Introduction
Mitama is a sprit of the deceased. Ancient people thought it caused natural disasters and epidemics. In this post, I’ll show you how people managed them in order to accomplish to the peace. 合掌
Nature, Kami, and Tatari 自然の背後の神とその祟り
As stated in this post, our ancestors admired Kami behind nature. When people suffered from natural disasters, famines, epidemics and so on, they thought the cause of them are Tatari (祟り) of Kami.
Tatari is misfortunes or bad incidents brought by Kami in anger and irritation. They are angry with many reasons. To calm them down, people held Matsuri.
For example, Aoi Matsuri was originally held due to the natural disasters. They found Kaomo no Ohkami was irritated due to mal-practiced rituals and ceremonies.
The faith of Goryo 御霊信仰
御霊 (Goryo) is also pronounced as Mitama. 御 is a prefix indicates respect and 霊 is a sprit. Ancient people thought that once we died, our spirit left our body. They believed the spirit of the deceased stay near her descendants to save them from misfortune forever.
This is the most important and fundamental thing to understand the faith of Goryo. When we die, our sprit leaves our body and we become a guardian of our descendants. This idea also is a foundation of Gozan Okuribi.
Around the 8th century, a centralized government was established and many political conflicts happened in the developing society. People started to think that the cause of the natural disasters are Tatari (祟り) of the Goryo (Mitama) of the victims of these conflicts.
This time, Tatari is brought by the person passed away in the conflict with great resentment.
People thought their Tatari brought disasters as…a kind of vendetta.
To get rid of Tatari, the cause of disasters, people tried to calm Goryo (Mitama) down half in fear, half in respect. This is the fatih of Goryo.
Half in fear, half in respect. This attitude is called Ifu (畏怖). In a nutshell, people thought they are the same as Kami.
Goryo-e 御霊会
Goryo-e is Buddhist ritual held in order to calm Goryo(Mitama) down and get rid of it. People entertained Mitama with the Sutras and performances and sent it to a far-out place.
This time the aim is to get rid of Mitama. As I tell you later, people started to enshrine it as Kami.
In early days, it seemed some private Goryo-e took place. The first official and recorded one is Shinsen-en Goryo-e in 863 stated in Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku(『日本三大実録』), the history book in the 10th century. The archipelago suffered from the epidemic and the imperial court find the cause of the Tatari of the politically ousted six persons. The most famous one is Sawara Shinoh. He is a brother of emperor Kanmu and ousted from the Imperial Court on the suspicion of the involvement of the assassination of an court noble. He was starved on the way to the penal place.
The Goryo-e of 863 is extraordinary important:
- Shnbutsu Shugo, the fusion of Shinto and Buddhism, was matured because there is idea of Tatari belong to Shinto, not Buddhism. And they tried to get rid of it by Goryo-e, the Buddhist ceremony.
- The ritual privately took place became the one carried by the Imperial court. Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku describes that the Golden Light Sutra was dedicated. The sutra was the one for the safety of a country. For example, it was dedicated in the ceremony commemorate the construction of The Great Buddha of Nara which was constructed in order to get rid of the epidemics and natural disasters from the country.
- It gave birth to The faith of Gion. In the faith, people thought Gozu Tenno caused epidemics and natural disasters. This time, Ekijin, the Kami who causes epidemics, came from outside of the community was added to the cause of Tatari. In the Goryo-e in 869 was held to calm down his Tatari. This faith is still alive because Gion Matsuri take places on it every year.
Let me explain about #3. In ancient times. people thought when petals of flower fall off in early spring, they bring epidemics to the community and they came from the outside of it. As a prevention, they held ceremonies at the border. As time passed, they found the cause was Ekjin, instead of the petals.
Sugarawa no Michizane, the most feared Goryo 菅原道真公
The most famous Goryo is the one of Sugawara no Michizane (菅原道真) enshrined in Tikano Tenmangu shrine. He is one of the most prominent court nobles. His clan was ranked low in the aristocracy but emperor Uda gave him one of the most important post in the Imperial court due to his highly-evaluated achievement. Fujiwara no Tokihira who belonged to the most prosperous clan at the time lied to the emperor for the purpose of ousting him of the Imperial court. Michizane was sent to Dazaifu in Fukuoka prefecture and starved there.
Some years later, weird things happened:
- Since his death, Japan suffered from natural disasters and epidemics every year.
- Tokihira passed away all of a sudden. When he was dying, Buddhist ritual took place to heal him (The popular way to get rid of illness at that time). The phantom of Michizane appeared from Tokihira’s ear and tried to stop the ritual.
- Tokihira’s sister was a spouse of Emperor Daigo. Their son passed away young all of a sudden.
- Seiryoden was struck and burned out by the lightening. Seiryoden was a place where emperor lives in the Imperial Court. Due to the fire, many court nobles and aristocrats died. Emperor Digo shocked to death.
People rumored the cause of these incident was the Tatari of Michizane. The Imperial Court decided to enshrine the Mitama of Michizane in Kitano Tenmangu shrine as Kami.
There is an idea behind that. The Mitama of Michizane makes them suffer with the enormous power. The Imperial Court took advantage of it to save our country.
As I told you previously, First, people got rid of Mitama. Next, they enshrined them.
Summery
Mitama is a sprit of the deceased. Ancient people thought it caused natural disasters and epidemics. First, they held Goryo-e in order to get rid of it. As time passed by, they started to enshrine it to save them from these disasters taking advantage of its enormous power. 合掌
