Miyajima Deer
Still wearing youthful camouflage, the deer bounced from the bushes and landed in front of my car - it glanced at me and was then destroyed. My wife immediately began a slightly disjointed explanation of the dangers of crossing a street trying to sooth three young daughters who were not aware anything had happened. "That's it!" I despaired. In two weeks I was scheduled to leave for Japan on an extended tour. In addition to my distress this was clearly a disastrous omen. I expected to pay dearly for a transgression against nature in the land of Shinto and the Buddha.
The first two weeks on Honshu were a blur - especially of shrines. But at each, hauling guilt I bowed, scrapped and donated. In Hiroshima Prefecture on the Island of Itsukushima I visited the sprawling Shinto shrine with its massive Torii Gate. The Shrine and Gate during tidal flooding appear to be afloat. Here in exchange for my donation I received a "fortune" from a priest - my colleague read it to me - it was he said the best prognostication of an individual future possible. I felt forgiven - exonerated - in life I shall indeed flourish! At the Shrine's gift shop I purchased a small metal bell - it alerts the spirits as to my whereabouts. This bell has hung near the entrance to my principal residence for the past 40+ years.
Interest in gods and organized religions evaporated for me in 1959-60. For several months I worked in the sub-basement of the law school at New York University among the transcripts of the World War II war crimes trials - the International Military Tribunal Far East and the IMT Nuremberg. My conclusion - our species is profoundly corrupted and self destructive. But for reasons that Darwinian scholars might explain we are probably "hard wired" to believe in something beyond us - anything regardless of how quixotic or idiotic it might be. "Nothingness" beyond our consciousness is too unpleasant and perhaps impossible to accept. So if we must believe in something why not identify a set of ideas that satisfy, comfort and possibly we even enjoy. Over the millenniums millions have done precisely this and so have I.
To oversimplify - Shinto is a belief in and study of "spirits". Every human, animal, bird, flower, tree and bush has one. Mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers possess a "spirit" as does our home, other special places, our automobile of course and cell phone. Things as common as a book, coffee cup and rock have a spirit. All these spirits are an integral part of our existence and the best life consists of living in harmony with them and treating everything with respect.
Looking for a pleasant venue for lunch I turned the car into the entrance of a Provincial Park in Nova Scotia. We poured out and the daughters seized a picnic table close to a stream gurgling through the park. My wife and I strolled around - on a breezy, bright day we had a Canadian park all to ourselves. In the middle of the stream we noted an abandoned tire - half its black mass rising above the turbulent waters. The tire's presence disrupted the harmony of the place. "Jennifer" I yelled at my ten year old. "I have a task for you - go get that tire!"
"Me? Whhhy me? Why alllllllways me? Why not Cathy or Liz?" She was an excellent youngster and despite the grousing had already started moving towards the edge of the water. "Because you are the youngest, lack seniority, and the spirits will greatly appreciate your efforts, and you have no socks on." I responded. Without another word Jennifer waded through ankle deep water and rolled the tire back to shore. We left it leaning against a trash can. A transgression against the stream and park had been corrected. Again it was a totally beautiful area.
One of my finest automobiles was a Mercury Montego. Purchased for a fair price this second hand car flawlessly served and protected my family for three years. During a rainy, windswept night near Roscoe, New York I rammed another deer killing it and totaling my Montego. Before the wreckage was towed away I removed the eight inch "Montego" name plate. It would have been grossly disrespectful not to preserve a relic from that great machine before it reverted back to its elements. I kept that memento for over twenty years before it was lost in a change of lives.
Shinto believers are troubled by death - it is considered "unclean" and "corruption". The Japanese will treat life's complexities with Shinto but in the presence of death prefer Buddhism. This "corruption" issue troubles me not - a Russian friend once remarked that "death is a natural process - often". I believe at death some spirits will simply dissipate into the ether, but other may congregate. On the southern edge of Kyushu in Kagoshima Prefecture there is a place where spirits are gathered - the Konoya Special Attack Corps War Dead Memorial. In the spring of 1945 the Konoya Air Base was the HGQ for the Special Attack Corps, also known as the kamikaze, the divine wind and suicide bombers. From Kanoya they assaulted the allied forces invading Okinawa. A total of 908 Navy and Army personnel ranging in age from 16 to 35 flew off into this maelstrom and perished. The Memorial consists of a tower on a small hill. At the tower's apex is perched a white dove with wings extended. When I arrived there in 1970 it was a memorial unvisited, uncared for and drenched in gloom. The walkways were littered with detritus while drooping flowers and weeds competed for space around the foundation. The dove's details were vague, an ethereal representation of a symbol of peace or a "holy" spirit. There were seven men in our group - three Japanese and five Americans - all remained absolutely silent. The only sound was strains of music drifting up to us from a nearby motel that rented rooms by the hour. Here were gathered many disconsolate conflicted spirits.
See: Wikipedia; Bill Gordon, Kamikaze Images; Photo by Oliver Bonnet.
