Every year, a special ceremony takes place at Uto Shrine (善知鳥神社, Utō Jinja) in Aomori City. It's called Shin-nen Haiga Shiyou No Gi (新年拝賀斯様の儀). In English, it translates to, “Ceremony to Celebrate the New Year”. This is not to be confused with Hatsumōde (初詣), the first shrine visit of the year which I described in a previous post. Whereas hatsumōde occurs at shrines throughout the entire country, this special New Year’s ceremony is unique to Uto Shrine and is the only place you can see it in Japan. This is according to Hayakawa Naohiko (family name, first name), a modern day samurai who helped create the ceremony eight years ago and to this day continues to lead it.
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| Just before the ceremony started (Uto Shrine is behind the camera) |
Hayakawa Naohiko (早川尚彦) is one of very few people in Japan that are practicing samurai and experts using tachi (太刀), a specific type of samurai sword preceding the katana and used before the Edo Period. His swords are more than 500 years old but in excellent condition, a testament to the extreme efforts taken to care for them properly by Hayakawa-san and his ancestors. I've personally seen him clean and care for hi swords and it is truly impressive. His full ancestral name followed by samurai rank/class/position in Japanese is 早川久ェ門尉左京亮尚彦, 下総守藤原朝臣清龍. Hayakawa-san explained to me that very few Japanese people can properly read or understand this since it hasn't been used for hundreds of years. I'm planning to do a more in-depth interview with Hayakawa Naohiko-san in the near future and will be dedicating an entire post to him soon.
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| Naohiko Hayakawa, Samurai in Aomori |
The main purpose of the ceremony is to "purify all directions" through a series of rituals. From my conversation with Hayakawa-san, my interpretation is that it's basically meant to be a purification of life's paths and promote peace and happiness in the new year.
The first ritual is called Ten Chi Jou-sha No Gi (天地浄謝の儀), translating to "Purification of Heaven and Earth Ceremony". It involves two shooters using bow and arrow while mounted on horses. One shooter fires an arrow downward into the ground to purify the earth (地, chi) ; a second shooter fires an arrow upward into the air to purify the heavens/sky (天, ten). Shooting at a wooden target, an arrow is also fired in a flat plane. The three arrow shots described above represent a greater overarching concept which I will explain later.
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| Firing a bow to purify the earth |
The next ritual is called Shuku-hō Wo Ageru (祝砲を上げる), translating to "gun salute". This is essentially a celebratory gunshot, not unlike the gun salutes that sometimes take place during ceremonies in other countries. An authentic, ancient Japanese gun is used in the ceremony, but only blanks are fired for obvious safety reasons. Keep in mind that guns are extremely scarce in Japan, so this is an especially rare thing to see in my opinion.
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| Celebratory shot for the new year |
Inside the temple, the third ritual takes place called Shi Ho Kiyome No Gi (四方清めの儀), translating to "Purification of All Directions Ceremony". During this part, Hayakawa-san purifies all cardinal directions (north, east, south, west) with his sword while reciting special phrases.
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| Purifying the four cardinal directions |
In combination, the above rituals have purified all four directions (by sword) and three dimensions (by arrow) of our living world. In the final part of the ceremony, Hayakawa-san reads an original speech from a handwritten scroll in ancient Japanese--which apparently is language most Japanese people cannot even understand fully. The general message of the speech was to reaffirm that all directions of life have been purified now and to wish for peace (heiwa) in the new year.
Following the ceremony several friends and I took a few more photos and talked to Hayakawa-san for a few minutes. The ceremony is really interesting to see and I would recommend everyone to come see it. Hayakawa-san also loves to promote Japanese culture and is always happy to chat about it with anyone, especially foreigners who are interested in it. Try to meet him if you get a chance!
