Religious Tradition in Japan - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 26

Fig. 2.10 Sacred Tree Festival 6 (Onbashirasai)

iwakura —presumably, people worshiped the iwakura and shintai from the worship
hall (now a kaguraden, a sacred dance hall).
Omiwa Shrine (Sakurai City) is famous for lacking a main hall and is used spe-
cifi cally to worship Mt. Kamunabi. The notion that Gods reside in the mountains
and trees are yorishiro (objects that attract spirits) and therefore symbolize the cen-
ter of the world has been ingrained in Japanese religious tradition over eons.

2.2 Sacred Landscapes in Japanese Popular Religion

2.2.1 What Is a Sacred Place?

The term “sacred place” evokes a variety of images. Some people imagine specifi c
sanctuaries such as the Ise Shrine or Koyasan, while others may regard a sacred
place as being a site where a particular holy statue or icon such as the Daibutsu
(Great Statue of Buddha) at Todaiji. Other examples are statues of Christ, the Holy
Mother, or the apostles. Other people feel a sense of holiness in the deep mountains
or isolated valleys where no one else is around, while others presumably fi nd the
sacred in the mass of tens of thousands of pilgrims who gather at the Sacred Mosque
of the Kaaba in Mecca.
How, then, do we defi ne a sacred place? The “Grand Dictionary of World
Religions” defi nes a sacred place as having two specifi c characteristics (Yamaori 1991 ).