! Haiku and Happiness ! (02)

1/07/2008

Frosty morning

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frosty morning -
sipping hot tea
sipping happiness

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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008

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1/05/2008

First Shrine Visit

　　　　

初詣

first shrine visit -
two beauties sourrounded
by their beaux

first shrine visit -
the smell of incense
in our hair

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Join me here on my visit with a slide show:
(Take your time to visit ...)

. . . . . First Shrine Visit 2008 / Photo Album

Fox Shrine Saijo Inari, about one hours drive from my home
It is a mix of Shinto worship and main temple of the Buddhst Nichiren Sect.

We visited on January 4, just right between the first three day crowds and the next sunday crowds. Even though, just to get a parking space took about 45 minutes waiting in line. And the special fee for the parking spot was just ... well ...

The blend of Buddhist and Shinto worship is remarkable here. Everyone takes incence and puts a stick in front of each of the many small memorial shrines. Some throw coins on the roofs of two smaller shrines and if the coin does not fall down, they will have good money luck in the coming year.

O-Negai Yokocho

All kinds of talismans and lucky charms for any kind of endeavor are sold here. During the new year celebrations, there is even a special shopping mall for this.

The big sacred rope of the shrine (shimenawa) is renewed every year. Look at it in the album.

The weather was warm to start with but turned rainy by the time we left ...
Yet, in the end at our local Hachiman Shrine I found a rather special present waiting for me, hanging in the bark of my favorite cedar tree ... look at the last photo in the album.

And the car smelled of incense all the way back home !

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Saijo Inari Shrine
is one of the three most famous Inari shrines in the country, and is a noted Buddhist shrine for prayer. The shrine is located in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, a city famous for its picturesque views of the Kibi Plains.

The shrine was built around 1200 years ago by Houon Daishi. The main building of the shrine suffered losses from fire when Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked the Bichuu Takamatsu Castle during the Warring States period. Yet, since the patron deity of the shrine was hidden under the building in a secret compartment 8 tatamis large, and covered by rock slabs, it was kept safe from harm.

Since that time, the patron deity became famous across the country for its miraculous efficacy, drawing the faith of the masses. The deity is famous for answering prayers for success in business, traffic safety, and for increased scholastic ability. Every March during the "First Day of the Horse" Hatsu-uma Festival, the shrine overflows with people who have come to pray for luck and good health.
　© nippon-kichi.jp

Japanese (written on the many red prayer flags):

最上位経王大菩薩

Saijoo Ikyoo-Oo Daibosatsu
(さいじょういきょうおうだいぼさつ)

. 最上稲荷 . Japanese Home Page of the Shrine

Thanks Gabi san!

Thank you, Angelee from India.

Read my Haiku Archives

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1/03/2008

Reflecting Life

初詣

first temple visit -
reflections of
a good life

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Join me at the First Shrine Visit 2008 !!!
Fox Shrine Saijo Inari

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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008

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1/02/2008

DaiDai

　　　　

Happy New Year !
May the orange bring you
many children ...

The two mochi discs are variously said to symbolize the going and coming years, the human heart, "yin" and "yang", or the moon and the sun.

The "daidai 橙、代々", whose name means "generations", is said to symbolize the continuation of a family from generation to generation.

Good luck for many generations is carried by the DAIDAI color of the orange which is placed on top
of the white mochi cakes.

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Color DAIDAI 橙色だいだいいろ
#ee7800 in the BOX above

WKD : Rice Cakes for the New Year (kagami mochi)

. WASHOKU
New Year Food and Decorations 　　

. New Year Decorations (o-kazari) 　　

Read my Haiku Archives 2007

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1/01/2008

Happy New Year

　　　　

明けましておめでとうございます　！

All the Best for the New Year of the Mouse !

May we all learn
to share our earthly bread evenly.

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I was born in the Year of the Mouse!
I will complete the first circle of life!

The Details
The Year of the Mouse

Special Cloths to wear on my
Kanreki Birthday!

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“2008,　why is it a mouse and not a rat?”

Sensei gets a knowing smile on her face.
“A mouse is a cute animal. No one wants to be a rat.”

And this is the distinction I will be making in America for the rest of my life.
We, in the year of the mouse, have the competitive edge of the rat, the desire to win, but the Japanese know we are also shockingly cute, cuddly, the kind of animal who not only stores the best and most cheese, but also stands under snow-covered cherry blossoms, asking happiness to rain down on their friends.
http://kyushuchronicles.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/year-of-the-mouse/

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Netsuke and Haiga from Emile Molhuysen

CLICK for enlargement

Thank you very much, dear Emile!

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Read about my Haiku Life in Japan

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BACKUP worldkigo 2008

12/31/2007

First Snow Roses

　　　　

初雪や

first snow !
the silence of my roses
deepens

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Roses and Clouds, December 26 !!!

Read my Haiku Archives 2007

rose snow
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First Snow

　　　　

first snow !
the silence
deepens

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Read my Haiku Archives 2007

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12/27/2007

roses and clouds

sea of clouds -
my roses breathe
so carefully

frost melting
on my roses -
the beauty of NOW

winter roses -
each petal has
its own spark

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The Art of Meditation in Taoism

Contemplative Taoists will be happily to sit with yogis and Zennists for as long as is reasonable and comfortable, but when nature tells us that we are 'pushing the river' we will get up and do something else, or even go to sleep...

... or even write a haiku ...

Basically, Taoist meditation is more like a sort of wisdom achieved by close observation of the things and phenomena in the world surrounding us. Such wisdom should help us go alongside with things and not against them, and is surely related to the wu-wei (nondoing) concept.
　© www.taopage.org

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Read my Haiku Archives 2007

rose roses rose
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12/26/2007

Long Moment

　　　　

winter morning -
the long moment
from dark to light

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Version TWO

　　　　

winter morning -
this long moment

　　　　

from dark

　　　　

to light

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Version THREE

　　　　

winter morning -
this long moment

　　　　

from birth

　　　　

to death

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woke up too early today, enjoying the warmth in bed while staring at the window ...

Read my Haiku Archives 2007

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12/25/2007

dishevelled

winter morning -
the dishevelled hair
of my neighbour

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She is about 65 and I meet her often on my morning walk up the hill to get the newspaper. Me in my checkered pajamas and her ... well, you see above a gentler version of it.

Read my Haiku Archives 2007

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Tradition - Kumari

coping with tradition -
Kumari chews
a bubble gum

©　PHOTO Kumari: Reuters Limited 2007

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Kumari, or Kumari Devi
is a living goddess in Nepal. Kumari literally means virgin in Nepali and was the name of the goddess Durga as a child. A Kumari is a prepubescent girl selected from the Shakya caste of the Nepalese Newari community. The Kumari is revered and worshipped by some of the country's Hindus as well as the Nepali Buddhists, though not the Tibetan Buddhists.

While there are several Kumaris throughout Nepal, with some cities having several, the best known is the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu, and she lives in the Kumari Ghar, a palace in the center of the city. The selection process for her is especially rigorous. The current Royal Kumari, Preeti Shakya, was installed on July 10, 2001 at the age of four.

A Kumari is believed to be the bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju until she menstruates, after which it is believed that the goddess vacates her body. Serious illness or a major loss of blood from an injury are also causes for her to revert to common status.

© KUMARI / Wikipedia

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Today, December 24 in Japan, I read in the Japan Times about the child that likes bubble gum ...

KATMANDU, Nepal -
The living goddess likes bubble gum.

On a cold autumn evening, during a festival giving thanks for the monsoon rains, dozens of chanting worshippers pulled her enormous wooden chariot through the narrow streets of Katmandu’s old city. Thousands of cheering people pressed forward, hoping for a blessing. Drunken young men danced around her, pounding drums and shouting.

But the goddess — a child wrapped in red silk, a third eye painted on her forehead as a sign of enlightenment — took little notice of the joyous riot. Instead, she stared ahead intently, her jaw pumping furiously.
Then, finally, she blew a yellow bubble about the size of a plum.

Priti Shakya is 10 years old, the daughter of a family of poor goldsmiths. At the age of 4, a panel of judges examined her in a series of ancient ceremonies — checking her horoscope, searching for physical imperfections and, as a final test, seeing if she would be frightened after a night spent in a room filled with 108 freshly decapitated animal heads. She was not.

So Priti became a goddess, worshipped as the incarnation of the powerful Hindu deity Taleju, and going into near-complete isolation in an ancient Katmandu palace.

She will return home only at the onset of menstruation, when a new goddess will be named. Then Priti will be left to adjust to a life that — suddenly and absolutely — is supposed to be completely normal.

That is how it has been for nearly four centuries, in a tradition that held out against modernity even as Nepal, ever so slowly, began to change.

But modernity is coming, even to the goddess.

“We know there needs to be change,” said Manju Shree Ratna Bajracharya, the eighth generation of priest from his family to oversee the temple of the royal kumari — or virgin — as the goddess is commonly called.

“But this criticism of the tradition,
this is pure ignorance.”

Read the full article HERE
©　mamimagazine.com

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If you choose to write Japanese haiku, it is your decision to do so.
If you choose to wear a Japanese kimono, it is your decision to do so.

But it is part of a tradition and culture which might not be your own and you may not know too much about the real background of this tradition and culture you are trying to copy and use. You might not even be able to read Japanese and have to rely on translations and secondhand information when trying to understand what JAPANESE HAIKU is.

While wearing this unfamiliar Japanese kimono in the subway of your own culture, you might feel it uncomfortabel and want to make it suit YOUR needs. So you cut off the long sleeves and then throw away the many belts, using just a leather bucklebelt maybe ... and the long skirts have to go, make this into a pair of short pants, after all, yours is a hot country ...

When you walk the streets like the emperor with "YOUR NEW KIMONO", well, it might be adjusted to the needs of your living sourroundings, but what is it now ...

well, maybe just another bubble of the worldwide Haiku Gum...

to be chewed with a grain of smiling salt !

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On second thought, you might try
a light cotton robe, yukata 浴衣 (ゆかた) !
The yukata is frequently worn after bathing at traditional Japanese inns. Though their use is not limited to after-bath wear, yukata literally means "bath clothes".

The Emperor's New Clothes

. Kanjak Ashtami Puja - India .

CHECK HERE
My Haiku Theory Archives

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12/24/2007

Die Blaue Blume

this blue shine
by the roadside -
winter walk

friendly smiles
for the weary traveler -
Shikoku road

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The Blue Flower (German: Blaue Blume) is a central symbol of Romanticism

　wikipedia has more

Shikoku Pilgrims Road

Read my Haiku Archives 2007

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12/21/2007

sunny morning

　　　　

winter morning <>
I share a sunny moment
just with myself

nashi

like the big head
of a small baby ...
what is this ? ??

! Haiku and Happiness ! (02)

1/07/2008

Frosty morning

1/05/2008

First Shrine Visit

1/03/2008

Reflecting Life

1/02/2008

DaiDai

1/01/2008

Happy New Year

BACKUP worldkigo 2008

12/31/2007

First Snow Roses

First Snow

12/27/2007

roses and clouds

12/26/2007

Long Moment

12/25/2007

dishevelled

Tradition - Kumari

12/24/2007

Die Blaue Blume

12/21/2007

sunny morning

nashi

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