Japan Earthquake And Tsunami Anniversary: Shinto Priests Prepare To Hold Commemoration Ceremonies On March 11

By Debra Rubin
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS/ENInews) Shinto priests throughout Japan are preparing to hold commemoration ceremonies on March 11 to mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that killed an estimated 20,000 people.

The Association of Shinto Shrines has issued a suggested prayer to be read during the ceremonies. That prayer, according to the Rev. Masafumi Nakanishi, a Shinto priest, describes the calamity, pleads that there be no more disasters and asks that people live peacefully.

Nakanishi performed just such a ceremony on Wednesday (Feb. 29) at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs during a program on the "Shinto response" to the disaster.

Dressed in a traditional robe with tall black hat, Nakanishi bowed, clapped and chanted before an altar, performing a four-part brief ceremony that included a purification ritual as well as an offering of sacred foods: fruits and vegetables, salt and water, sake (rice wine) and seaweed.

Of the approximately 80,000 to 100,000 shrines in Japan, about 4,500 were damaged; 309 were partially or totally destroyed; and 243 may not be used because of nuclear fallout from the Daiichi nuclear plant, Nakanishi said.

Nakanishi said many of the shrines that were spared last year were built just beyond the tsunami's reach, crediting Shinto ancestors with their safe placement.

Many of the surviving shrines were used for disaster relief efforts, with some serving as shelters following the earthquake and tsunami and others serving as collection sites for donations to assist the victims.

"I have always found the Japanese people to be very quick to help others," Georgetown professor Kevin M. Doak said. "The Japanese have a kind of innate, intuitive empathy" that he believes "may be due to Shinto as much as to anything else."

Below, some powerful photographs that show the locations before and after the tsunami hit:

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• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a catamaran sightseeing boat washed by the tsunami onto a two-story tourist home in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on April 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 16, 2012 (bottom). March 11, 2012 will mark the first anniversary of the massive tsunami that pummelled Japan, claiming more than 19,000 lives. Credit: Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combo shows an image (top) taken by a Miyako City official on March 11, 2011 of the tsunami breeching an embankment and flowing into the city of Miyako in Iwate prefecture and the same area (bottom image) on Jan. 16, 2012 nearly one year after the March 11 tsunami devastated the area. Credit: Jiji Press / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows people evacuating with small boats down a road flooded by the tsunami in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture on March 12, 2011 (top) and the same area on January 13, 2012 (bottom). Jiji Press / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a vehicle sitting on a three-story building in a tsunami hit area of the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (L) and the same area on Jan. 14, 2012 (R). Credit: Jiji Press / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows people walking on a bridge upon which a boat lies washed up by the tsunami in Hishonomaki, Miyagi prefecture on March 15, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 13, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Philippe Lopez / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a private plane, cars and debris outside Sendai Airport in Natori, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 (top) two days after a tsunami hit the region on March 11, 2011 and the same area on Jan. 12, 2012 (bottom). March 11, 2012 will mark the first anniversary of the massive tsunami that pummeled Japan, claiming more than 19,000 lives. Credit: Mike Clarke / Toro Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows damage caused by the March 11, 2011 tsunami seen from a hill overlooking the city of Kesennuma on March 16, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 14, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Phillippe Lopez / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows local residents looking at a tsunami hit area of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture on March 12, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 11, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Kazuhiro Nogi / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a rescue worker walking through rubble in the tsunami hit area of Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 14, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Mike Clarke / Toru Ymanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 15, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Nicolas Asfouri / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a fishing boat lying amongst the tsunami rubble in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on March 31, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 16, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Toshifumi Kitamura / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (top) and as the scene appears on Jan. 15, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Toshifumi Kitamura / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows cars piled up in front of the airport control tower in Sendai on March 14, 2011 (L) after a tsunami hit the region on March 11, 2011 and the same area on Jan. 12, 2012 (R). Credit: Phillippe Lopez / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows the view of a tsunami hit area of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture on March 14, 2011 (L) and on Jan. 15, 2012 (R). Credit: Toshifumi Kitamura / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 15, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Nicolas Asfouri / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows residents walking on roads covered with mud and debris in a tsunami hit area of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 14, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 13, 2012 (bottom). Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a cherry blossom tree amongst tsunami devastation in the city of Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture on April 20, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 16, 2012 (bottom). Credit: Yasuyoshi Chiba / Toru Yamanaka, AFP / Getty Images

• Japan Tsunami One Year Later

  This combination of pictures shows a tsunami hit area of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture on March 22, 2011 (top) and the same area on Jan. 15, 2012 (bottom). March 11, 2012 will mark the first anniversary of the massive tsunami that pummelled Japan, claiming more than 19,000 lives. Credit: Nicolas Asfouri / Toru Yamanaka, Getty Images

Comments

[Violet Waters]

10:16 AM on 05/28/2012

I heard about this company that is offering storm shelter financing even for people with bad credit. They only require that you have a checking account. www.surviveastorm.com

[John Genryu]

07:16 AM on 03/12/2012

It is not only Shinto priests doing things by the way but also Buddhist and Christian ones. In fact, Shinto priests by and large do not have anything to do with death, which is seen as polluting, which is why most funerals in Japan are Buddhist.

[donkor]

05:12 PM on 03/11/2012

My Dear Sweet Friends,

As far as we are concerned, the Japanese situation is just like many others, the world is lacking to the utmost degree in assisting them! We are embarassed and appalled at the fact that one year later every one has not been placed in more comfortable settings.

There should have been assistance to the extreme by every able country on the planet. If that had been so then most survivors would be living in new homes by now! We should have been like the ant, swamming that island with people, material, and Love until all was back to normal!

[CBYOND]

12:40 AM on 03/11/2012

Are the United Nations going to wrap their arms around Japan and comfort and help them or do they have to keep doing this morbid anniversary memorials?

[Cindbird]

05:20 AM on 03/11/2012

It's NOT the United Nations doing it. It is the Shinto Buddhist Priest in Japan. As a National Memorial. Just like we do a memorial every year for the 9/11 victims. When do you want the US to stop commemorating 9/11?

[CBYOND]

02:16 PM on 03/11/2012

No Birdy I was just thinking can't somebody help the Japanese like the United Nations.... I don't care about commemorations.. I'm just saying can't something more progressive be done to help these people.

[Brianna Cole]

10:46 PM on 03/05/2012

I got here 2 days before the quake... This March is a time of celebration for me, as well as a remembrance of the terror we lived through. My heart is with my fellow people here in Japan. Let us move forward from this together.

[Zirnitra]

10:30 PM on 03/05/2012

My sympathy is with these people. I've always admired the people of Japan, and they're still recovering in many areas right nearly a year later.
This march is something that is needed. The people of Japan have their grief that they've held on to for a year, and need something to do to remember the people who died in the tsunami and earthquakes.
My thoughts are with these people. I hope that their problems will be few, and that it becomes a bigger success then they except.

[Indigo1941]

06:33 PM on 03/05/2012

Is a translation of the prayer available?

[Cindbird]

08:36 PM on 03/05/2012

I looked for it, and can't find it. It isn't on the Green Shinto site nor on Georgetown's site. Sorry.

[Indigo1941]

06:57 AM on 03/07/2012

Thanks for looking. I haven't figured out how to research Shinto beyond Wikipedia.

[cuoi]

04:43 PM on 03/05/2012

お大事に

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

03:47 PM on 03/05/2012

My best wishes to the people of Japan. I hope that they will be able to rebuild their lives and homes.

[zappbrannigan420]

10:04 AM on 03/05/2012

Understandable, such an event will probably work its way into the local pageantry and eventually become mythicized somewhere down the road. Its always fascinating to watch a living religion adapt itself as new events come along.

[Watching rock grow]

04:24 PM on 03/06/2012

So true :)

[zappbrannigan420]

10:00 PM on 03/06/2012

^_^