the festival, though, was the annual display of yabusame, horseback archery. While it may appear to be a martial art, yabusame is actually a religious exercise for a warrior. The ceremony begins when the group leader, after having first received a blessing from a priest, points his cocked bow at both sky and ground, requesting eternal peace between heaven and earth. Dressed in the elegant hunting attire of samurai a millenia ago, the horsemen and their retainers then parade past the crowd, led by priests.
Since yabusame is actually a religious exercise for a warrior, priests play an important part in the ceremony by blessing the warriors before the shooting begins.
These rites performed, three riders then gallop as fast as possible down a narrow track, guiding the horses with their legs as they attempt to fire at wooden targets mounted on posts along the way. The nine targets are divided up in sets of three, with each set bearing the name of a particular archer. With the crowd lining the narrow path on both sides, it takes astonishing skill for a rider to draw the long bow (taller than he is) and hit his particular targets – and avoid skewering innocent bystanders.
Acolytes carry the wooden targets that bear the name of a particular archer. Guiding the horse with his legs, the archer must fire at the targets mounted on posts along the course.
The penalty for missing a target used to be severe: the archer was expected to commit suicide. Yoritomo, himself a skilled archer, thought this was a terrible waste of talented warriors, so he abolished this practice, as well as enlarged the size of the targets.
Preserved by the Takeda family for over ten centuries, yabusame is a ritual and a skill, and in both respects helps preserve modern Japan’s links with its ancient past. If you missed yabusame at Kamakura, you can see a similar ceremony performed at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on National Culture Day, November 3.
