The history of Yuanshan
The history of Yuanshan ~~ The shrine and life
The shrine introduction
The shrine beliefs does not require rite for joining in, Japanese shrine beliefs is based on that all things exited with spirits, and to worship things with spirit. All things includes high mountain, big tree, strange stone, water falls, ocean, farm land, sun, fire, thunder, all kind of animals and spirit of ancestors, all can become a worship object, therefore, there is a saying of “eight million spirits” for Japanese Shintoism.
People go to the shrine, usually at first go near the pond in front of the shrine, use a long-handled wooden spoon to clean hands, then approach in front of the benediction hall which has roof ridge with both ends tilted upward, and drop some small changes into a donation box which has fixed wooden bars on top, then clap hands a few times, then further clasp hands to pray. Some benediction hall provided with thick hemp rope tied to wind bells, if the worshipper make a few shake to the rope will make sounds from the wind bells. In the benediction hall, there are no visible worshipped object, no picture nor statue of gods and no spirit tablet.
The Japanese shrine is similar to our temple, only that there is no bodhisattva with golden colored dressing, no burning incent from joss sticks and candles. The shrine is the worship center for Shintoism, and spiritual totem of Japanese. The main object of worship is the goddess of the sun, the main god, on the other hand, plus all things in the nature and all kinds of spirits. Establishing shrines for people to worship, is an important part of promoting national Shintoism, with emphasizing royalty and rendering service to the emperor and country.
During the New Year days, Japanese will make a visit to the shrine, through donation, pray and divination, wish for good luck in the coming new year. In the important moments, like matching date, examinations, pregnancy, Japanese will go visit the shrine to buy corresponding amulet to ensure safety and peace.
I. Education
The shrine is a tool for ideological education in Japan, sufficiently presented in the process of national education. Starting from primary school education, in the beginning of each semester, the students will be led by teachers, go all the way to the shrine as the opening ceremony.
At the beginning of each morning rally, paying respect to imperial shrine always comes first, there is regular rite every month for benediction ceremony. In the living education of schools, also include works of service to shrine, in each week, students in each grade will take turns to clean internal and external environment of the shrine, and take cultivation posts in the campus for serving the spirits.
In addition, in each semester, each school will conduct discipline learning travel, students will be brought to various shrine for practice. Taiwan Shrine, located in Yuanshan, had been the most welcome visiting spot, in the discipline learning travels.
II. Marriage
At that time, Japanese government had been promoting a series of religion policy, in addition to encouraging Taiwan people to visit the shrine, meanwhile, encouraging young people to have wedding ceremony in the shrine, in a traditional Japanese style rite, therefore, some people of new wedding would choose to conduct wedding ceremony in the shrine, and had the monks of the shrine to preside over the holly wedding ceremony.
III. Divination
In Japanese shrine, there is a fortune-telling box, by dropping in certain amount of coins, a neatly folded piece of paper will pop out, when it is opened, it will show the overall fate for the person made the draw. There is a wooden plaque to be bought for making wish come true, Japanese called that wooden plaque as “cypress”. In the ancient Japan, there was a custom of sacrifice living horse to the worshiping god, the horse was called sacred horse, then it was changed to wooden horse, then wooden horse further became cypress horse.
