kazu2000のブログ / 社寺仏閣巡り

神社が好きで関西を中心に廻っています。kazu1000のブログ記事が満杯になりましたので、このkazu2000より引き続き投稿致します。

【日本神話に見る日本人の和の心】Japanese hearts of ”WA" seen in Japanese mythology

現在、全国の神社数は約8万社と言われています。実際には宗教法人格をもっていない神社もあり、これらの神社は除かれます。また、神道協会という形態もあり、全国の性格な神社数はわからないのが現状です。


神社は、祈りや人生儀礼を通じて絆を深める場所であり、都会の中においては「鎮守の杜」という自然を持ち、連綿と続く日本の伝統を次世代へ伝える「生きたタイムカプセル」です。人々との絆の尊さ、自然への畏れ、地域に根付いた伝統文化の大切さに気づかせてくれます。神社は、「絆」「自然」「伝統」を育む変らない存在として、これらの大切さを伝えていかなくてはならないな場所です。




日本神話に見る日本人の和の心



日本は古来から「大和(やまと)の国」と言われてきました。また日本人は「和(わ)」を重んじる国民であると見られています。こうした「和のこころ」は日本の神話の中に見出すことができます。



日本神話、特に「古事記(こじき)」の中には、このように記されています。アマテラス大御神(天照大御神)の子孫であるニニギ命(天津日高日子番能邇邇芸命)が、この国・豊葦原中国(とよあしはらなかつくに)を治めるため「天孫降臨」する前に、この国はオオクニヌシ神(大国主神)が治めていたことが記されています。




オオクニヌシ神とは、アマテラス大御神の弟神で八岐大蛇を退治したスサノヲ命(須佐之男命)の子孫です。子供頃に聞いた昔話の「因幡の素兎(いなばのしろうさぎ)」の物語の主人公でもあります。



オオクニヌシ神が治める国は、「豊葦原葦原中国(とよあしはらなかつくに)」とか「豊葦原瑞穂国(とよあしはらみずほのくに)」と呼ばれ、神代には大変に豊かな国でした。アマテラス大御神は、この国は自分の子孫であるニニギ命が治めるべきだと考え、オオクニヌシ神に国を譲るよう求めます。子供の反対はあったもののオオクニヌシ神はこれに従い、立派な宮殿の建設と引き換えに「国譲り」を承諾します。この日本の国の起源を伝える物語に、戦って奪い取るのではなく話し合いによって解決しようとする日本人の「和」の精神を見ることができるのです。



アマテラス大御神は、話し合いによる「国譲り」を交渉し、まずはタケミカズチ神(建御雷神)とアメノトリフネ神(天鳥船神)を遣わします。この申し出に対し、オオクニヌシ神(大国主神)は「私の一存では決めらぬ。子のコトシロヌシ命(事代主命)に聞いてくれ」と言います。父であるオオクニヌシ神(大国主神)は一人で物事を決めずに、子たちの意見を尊重しようとします。




コトシロヌシ命(事代主命)は、国譲りを承諾します(船を踏み傾け、手を逆さに打って青柴垣に変えて、その中に隠れます)。しかし、もう一人の子であるタケミナカタ命(建御名方命)は反対し、タケミカズチ神(建御雷神)に力比べを挑みます。結局、タケミナカタ命(建御名方命)は信濃国の諏訪湖まで逃げたところで敗れ、国譲りに同意します。





子たちが同意したと聞いたオオクニヌシ神は、「二人の子供たちが天津神に従うのなら、私もこの国を天津神に譲ろう。その代わり、私の住む所として、天の御子が住むのと同じくらい大きな宮殿を建ててほしい。私の百八十神(ももやそがみ)たちは、コトシロヌシ命に従って天津神に背かないだろう」と言い、「国譲り」は行われました。



このように争いではなく、先住の神からの「国譲り」は、話し合いを基に行われ、一部争い事はありましたが、互いの合意という形で国譲りが行われたと物語っています。単なる国を併合するのではなく、国を譲り受けた側が譲った側に対し、最高の礼を尽くしています。アマテラス大御神は、アメノヒスミノミヤ(天日隅宮)という大きな宮殿を造り、アマテラス大御神の子であるアメノホヒ命(天穂日命)を大国主命の霊に祀らせます。この宮殿が杵築大社、今の出雲大社の起源だと言われています。そして天穂日命の子孫は、今も出雲大社の宮司の職を継承しています。





この神話の物語は、明治維新の歴史的事実と似ている所があります。幕末の日本、西欧列強が日本に開国を迫る時代に、朝廷と幕府は争いを避け、交渉を重ねた末に、幕府の徳川慶喜は朝廷に大政を奉還します。慶喜はこのことを一人で判断するのではなく、家臣や諸大名の意見を聞いたうえで決定します。そして薩摩藩の西郷隆盛と幕臣の勝海舟が話し合い、江戸城は無血で開城され、日本国の権力の移譲は行われます。



徳川慶喜は、後に明治天皇から貴族に叙され、徳川家は名誉ある形で存続しています。また初代将軍・徳川家康を祀った日光東照宮は潰されることもなく、今日も大切にされています。こうした日本神話の物語や歴史を見ると、そこに日本人の考え方が現れています。



日本人は神代から「和」が重んじられてきた民族だったのです。私たち日本人は世界にも類を見ない「和」の精神を貴び生きてきた人たちなのです。私たちのこうした精神には、世界の平和を祈り調和を重んじる和の心が込められているのです。









【阪本研究所 SK laboratory】
  代表 Kazuyoshi Sakamoto
  kazuyoshi.sakamoto10000@gmail.com
  https://kazuyoshi10000.wixsite.com/kazu1000



The Shintō pantheon of kami 神 (spirits)



The Shintō pantheon of kami 神 (spirits) includes countless deities and innumerable supernatural creatures. The term KAMI can refer to gods, goddesses, ancestors, and all variety of spirits that inhabit the water, rocks, trees, grass, and other natural objects. These objects are not symbols of the spirits. Rather, they are the abodes in which the spirits reside. The abode of the kami is considered sacred and is usually encircled with a shimenawa (rope festooned with sacred white paper). The Japanese believe this world is inhabited by these myriad kami -- spirits that can do either good or evil. These spirits are constantly increasing in number, as expressed in the Japanese phrase Yaoyorozu no Kami 八百万神 -- literally "the eight million kami." 



◆Kami


Kami (神) are the spirits or phenomena that are worshipped in the religion of Shinto. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, as well as beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the spirits of venerated dead persons. Many kami are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans (some ancestors became kami upon their death if they were able to embody the values and virtues of kami in life). Traditionally, great or sensational leaders like the Emperor could be or became kami.


In Shinto, kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of musubi (結び), the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. Kami are believed to be "hidden" from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own: shinkai (神界, "the world of the kami").
 To be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of kannagara no michi (随神の道 or 惟神の道, "the way of the kami").



Major Japanese Kami (gods)


◆Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami (天照大神 or 天照大御神)
 Commonly called Amaterasu, she is the goddess of the sun as well as the purported ancestress of the Imperial Household of Japan. Her full name means "Great Goddess" or "Great Spirit Who Shines in the Heavens"; she may also be referred to as Ōhiru-menomuchi-no-kami (大日孁貴神). For many reasons, one among them being her ties to the Imperial family, she is often considered (though not officially) to be the "primary god" of Shinto.


◆Ame-no-Uzume (天宇受売命 or 天鈿女命) 
Commonly called Uzume, she is the goddess of dawn and revelry, instrumental to the "missing sun motif" in Shinto.[citation needed] She is also known as The Great Persuader and The Heavenly Alarming Female.


◆Fūjin (風神)
 Also known as Kami-no-Kaze, he is the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods, said to have been present at the creation of the world. He is often depicted as an oni with a bag slung over his back.


◆Hachiman (八幡神) 
Also known as Hachiman-shin or Yawata no Kami, he is the god of war and the divine protector of Japan and its people. Originally an agricultural deity, he later became the guardian of the Minamoto clan. His symbolic animal and messenger is the dove.


◆Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神) 
The god or goddess of rice and fertility. Their messengers and symbolic animal are foxes. They are often identified with the Ukanomitama and Buddhist deity Dakiniten.


◆Izanagi (伊弊諾 or 伊邪那岐) 
The forefather of the gods, he is the first male as well as the god of creation and life. He and his wife, Izanami, were responsible for the birth of the islands of Japan and many kami, though she died in childbirth. Later, after his failed attempt to retrieve her from the underworld, he sired Amaterasu, Susanoo and Tsukuyomi.


◆Izanami (伊弉冉 or 伊邪那美) 
Izanagi's wife and sister, she is the first female as well as the goddess of creation and death. She died shortly after the birth of Kagu-tsuchi, and Izanagi followed her to the underworld, but failed to bring her back to the living world. A marital spat between the pair caused the cycle of life and death for all living beings.


◆Kuninotokotachi (国之常立神, Kuninotokotachi-no-Kami, in Kojiki)
(国常立尊, Kuninotokotachi-no-Mikoto, in Nihonshoki) is one of the two gods born from "something like a reed that arose from the soil" when the earth was chaotic. In the Nihon Shoki, he is the first of the first three divinities born after heaven and earth were born out of chaos, and is born from something looking like a reed-shoot growing between heaven and earth. He is known by mythology to reside on top of Mount Fuji (富士山). Kuninotokotachi is described as a hitorigami and genderless in Kojiki, while as a male god in Nihon Shoki. Yoshida Kanetomo, the founder of the Yoshida Shintō sect, identified Kuninotokotachi with Amenominakanushi and regarded him as the primordial god of the Universe.


◆Ninigi-no-Mikoto (瓊瓊杵尊) 
Commonly called Ninigi, he was the grandson of Amaterasu. His great-grandson was Kan'yamato Iwarebiko, later to be known as Emperor Jimmu, first emperor of Japan.


◆Ōkuninushi (大国主) 
A god of nation-building, farming, business, and medicine.


◆Omoikane (思兼) 
The deity of wisdom and intelligence, who is always called upon to "ponder" and give good counsel in the deliberations of the heavenly deities.


◆Raijin (雷神) 
Commonly called Raiden (雷電), he is the god of thunder and lightning, and is often paired with Fūjin. As with the latter, Raijin is usually depicted as an oni.


◆Ryūjin (龍神) 
Also known as Ōwatatsumi, he is a dragon, as well as god of the sea. He resides in Ryūgū-jō, his palace under the sea built out of red and white coral, from where he controls the tides with magical tide jewels. His great-grandson would become Emperor Jimmu.


◆Suijin (水神) 
The God of Water.


◆Susanoo-no-Mikoto (須佐之男尊) 
Alternately romanized as Susano-o, Susa-no-o, and Susanowo. Reportedly called "Futsushi". He is the god of storms as well as in some cases the god of the sea. He is also somewhat of a trickster god, as Japanese mythology extensively documents the "sibling rivalry" between him and Amaterasu. Susanoo also was responsible for the slaying of the monster Yamata no Orochi and the subsequent discovery of the sacred sword Kusanagi.


◆Tenjin (天神) 
The god of scholarship, he is the deified Sugawara no Michizane (845–c903), who was elevated to his position after dying in exile. Subsequent disasters in Heiankyo were attributed to his angered spirit.