平 寿夫

Hisao Taira

A sacred place for nature worship. There are feel good about it, whether it is because people have been praying for a long time, or because it is something that the sacred place originally had. Wind flows and water flows there, purifying our bodies. Among the sacred sites for nature worship in Kumano that I seek, the Nachi Waterfall at Kumano Nachi Taisha Shrine, where myths remain, has long been a well-known sacred site for nature worship. The large waterfall has became a form of people's faith as a lot of water flows down and creates wind. This time, I had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Shinto ritual that takes place upstream of Nachi Otaki's Takiguchi. I was deeply moved by the sight of a Shinto priest facing nature while gazing out over a thousand-year-old place of worship in the virgin forest. I thought that a form of coexistence with nature, rather than confronting it, would be necessary for our society in the future.