Endless shrine corridor
The Kibitsu(吉備津) Shrine is in Okayama(岡山) city, Okayama Prefecture. It established very old time, around 720 (1300 years ago). It has a unique corridor. This corridor is in the backyard of the main building.
We will explain inside according to the order when we visited.
The entrance stairs of this shrine are very steep. And, there is only small vacant space in front of the stairs. So, we have to climb the stairs as soon as entering this shrine. The stairs are covered by numberless paper lanterns. There is a front shrine building of worship and connected the main shrine building.
We cannot look at the whole building from the front side, because there is very small space in front of the building to worship. We can move to the left hand side of this building, and we appreciate the side. The appearance is very unusual. Its roof consists of 2 big 'Chidori (千鳥)(plover) gables.' This is our first time to see this kind of roof. Its basement is also unusual. It's covered by thick white-plaster, so it looks like turtle shells and named 'Kamebara(亀腹)' (turtle's body).
According to a researcher's study, its floor level differs from each room. The center room where the deity is enshrined has the highest floor level. Surrounding several room has the next highest floor level. This tiered floor system is also quite unique, and there seems not to be another shrine equipped this floor system in Japan. However, as tourists, we can't appreciate this device from the outside of this building. The main shrine and the front shrine of worship are designated as national treasures. And, these were made in 1425 (around 600 years ago).
Proceeding from the right side of the main shrine, we arrive at the corridor. It has about 400 meters long, slightly going down the slope, we can see its straight and endless roof which has a gentle and beautiful curve. Why this corridor was made? One assumption is for the people who worshiped several small shrines placed in the middle and at the end of this corridor. This building is designated as an important property of Okayama pref. and made around 1580 (around 440 years ago).
We are going down this corridor, and find the building named 'Okama-den(御釜殿)'. This word, 'Okama(御釜)' means 'rice cooker'. To our surprise, Shinto priests wearing proper kimono are cooking rice. And also we are very surprised that this cooking rice action is a divine Shinto(神道) ritual. This Shinto ritual is relevant kind of fortune-telling. More specifically, long time ago, a general dispatched by the Imperial Court got rid of a demon came from a foreign country. And after that, the demon appeared in the general's dream and he claimed the fortune-telling by cooking rice.
This story is quite mythological, however, the truth was different. We suppose the demon was not a deity but a prince from an ancient Korean kingdom, 'Kudara(百済) (Baekje in English)' was imprisoned here. And, it's a quite our personal opinion because there is no record as long as we investigated. The truth was that the prince rebelled against the Imperial Court and the general dispatched here and killed the prince. Wishing for peace of the prince's soul, this shrine was established. However, if this story had been talked, people would be afraid disasters caused by a grudge of the prince. So, again we suppose, somebody changed the story of the establishment and the true story was hidden. The reason the Okama-den was built, it's also our opinion, some disasters happened and people doubted a grudge of the prince. So, the Shinto priests began the new Shinto ritual. This event is called 'Narukama-Shinji(鳴釜神事)'. The building was reconstructed in 1606 and designated as an important property.
