Mount Miwa
The Miwa
The 467 m high Miwa (Japanese三轮 山, Miwa -yama, rare: Miwa no yama ), (, -yama三 诸山) also called Mimoro, applies in Shintoism as the holiest mountain in Japan.
Topography
The Miwa located in the northeast of the city of Sakurai in Nara prefecture in the southern Japanese island of Honshu. He is heavily forested and rises to 467 m little about the location at about 70 m height densely populated Nara level in its west. In the east, wooded hill country stretches.
Spiritual Meaning
Unlike other sacred mountains of Japan, are revered as the seat of a deity or due to a different relationship with religious themes, the Miwa -no- yama is considered sacred as per se. Therefore has the Ō- Miwa -jinja (大 神 神社), a Shinto shrine from the Edo period to the worship of Miwa at the western foot of the hill, not as usual the most Holy (本 殿, dogs, literally " main building " ): The Holy of Holies is here that the mountain itself
History of Miwa - worship
The oldest sacral buildings on Miwa are three rings of boulders ( iwa - kura, " cliff dwellings " ), which surround the hill. Your age and their significance are unknown. The Miwa is already in the year 712 in the Kojiki, the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, mentioned in connection with the mountain deity Ōmononushi. It is believed that the name of the mountain of Ō- miwa derived (大 神, dt " Great Deity " ) with reference to Ōmononushi. Another interpretation refers to a folk tale, after the Miwa a white snake lives in the form of a young man's lover of a princess was once, in the morning, but always disappeared. To learn his identity, the girl stuck a needle with a thread on his clothes and followed him. When she saw the snake, she took her own life and is since then at the foot of Miwa ( where actually Kofun burial mounds dating from the 5th century are ) to be buried. The name of the mountain is now recognized as the three (mi) turns ( wa) understood twine that were still left at the end of the persecution. The mythical serpent be sacrificed nor boiled eggs at the shrine today, their vision is to promise lifelong happiness.
To the God Ōmononushi still entwines another the Miwa concerned Sage, according to Ōmononushi from Tennō urged the building of a sanctuary here. Priest of this shrine was Ōtataneko (大田 田根子), son Ōmononushis with a human mother, and occupation Sakebrauer. To date, the Miwa is therefore an important pilgrimage site Sakebrauer. The unfinished sake, which is used as a sacrifice is called Miwa.
Also a poem by Nukata no Okimi from the poetry collection Man'yōshū ( 8th century ) is dedicated to the mountain:
「三轮 山 乎 然 毛 隠 贺 云 谷 裳 情 有 南 亩 可 苦 佐布 倍 思 哉」
" Miwa -yama where / shikamo kakusu ka / kumodani mo / kokoro aranamo / kakusahu Beshi ya"
" The Miwa - mountain itself / will you hide? / Do not even let the skies a heart / how can it then bring her over you / to cover it? "
Access to the mountain is regulated by religious rules that have changed the course of history several times. Until the Edo period (1603-1868) it was only permitted if certain reasons, during the Edo period totally banned. Since the end of the Meiji period in 1912 climbs are both allowed, but subject to conditions such as the completion of purification rites and wearing a white sash ( Tasuki ). The stay on the mountain, which is often used for meditation, is still limited to three hours, the path must not leave and a certain saint District will not enter.
In Mishima Yukio's novel Runaway Horses (奔马, Homba ) Miwa plays an important role.