Chapter 114 114 Sunflower Festival

Author: Primular

The last thing we ate last night was indeed soup tofu, but it was unclear who had the original idea and Rina Noki had no idea until the end of the argument.

Because Heiji and Ye seemed to have changed the store they supported after arguing and going off topic. In the end, Conan got tired of shopping and found a store that was nearby and had been mentioned by them. This time they did not argue again, and Rina Noki also

I didn't bother to confirm who supported the store, for fear they would start a fight again.

Today is the Aoi Matsuri, one of the three major festivals in Kyoto. It was originally called the Kamo Matsuri. It is a regular festival of Shimogamo Shrine and Kamigamo Shrine, both belonging to the Kamo clan. Because the palace carriages in the queue and the clothes and hats of the worshippers are decorated

Sunflower leaves have a new name.

The Aoi here refers to the two-leaf Aoi on the Kamo family crest.

Because the Qin family and the Kamo family, who are both local wealthy families, had a close relationship, you can see many sunflower-like decorations at the Matsuo Taisha Shrine that I visited yesterday.

There were a lot of people, which was not enough to make Yonoki Rina comfortable, but there was nothing she could do about it. If she wanted to watch a grand ceremony live, she would have to endure such trouble.

The parade that everyone is watching is actually the process of the emperor's envoy walking from the Imperial Palace to two shrines. Because the ceremony is grand, it has become the choice of everyone to join in the fun and watch.

In The Tale of Genji, there is a plot where Mrs. Hikari Genji competes with Rokujo Gojisho for a good seat to watch the excitement. It can be seen that this part of the festival was favored by the nobles during the Heian period.

So Yonoki Rina decided to endure it and join in the fun.

Today's Aoi Matsuri procession will still be dressed up like the Heian period, with the Emperor's envoy's motorcade in the front and Saiodai's motorcade behind.

Nowadays, the actual imperial emissary does not participate in the processions on the road. This role is played by the imperial emissary.

Saio refers to unmarried royal women who go to serve the gods. This custom has been discontinued since the Kamakura period. In order to restore the excitement of the Aoi Festival, in modern times, citizens elected a replacement for Saio, the Saio generation, which is composed of many women.

The Saio Dairei was also restored.

A procession of women wearing various Heian period palace costumes walked past, adding more ornamental value to the entire procession.

For example, in carnival parades across Germany, citizens will vote for the roles of princes and princesses locally.

During the carnival activities that continue from November to February, the selected princes and princesses always have to participate in countless celebrations, because the locals regard being able to invite them as lucky and auspicious.

Saio Dai wore a gorgeous trousers in the procession of the Aoi Festival, and was carried forward slowly on a waist carriage.

Saioudai's appearance can't be seen clearly in the sedan chair, but the pale white powder applied in the antique style can still be seen.

You don’t need to look at Saio Dai, just look at the little girls who are also following the team and wearing colorful clothes, and they are all painted pale and retro, and you know that everyone must be treated this way.

Considering how cute the children are, this kind of makeup is not bad. The younger girls wearing powder walking in the queue are pretty good-looking, but the faces of the older ones don’t look smooth.

It's a bit troublesome and not very nice.

In fact, based on the guesswork of China in the Heian Era, I always feel that Japanese men at that time might also apply powder. Fortunately, the men in the procession did not have enough powder, because there were many elderly people in Honrili where the envoy was, and the parade was

It seems that the men here are not selective about their appearance. If they put on powder, the entire parade would look like a ghost in broad daylight.

The huge palace chariot in the procession was pulled by oxen, but it looked too big, and I felt that it was not a burden that an ox should bear. Judging from the load, the occasional gesture of helping the attendants accompanying the chariot might not be all a show.

Of course, people wearing complicated clothes and holding romantic umbrellas decorated with flowers don't look like they can move easily.

Even Saioudai, who doesn't need to walk, doesn't know if it will be so hot that he will fall off his pinky skin in May when he can just wear a thin coat and go out.

Rina Yonoki thinks so much because she is obviously a little tired from standing. The team of 500 people does not move very slowly. The total length is only one kilometer. It is larger than the Cologne Carnival and not as crowded as the Cologne Carnival.

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But they still had to find a spot in advance where they could see the parade. By the time the parade passed through the street where they were, it was almost lunch time.

But they were not in a hurry to have lunch. It was a bit hot from the sun, so they went to eat some ice cream first.

Order a matcha parfait, which includes matcha jelly, matcha ice, matcha cake, and piles of matcha ice cream on top. You can eat it all in one serving.

If you don’t eat matcha, Kyoto’s soy milk ice cream is also delicious.

Of course, adults have to choose.

After eating a bunch of ice-cold desserts, we walked through the unique alleys of Gion. Since we were going back in the afternoon, we headed south along the Kamogawa River towards Kyoto Station.

From Shijo, Gojo and then to Rojo-Shichijo, there are two brother temples, Higashi Honganji and Nishi Honganji, which occupy a vast area in the city center.

The Honganji sect does not have a particularly long history, but because it is very close to the people, it is now the sect with the largest number of believers in Japanese Buddhism.

The original Japanese Buddhism followed the upper-class route, and the monks and nuns in the Nara period were even members of the bureaucratic organization.

In order to weaken the influence of Buddhism, when the capital was moved to Heian-kyo, the emperor quickly supported New Buddhism there to fight against the sects in Nara.

But at this time, Buddhism still served the upper class more, and even fooled the Fujiwara family into building the magnificent Byodo-in Phoenix Hall.

When the nobles of the Heian period spent almost all their money on building temples, and the country was in a mess, the new sect began to take a more pro-people approach.

Honganji Temple is one of the examples. First of all, the founder of their Jodo Shinshu sect put forward the theory of "evil people's good fortune", that is, if you do evil, it will be okay. If you believe in Buddhism, Buddha will save you and go to the Paradise of Paradise.

The original vows in Honganji Temple refer to the forty-eight vows of Amitabha. They especially promote the eighteenth vow, "The vow of ten thoughts in this life." It says, "Even if ten thoughts are not born, one will not achieve enlightenment." This can be generally understood as:

, People who are devout believers in Buddhism can be reborn in the Pure Land, otherwise Amitabha Buddha will not be able to reach the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss.

As a standard of piety, the ten chants here are also very easy to implement. There is no need to build a grand building like the Byodo-in Phoenix Hall to show respect for the Buddha, or even to recite complicated scriptures. All that is needed is to repeat "Namo Amitabha" one after another.

Because one thought means chanting the name of the Buddha in one breath without any distractions until the breath is exhausted, and ten thoughts means chanting ten breaths continuously without any distracting thoughts. As long as you do it without any delusions, you can become a Buddha. It can be said that you can no longer be close to the people, even if you are

Illiterate poor people can do it even if they work hard, how can Jodo Shinshu not be powerful?

Jodo Shinshu was the only sect before the Meiji Restoration that could marry a wife and have children. The status of the sect leader was also inherited by the son after the death of the father, so that there would be endless generations of descendants, which was also a kind of strength.

Of course, the main reason is that the Pure Land sect's practice method of chanting the Buddha's name to go to the Paradise is so close to the people. Among the monks in China who have to eat normally and take the precepts, the Pure Land sect is still the mainstream.

Introduction to Aoi Matsuri

2023 Aoi Festival
Chapter completed!