The Ceremony of “Living Beings Releasing” at Iwashimizu Shrine in Japan

Abstract

This publication presents the first translation from old Japanese to Russian language of one chapter about “ceremony of living beings releasing” from “Hachiman gudoukin” (“Admonition for stupid children about Hachiman”, XIV). This ceremony is performed at Iwashimizu shrine in Japan (Yawata city, Kyoto prefecture). Iwashimizu is a major shrine of Japanese tutelary deity Hachiman. Hachiman is known as a protector of the emperor and the state. Shrine chronicles link an origin of the ceremony to the suppression of Hayato tribe uprising in 720; the suppression was led by Hachiman as the protector deity of state. The rite is a blending of the Buddhistic doctrine of compassion and prohibition against killing the “living beings” with the Japanese practice of “appeasement” of spirits of those who died in the military campaign against Hayato.