{"id":31461,"date":"2013-08-15T10:37:17","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T14:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=31461"},"modified":"2013-08-15T10:37:17","modified_gmt":"2013-08-15T14:37:17","slug":"amegoui-praying-for-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/15\/amegoui-praying-for-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Amegoui – Praying for Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Benjamin Martin<\/strong><\/a>, a JET from 2008-2013 in Okinawa<\/a>, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and author of the award-winning<\/a> YA fantasy series\u00a0<\/em>Samurai Awakening<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Tuttle).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"IMG_6904\"<\/a>Since the end of the rainy season early this year, the weather on Kume Island<\/a> has been full of clear sunny days. \u00a0While it makes for great sight-seeing and beach-going, it has been a hard year for farmers, with little or no rain to sustain critical crops. \u00a0For the first time in 15 years, the island locals returned to their roots, asking for the help of the Chinbei, the name of the high priestess from the old Ryukyu Kingdom to come and pray for rain.<\/p>\n

This rare ceremony began early on August 11th. \u00a0The Chinbei and other priestesses (noro) met at Chinbei Dunchi<\/a>\u00a0on Kume Island. \u00a0There, a sacred rock was encircled by rope to signify the presence of a kami. \u00a0After offerings of rice, fruit, and sake, the noro poured water onto the rock while the Chinbei and other local representatives prayed. \u00a0The Chinbei poured sake from a small cup, repeating the process until she felt the kami was satisfied.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6662\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\"IMG_6708\"<\/a>Afterward, all the attendees were asked to participate in a tug-o-war competition outside the grounds. \u00a0In addition to the physical offerings of sake, rice, and fruit, the offering of effort and strength signified by the competition was in offering to local kami. While competing, locals were sprayed and doused with water, and afterward danced in the simulated rain.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6780\"<\/a>From Chinbei Dunchi, the priestesses and local leaders made offerings at two other shrines in the area. \u00a0These shrines date back hundreds of years. \u00a0One was a natural rock formation where a kami is thought to reside. \u00a0The other was hidden away near the airport grounds where a concrete structure enclosed the sacred home of another kami. \u00a0At both sites, offerings of rice, sake, fruit and prayers were put forth.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6856\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\"IMG_6874\"<\/a>Immediately after the prayers ended, it began to rain. \u00a0A tornado was even spotted, though it did not touch down. \u00a0The farmers and local representatives happily returned to Chinebei-dun, the parched ground sated with the first short downpour in a very long time.<\/p>\n

For more photos from this special event visit MoreThingsJapanese.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Benjamin Martin, a JET from 2008-2013 in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com\u00a0and author of the award-winning YA fantasy series\u00a0Samurai Awakening\u00a0(Tuttle). Since the end of the rainy season early this year, the weather on Kume Island has been full of clear sunny days. \u00a0While it makes for great sight-seeing and beach-going, it has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,76,368],"tags":[734,191,785,1080,1079,1081],"class_list":["post-31461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-photography","category-traveltourism","tag-event","tag-japan","tag-okinawa","tag-prayer","tag-rain","tag-religion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-8br","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31881,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31461\/revisions\/31881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}