Gods are absent (kami no rusu)
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Gods are absent (kami no rusu)
***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Early Winter
***** Category: Season
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Explanation
The tenth lunar month (now November), after the harvest when the Japanese gods had done their duty, they left their local shrines for a bit of a vacation. They would all go for an audience and to celebrate at the great shrine of Izumo, so the rest of Japan was "without gods".
There are various kigo related to this important event.
"gods-absent month", 10th lunar month,
kannazuki, kaminazuki 神無月 かんなづき
"gods-present month", month with the gods
kamiarizuki 神有月
This kigo could only be used in IZUMO itself, where the gods were present.
the gods are absent, kami no rusu 神の留守
the gods are travelling, kami no tabi 神の旅
saying good bye to the gods, sending off the gods
..... kami okuri 神送り
welcoming the gods, greeting the gods
..... kami mukae 神迎
This kigo could only be used in IZUMO itself, where the gods were arriving.
During this month, various taboos were observed all over Japan, after all, the protective deities were all away ! And in Izumo, they would be feasting and celebrating with the boss, so to speak. Okuni-Nushi no Mikoto (ookuninushi) 大国主命 was the most important deity, revered at the grand shrine of Izumo, Izumo Taisha 出雲大社.
Okuni-Nushi is also known as the god of happiness and marriage. In this respect, he is equivalent to the Buddhist Deity of Daikoku-Sama 大黒、大国.
The shrine compound is most serene, settled in a forest of old pines. Close by is Hino Misaki 日の岬, with a view to the sacred island where the god stood when he fished for the Japanese Islands in the sea, as the legend goes.
I visited the area a while ago and the strong impression of the actual presence of the deities is still with me.
Gabi Greve
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Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道
Gabi Greve
The Asian Lunar Calendar. Reference
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The great shrine at Izumo, where the Gods are celebrating
出雲大社
Click on the PHOTO to look at more !
External LINKs
Shimane and its Important Shrines
Great Shrine at Izumo, Izumo Oyashiro
Japanese Homepage 日本語
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Worldwide use
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Things found on the way
Koya San in Wakayama 高野山 和歌山県
By Gabi Greve
See the Haiku below.
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HAIKU
さをしかや 神の留守事 寝て遊ぶ
saoshika ya kami no rusu koto nete asobu
young buck--
while the gods are away
sleeping and carousing
Tr. David Lanoue
Haiga by Nakamura Sakuo
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ranto no torii ya ge ni mo kannazuki
passing the torii gate
made of grave stones
Month without Gods
Kikaku
Another Haiku stone I found on Mt Koya.
This one is difficult to explain. The general meaning is: although there are torii gates (a symbol of Shinto shrines) in front of the graves, they have been built of grave stones, and on top of that, Mt Koya is the territory of the Buddha, there are no Japanese native deities here. And that beautifully fits the fact that the author, Kikaku, makes his visit to the mountain in October, the month which was called Kannazuki, or the Month without Gods. In short, this haiku is a crafty play on words.
From a great BLOG about Haiku Stones:
Copyright Ad G. Blankestijn, 2006. All rights reserved
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Related words
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Please send your contributions to Gabi Greve
worldkigo .....
Back to the Worldkigo Index
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/
posted by Gabi Greve @ 7/15/2005
7 Comments:
How timely, Gabi san!
I was reading earlier this evening, a tanka written by Monk Noin (988 - 1050), that refers to Izumo:
kannazuki/nezame ni kikeba/ yamazato no/ arashi no koe wa/ ko no ha narikeri
In the Godless Month
I wake at night and listen
to what gives voice
to a storm on this hillside . . .
the sound of falling leaves
translated by Steven D. Carter
Says Dr. Carter:
"The Godless Month is an "ancient name for the tenth month of the lunar calendar; derived from an ancient belief that the gods left their normal shrines during that period to gather at Izumo, site of an ancient shrine dedicated to the diety, Okuninushi."
Thanks as always for your sharing of Japanese culture.
robert wilson
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cherrypoetryclub/message/29232
Thank you, Gabi san
for the pictures and sharing the spirit of the place.
Michele
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cherrypoetryclub/message/29234
Gabi,
Thanks for this information, it is facinating. Imagine a form of worship where the gods get the month off to vacation!
S. from America !
kami-gami no rusu sentaku ya kyoomo ame
trying to do my laundry
while the gods are away...
another day of rain
Issa, tr. David G. Lanoue
A note says:
Shinji Ogawa notes that Issa is playing with the idiomatic
expression, oni no inain ma no sentaku ("laundering while the devil's away" => "when the cat's away, the mice will play"). Issa
substitutes "the gods" for "the devil."
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rusu no ma ni aretaru kami no ochiba kana
the gods gone
everything desolate among
the dead leaves
Basho (Tr. David Barnhill)
Barnhill says of this haiku:
"This hokku has been read symbolically to reflect Basho's long absence from Edo and his disciples there."
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Zendera ni matsuno ochiba ya kannazuki
In the Zen temple,
Pine needles are falling;
The god-less month.
Bonchoo, tr. Blyth
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entei no ikari ni waga no kami midare
in the fire god's
anger my hair gets
all tangled up
Yasushi Ueno, tr. Higginson, from "Haiku World" under "Summer--the Season"
Compiled by Larry Bole
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black kites reeling
reeling in the sky...
the gods depart
tobi hyoro-hyooro kami no o-tachigena
.鳶ひょろひひょろ神の御立げな
by Issa, 1815
According to Shinto belief, in Tenth Month all of Japan's gods vacate their shrines to congregate at the Izumo-Taisha Shrine. The "black kite" in the scene (tobi) is a bird, not the paper kind. R. H. Blyth believes that the phrase, hyoro-hyooro ("staggeringly," "reelingly"), is an onomatopoeic representation of the birds' cry, which resembles the "piercing, melancholy sound" of ceremonial flutes; A History of Haiku (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1964) 1.382. For this reason, he doesn't translate it (1.381).
The ending gena is the equivalent of rashii or yooda in modern Japanese; it denotes a presumption or estimation. See Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 567. Therefore, a more literal but wordy translation of the final phrase would be: "the gods are departing, it seems."
Tr. David Lanoue
http://cat.xula.edu/issa/
The verse above is the hokku of a famous renku composed by Issa and Ippyō (Ippyō was the priest of Hongyōji, a temple located near Nippori in Edo.
From Scot Hislop's commentary to the han-kasen:
鳶（とび）ひよろひひよろ神も御立（おたち）げな
the kite p-peeps, p-p-peeps
the gods too,
seem to be getting ready to depart
Tobi, or kite, is raptor that lives in cities and by the sea and feeds mostly on small dead animals. It was also slang for those without steady jobs and for dilettantes and gamblers. Perhaps Issa is referring to himself.
The kigo (seasonal word) is kami no tabidachi which refers to the 10th month when the gods travel to Izumo. This hokku does not have a formal kireji (cutting word) in it but there is a natural pause after “ひよろひひよろ” which has been “translated” as a line-break here.
Maruyama (in Maruyama Kazuhiko, Issa to sono shūhen, Tokyo: Kashinsha, 2000) writes that the kites can be seen as providing the music for the gods who are getting ready to travel and that the “nursery tale style of expression and the colloquial style of the last phrase are interesting.”
Norman Darlington
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/translatinghaiku/message/1837
stormclouds ...
a curtain of rain
hides the gods
thunder ...
yet I do not hear
the gods
in the sky
nameless gods
but then
the strong earth
the straight tree
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