Pure Land: A True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures and the Search for Heaven on Earth by Annette McGivney

Author:Annette McGivney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aquarius Press
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

16

The Land of Wa

The Kirishima Mountains on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu rise thousands of feet from lush, forested valleys. The mountain summits in this semitropical region are often shrouded in fog. The foothills are blanketed with pink azaleas and other mountain flowers called hana. One of the tallest summits is Mount Takachiho. Here, according to ancient Japanese legend, the sky once touched the Earth. Although anthropologists say the first human inhabitants of Japan migrated from China, Korea and Polynesia, Japanese myth maintains that their origin place is on this mountain summit where a staircase made of clouds reached from the heavens, and the “people of the gods” climbed down.1

Another legend from Japan’s Kojiki2—a collection of Japanese origin stories recorded in the eighth century—says the archipelago of Japan was created when the gods thrust a jeweled sword from the heavens into the vast ocean below. Pieces of Earth dripped off the sword’s tip to make a series of islands that became Japan. The sun goddess Amaterasu was one of the deities who descended from the heavens; she traveled on a rainbow bridge and once on Earth gave birth to Japan’s first emperor. The legend says the jeweled spear used by the gods remains on top of Mount Takachiho.

The Kojiki goes on to describe a period called the “Age of the Gods,” when Japan, and the Kirishima Mountains region in particular, was home to an increasing number of spirit entities called kami. Eventually, more than 8 million kami3 came to inhabit Japan, most often in nature but also sometimes in houses and possessions. According to this foundation of Shinto belief, nature is more than beautiful; it is pulsing with unseen spiritual essences that can hold sway over human life. Places in the natural world that inspire a sense of awe, such as a towering mountain or a deep canyon or a crashing waterfall, are full of kami. Daishizen.

While archaeologists have found Stone Age relics in Japan, including tools and pottery, dating back to 10,000 B.C., the first written accounts of Japanese culture come from the Chinese and were recorded during the first century B.C. The Chinese called Japan “the land of Wa”4 and observed that the archipelago was comprised of hundreds of regional tribes. According to the Chinese texts, the first ruler of Wa was an empress named Himiko. During the late second and early third centuries A.D., Himiko helped unify the fractious tribes through her practice of shamanism. She was believed to have magical powers that allowed her to mediate between people and kami. Although the boundaries of Himiko’s kingdom have long been debated, many historians contend she ruled in northern Kyushu, not far from where the gods allegedly descended.5

After Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the late sixth century, the country’s spiritual epicenter moved north to Kyoto where numerous temples were built and the imperial family was located. However, Japan’s connection to its most ancient traditions, to mysticism and the divine power of nature remains in the south. The

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