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Whale mounds (鯨塚,Kujira Tsuga) aremounds dedicated towhales that have been washed up on the shore, a custom unique toJapan.
Mounds are created to rememberCetacean stranding, a type of whale that was hunted for food and resources, and to show appreciation for the area being saved and enriched. Whales were considered gods and some were calledEbisu, so they were enshrined to prevent them from becoming angry gods after they died on the shore or were hunted. These mounds can be found at Toda Shrine in Shinagawa,Tokyo and Whale Shrine in Miyake-jima, Tokyo.
After the establishment of organized whaling after the Edo period, there are also mounds built as memorials and thanksgivings in areas whereWhaling was a livelihood, such as the Ryujima area near Ukishima Shrine inChiba Prefecture andTaiji.
Because the arrival of whales coincides with the arrival of fish, whales were thought to have spiritual power and were used as fishing guides. For this reason, the whale, in the form of Ebisu, was enshrined as a god of fishing to bring good fortune to fishermen and as a sea god to pray for safety at sea.
In the same way, whale graves and monuments exist in areas where whaling has been a livelihood since ancient times, as well as passive and accidental whaling, and when combined with whale mounds, there are about 100 of them in Japan.
They are found throughout the coastal areas of Japan. They vary in form, some areStone Monuments,Towers,Shrines (wooden or stone), and some are just mounds of rocks placed on top of the bones of some of the remains, heaped with earth.
The following is an example fromMiyagi Prefecture,Kesennuma andKarakuwa.
There are several whale mounds in the southern part of theBōsō Peninsula inChiba Prefecture.
Whale shrines are secular names for shrines that are closely related to whaling, such as shrines where mounds are built in gratitude or remembrance of whales, or where the remains of whales are enshrined asGoshintai, or where the act of whaling itself is regarded as a ritual andBelief.
A whalebone torii is a torii in which thetorii of the shrine is made of whale bones (mainlyribs).[5]
The oldest one in Japan is the torii of the Ebisu Shrine[a] in Taiji Town, Wakayama Prefecture. This is mentioned inIhara Saikaku's "Nihon Eitaigura" published in1688 (Jōkyō5): "In the village of Taiji, Ominato, Kiiro, the wife and children sing. This place is prosperous and Wakamatsu village is standing. According to records, the current torii is the third generation, and it is unknown what it was made of before that. According to records, the current torii is the third generation, and it is not known what it was made of before that. These are all the whale torii gates that exist in Japan today, but there is also a Cape Eluanbi Shrine inEluanbi, the southernmost point ofTaiwan underJapanese rule at the time. There were also whale torii gates at three other shrines: Fudato Ebisu Shrine in Sakhalin, and Shikotan Shrine onShikotan Island in the Northern Territories. Each of these five locations is either directly or indirectly related to whaling (such as whaling bases).
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