Setonaikai National Park Omishima Island Oyamazumi Shrine Otauesai 瀬戸内海 大三島 大山祗神社 御田植祭 Iisaac Albeniz Tango España by Kari Gröhn karigrohncom
The Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai National Park) Omishima Island
Oyamazumi Shrine Otauesai 瀬戸内海 大三島 大山祗神社 御田植祭 Iisaac Albeniz (1860-1909) Tango España Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986) violin Istvan Hajdu b 1913 (piano) by Kari Gröhn karigrohncom
The Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai National Park) between the Japanese main islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Its calm waters stretch over 400 kilometers from Osaka to Kitakyushu and include some 3000 islands, many of which are inhabited. The Seto Inland Sea’s mild climate and its islands’ relaxed atmosphere invite comparisons with the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the sea is
part of the Setonaikai National Park, one of the first national parks designated in Japan.
Omishima Otauesai is an important rice planting festival at the Oyamazumi Shrine, which used to be a place of worship for pirates between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. Oyamazumi is the great god of mountains who protects people working in the mountains and brings sufficient water to farmers. By and by, the deity began to be considered the patron god of the whole Japan attracting emperors, lords and warriors. Those who had had
their prayers answered revisited Omishima and presented fine offerings to the god. So, the shrine’s collection of arms and armours is best in Japan.
Both husband and wife should go to this shrine together since its god is jealous. He is the elder brother of Amaterasu who is the highest goddess of the heaven. Amaterasu’s grandson Ninigi married Oyamazumi’s daughter whose son became the father of Japan’s first Emperor Jimmu (660-585 BC). The messenger of Oyamazumi is an eel that is hatched in mountain streams.
In front of the time-honoured Oyamazumi Shrine there is a 2,600 years old camphor tree.
AloJapan.com