Bell Ceremony

The October 9^th issue of Jinja Shinpō contained an article about a joint Shinto-Buddhist ceremony with a long history.

The ceremony involves Enoshima Jinja, in Fujisawa, and Engakuji, a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, both in Kanagawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo. These two cities are very close together, as are the two institutions. The origin of the ceremony was the creation of a bell, the Ōkanë, or “big bell”. This bell is a National Treasure, and it is 259.4 cm tall. It is, apparently, the largest temple bell in the Kantō area, and I can easily believe it. It was a gift from the ninth regent of the Kamakura shogunate, Hōjō Sadatoki, in 1301.

However, the current bell was the third attempt. The first two attempts to cast the bell ended in failure, presumably because of its size. Sadatoki then spent seven days in retreat at Enoshima Jinja, and received the favour of its kami, Enoshima Benzaiten. As a result, he was able to successfully cast the bell. In gratitude, he enshrined Enoshima Benzaiten in a jinja next to the bell, and the jinja is still there today.

Starting in 1480, it became the custom to hold the grand matsuri of the bell jinja once every sixty years, with the participation of both the temple and Enoshima Jinja. This should have happened in 2020, but, as you may remember, there were limits on large public events at that time. Thus, it was held this year, on September 11^th.

The ceremony started with the bell being rung, and at that signal a procession left one of the temple buildings. An image of Benzaiten on a palanquin was central, accompanied by the monks of the temple, and the priests of the jinja. The image was taken to a Buddha hall, where it was removed from the palanquin and enshrined.

Next, the priests honoured it with a standard Shinto matsuri, including a norito, miko kagura, and the offering of tamagushi. This was followed by a Buddhist ceremony. There is a plan to hold a large procession on October 29^th, with traditional local matsuri music, a Benzaiten mikoshi, children in traditional costume, and a float with a life-size model of the bell (if I have understood correctly). This procession dates back to at least the Edo period, and it seems that it is being revived this year. I don’t know why it wasn’t held closer to the ceremony, although given how hot it was around Tokyo then the reasons could have been entirely practical.

According to the numbers, this ceremony should have been held in 1900, during the separation of Shinto and Buddhism. The article does not mention what happened that year, but I would be interested to know. In theory, it should not have happened, because it should have been illegal. I am not entirely sure that that would have been allowed to stop a 400-year tradition, although it would have been enough to stop the procession, I think. That may be why the procession needs to be revived — 1960 is just early enough in Japan’s post-war recovery that the cities may not have had the necessary resources.

In any case, this is another example of the very close links between Shinto and Buddhism, and shows that they are still active today.