Sacred Mountains of Buddhism and Shintoism and Whaling Culture in the Kansai-Kinki Regions

Itoh, Mayumi

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-6671-9_6

Sacred Mountains of Buddhism and Shintoism and Whaling Culture in the Kansai-Kinki Regions

Mayumi Itoh²

Chapter
First Online: 06 December 2017

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Abstract

This chapter visits Kumano, in the southern part of the Kansai-Kinki Region (central-western Honshū, which includes Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara), where Japanese classical whaling is said to have originated. The monument made there in 1671 is the oldest existing monument for whales in Japan. Field research highlights internationally known Taiji, which was the center of the Kishū Classical Whaling Base, one of the four major Japanese classical whaling bases. The region is also famous for the “Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range,” registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site. This chapter analyzes how local indigenous beliefs have affected the whaling culture in Taiji.

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Notes

1.
“Kujira bunka: Kujira o tomuratta kujira-baka ⋅ kujira-zuka nado” (Whale Culture: Whale Graves and Monuments to Mourn the Deaths of Whales), http://www.geocities.co.jp/NatureLand-Sky/3011/kujirahaka.html, accessed November 14, 2015.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Ibid.
4.
Ibid.
5.
Ibid.
6.
“Tairyō negau ō-kujira mikoshi” (Giant-Whale Portable Shrine to Pray for a Good Catch), Chūnichi Shimbun, July 15, 2014; Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, ed., Small-Type Coastal Whaling in Japan: Report of an International Workshop, Edmonton, Alberta: Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, the University of Alberta, 1988, 56.
7.
“Nakiri-jinja” (Nakiri Shrine), http://www.geocities.jp/miniuzi0502/jinjadistant/mie/nakiri.html, accessed November 11, 2015.
8.
Ibid.; Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, ed., Kumano no Taiji: Kujira ni idomu machi (Taiji, Kumano: Town That Challenged Whales), Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1965, 20.
9.
Ibid. (both).
10.
Yoshihara Tomokichi, “Kujira no haka” (Graves of Whales), in Tanigawa Ken’ichi, ed., Nihon minzoku bunka shiryō shūsei (Collection of Documents on Japanese Folk Culture), Vol. 18, Tokyo: San’ichi-shobō, 1997, 428.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Ibid., 428–429; “Kujira bunka: Kujira o tomuratta kujira-baka ⋅ kujira-zuka nado.”
13.
Ibid. (both).
14.
Ibid. (both).
15.
Ibid. (both); Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, 56.
16.
Yoshihara, 428–429 and 472–473.
17.
Ibid., 472–473.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Ibid.; Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, 62.
20.
Ibid. (both).
21.
Yoshihara, 429; “Kumano-gaku” (Study of Kumano), October 21, 1012, http://www.city.shingu.lg.jp/div/bunka-1/htm/kumanogaku/article/culturalasset/city/index.html; Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, 56.
22.
Yoshihara, 430.
23.
“Rekishi kaidō” (“Roads to History”), April 23, 2004, http://www.asahi.co.jp/rekishi/04-04-23/01.htm; “Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range,” 2004, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1142
24.
Yoshihara, 429–430.
25.
Ibid.
26.
Ibid., 430.
27.
Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, 33–43, 143–144.
28.
Ibid.
29.
Ibid., 66–70, 187.
30.
Ibid., 71–84, 188–189.
31.
Ibid.
32.
Ibid., 80–82, 188–189; Yoshihara, 435.
33.
Ibid. (both).
34.
Taiji-chōritsu kujira no hakubutsukan, ed., Kujira-bune: Katachi to ishō (Whaleboats: Styles and Designs), Taiji: Taiji Whale Museum, 2011, 35–37, 41–42.
35.
Ibid.
36.
Ibid., 37–38, 40; Sakurai Hayato, author interview, August 16, 2012.
37.
Ibid. (both).
38.
Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, 142–143.
39.
Ibid.
40.
Ibid., 142; Yoshihara, 430–431.
41.
Ibid. (both).
42.
Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, 142–144.
43.
Yoshihara, 431; “Kuyō-hi kara tadoru hogei-bunka” (Whaling Culture Inscribed on Memorial Stones), December 18, 2014, http://www.asahi.com/area/wakayama/articles/MTW20141218310520001.html
44.
Ibid. (both).
45.
Yoshihara, 432; Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, 78–80, “Taiji,” http://www.cypress.ne.jp/taiji/6.html, accessed September 3, 2015.
46.
Ibid. (both).
47.
Taiji-chōritsu kujira no hakubutsukan, 33–36, 41–42; “Kujira-bune: Wazuka na shiryō kara hakkutsu” (Whaleboats: “Excavated” from a Few Existing Documents), Asahi Shimbun, January 8, 2015.
48.
Ibid. (both).
49.
Taiji-chōritsu kujira no hakubutsukan, 36–41; “Kujira-bune: Wazuka na shiryō kara hakkutsu.”
50.
Ibid. (both).
51.
Taiji-chōritsu kujira no hakubutsukan, 36–41; Sakurai, author interview.
52.
Ibid. (both).
53.
Ibid. (both); “Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.”
54.
Sakurai, author interview; Taiji-chōritsu kujira no hakubutsukan, 37–41; “Kujira-bune: Wazuka na shiryō kara hakkutsu.”
55.
“Taiji-chō no rekishi ⋅ bunka o saguru” (To Search for the History and Culture of Taiji Township), http://www.town.taiji.wakayama.jp/kankou/sub_01.html, accessed September 18, 2015; “Nihon no kujira bunka: Kujira to shinkō” (Japanese Whale Culture: Whales and Beliefs), http://www.geocities.co.jp/NatureLand-Sky/3011/kujira-to-sinkou.html, accessed November 23, 2015.
56.
Taiji-chōritsu kujira no hakubutsukan, 33–34, 42; “Kujira-bune: Wazuka na shiryō kara hakkutsu.”
57.
Ibid. (both).
58.
Ibid. (both).
59.
“Kuyō-hi kara tadoru hogei-bunka” (Whaling Culture Inscribed on Memorial Stones), December 18, 2014, http://www.asahi.com/area/wakayama/articles/MTW20141218310520001.html
60.
Yoshihara, 431, Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, 146.
61.
Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, 144–146.
62.
Ibid., 146–155.
63.
“Kujira ni kansha o komete kuyō-sai” (Memorial Service for Whales with Appreciation), Asahi Shimbun, April 30, 2014.
64.
Ibid., Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, 58–59.
65.
Ibid. (both).
66.
“Nihon no kujira bunka: Kujira to shinkō” (Japanese Whale Culture: Whales and Beliefs), http://www.geocities.co.jp/NatureLand-Sky/3011/kujira-to-sinkou.html, accessed November 23, 2015.
67.
Yoshihara, 432; “Kujira bunka: Kujira o tomuratta kujira-baka ⋅ kujira-zuka nado.”
68.
Yoshihara, 432–433; Kumano Taiji-ura hogei-shi hensan-iinkai, 182–183.
69.
Ibid. (both).
70.
Ibid. (both); “Zuikō-ji ⋅ Setsugei-kyō” (Zuikō Temple and Setsugei Bridge), March 16, 2009, http://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/higashiyodogawa/page/0000025984.html
71.
“Zuikō-ji ⋅ Setsugei-kyō.”
72.
“Ine-chō” (Ine Town), http://www.town.ine.kyoto.jp, accessed December 10, 2015.
73.
Yoshihara, 448; “Kujira bunka: Kujira o tomuratta kujira-baka ⋅ kujira-zuka nado.”
74.
Ibid. (both); “Tango no densetsu 45-shū: Kujira-tori” (Folklore Legends in Tango No. 45: Whaling), http://www.geocities.jp/k_saito_site/bunkn45.html, accessed December 10, 2015.
75.
Ibid. (all three).
76.
Yoshihara, 448; “Kujira bunka: Kujira o tomuratta kujira-baka ⋅ kujira-zuka nado.”
77.
Ibid. (both).
78.
Ibid. (both).
79.
Ibid. (both).

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Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Mayumi Itoh

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Itoh, M. (2018). Sacred Mountains of Buddhism and Shintoism and Whaling Culture in the Kansai-Kinki Regions. In: The Japanese Culture of Mourning Whales. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6671-9_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6671-9_6
Published: 06 December 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6670-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6671-9
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