{"id":48464,"date":"2019-09-20T20:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=48464"},"modified":"2021-09-24T10:54:27","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T01:54:27","slug":"okayamas-kibitsu-shrine-get-your-fortune-told-by-rice-and-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/okayamas-kibitsu-shrine-get-your-fortune-told-by-rice-and-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Okayama’s Kibitsu Shrine – Get Your Fortune Told by… Rice and Monsters?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sponsored by Okayama city, Okayama <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound was a low but constant hum, startling because it wasn’t the sound I was expecting to hear. In my head, I had imagined something high-pitched, like an agonizing scream. After all, legend had it that the sound emanated from the severed head of an ogre, so perhaps that gory image crept into my imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Narukama Shinji Ritual at Kibitsu Shrine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was here at Kibitsu Shrine where I participated in the ancient ritual known as Narukama Shinji<\/em>. I sat in soot-darkened Kamadono Hall, listening to a shrine priest chant my request for road safety (a constant concern navigating the narrow roads of Japan) when the sound abruptly rose from the iron cauldron. The real source of the sound is derived from the steam of rice grains as they are literally roasted in the fire-heated pot, but the legendary source of the sound is the moan from the head of Ura, the monster slain by the local hero Kibitsuhiko, said to be buried beneath the kamado<\/em> (wood-burning stove) heating the cauldron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kibitsu Shrine is one of Okayama’s most famous shrines and is closely associated with the folk tale of <\/strong>Momotaro<\/strong><\/em> (Peach Boy)<\/strong>, who is said to be at least partially based on the life of Kibitsuhiko, a Yamato era general dispatched to subdue the Kibi region. In particular, the story of Kibitsuhiko slaying Ura, a giant ogre terrorizing the people of Kibi, is said to have inspired the Momotaro legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with many fairy tales, the modern Momotaro variant is a tidied-up version of the original story, which would likely induce nightmares in children otherwise. In the tale of Kibitsuhiko, after slaying Ura by beheading him, the head of Ura continued to cry out in agony. Kibitsuhiko burned the head, but the remaining skull continued to moan, so Kibitsuhiko buried it, yet the stifled moaning continued. Ura’s spirit finally came to Kibitsuhiko in a dream to strike a deal; if Kibitsuhiko would find Ura’s wife and have her light the fire in the kamado <\/em>beneath the cauldron, Ura would stop crying out constantly and his wife would tell the future through the sound of the cauldron. A “good” sound indicated good fortune while a “poor” sound, or in the worst case, no sound at all, is a bad omen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n