The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 180 Final Battle (2)

Qian Xiaoyi rode his motorcycle slowly to a stop in front of an inconspicuous shrine on the street. He looked at the torii in front of him and the plaque on it and murmured, "Iwama Shrine... Yeah, that's it."

He is now in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, which is also within the Tokyo metropolitan area. Although the residents of Saitama Prefecture call themselves Tokyo people, if you ask the city dwellers in Tokyo's 23 wards about Saitama Prefecture, I'm sorry, you will mostly get a ruthless answer like "Oh, I know, it's the nearby countryside, right?"

In fact, Qian Xiaoyi felt that it was true. Less than half an hour after he set off on his motorcycle, the environment around the road changed from high-rise buildings to gradually shorter, crowded and old houses. Even large tracts of farmland could be seen on the side of the road.

But this is a rural area, but there are modern towns. It is a city, but you can't see a single high-rise building along the way. The whole prefecture is sandwiched between the two, which is a bit awkward. Therefore, Saitama Prefecture is synonymous with "rustic" and "boring" in the minds of Japanese people. Generally speaking, it is like the urban-rural junction of a small place, which is in stark contrast to the bustling Tokyo city.

Now the street he was on was full of people, all of them were tourists strolling around in yukatas, and there were many small stalls on both sides of the street. There were activities such as shooting guns, scooping goldfish, throwing darts, etc. The snack stalls had traditional foods such as rock candy apples and fried noodles, as well as cotton candy, ice cream, and chocolate bananas. It was dazzling to look at, and there was a very festive atmosphere. There would be even more people at night.

What is this festival? It is the famous Obon Festival. In mid-August every year, shrines in various places will hold temple fairs nearby to celebrate the arrival of the festival. In fact, the summer festival held in Shirakko Village before was the Obon Festival. The time of this festival in different parts of Japan varies slightly from place to place. Some places are in July, and some are in August. So if you like to travel, you can take a car to different places in Japan and celebrate the Obon Festival several times a year.

Qian Xiaoyi came here not to visit the temple fair, eat, drink and have fun. Yesterday, he received a message from Ashiya Yoshisuke that the third competition would be held here, so he rode his bike here to prepare for the final competition.

After parking the car, Qian Xiaoyi, carrying his backpack, walked into the shrine along the approach like a tourist, looking around curiously.

There were many tourists wandering around and praying in the shrine. He looked around and saw a young woman in a red and white shrine maiden costume behind the window of a small souvenir shop. He walked over and asked, "Excuse me, is the shrine's chief priest here?"

"The Lord is in this temple right now," the witch said, "but he is preparing for the sacrifice, so he won't be seeing any visitors..."

"I have something to talk to him about." Qian Xiaoyi pointed at his nose and asked, "He should have been notified in advance. My name is Qian Xiaoyi, and I was introduced by Mr. Ashiya."

Miss Miko said awkwardly: "Um... I'm very sorry, I just came to work the day before yesterday, and the Lord didn't tell me about this. How about this, I'll go and ask for you."

The shrine maidens of some shrines are sometimes young women from the neighborhood who work part-time. They are responsible for selling amulets and doing cleaning work. They just put on shrine maiden costumes to solicit business. It can be seen that this person should be one of them. I haven't even heard of the name of Ashiya Yoshisuke, let alone a psychic.

After the witch left for a while, she hurried back and said, "Mr. Lingtang already knows. Please go inside and go around the worship hall to the main hall."

Qian Xiaoyi nodded and walked towards the inside of the shrine with his bag on his back. The worship hall is a building for people to worship and pray outside. The main hall is where the statues and bodies of gods are enshrined, and outsiders are generally not allowed to enter. The main hall of Iwama Shrine is not big. Under the eaves hangs a thick hemp rope, symbolizing a sacred barrier. Outside the main hall, a priest wearing a traditional blue hunting robe and a tall hat is already waiting. He looks quite young, about twenty years old.

"Hello, Mr. Qian." The young priest bowed slightly and said, "I am Lingtang Yanci. It's our first meeting. Please take care of me. Mr. Qian looks younger than in the video."

"Mr. Lingtang, the same is true." Qian Xiaoyi said, "This is also the first time I have seen such a young Lord."

Although he had never seen the gods of many shrines, and the surname of this "Lingtang" gentleman was really unlucky in Chinese, there were many stranger names in Japan, such as "Zhukou", "Inukai", "Agoko", etc. So let's call it a Lingtang, at least it sounded like it had something to do with an exorcist.

Lingtang Yanci smiled bitterly and said, "My grandfather wanted to retire quickly, so he asked me to start learning how to manage the shrine's affairs. I've been really busy recently... Ah, sorry, I let you hear my complaints. Please come this way. I will introduce the details of the commission to you."

Qian Xiaoyi nodded and followed the mourning hall Yan Ci to a room in the side hall, where they drank tea and talked.

The reason why Lingtang Yanci is so busy is because he is in charge of the sacrificial affairs this year. Although the temple fair of the Ullambana Festival is so lively, with lanterns and snack streets, and even dancing and float parades in some places, the Ullambana Festival has another more gloomy name, I believe everyone must have heard of it.

——Zhongyuan Festival, or commonly known as the 15th day of July, Ghost Festival.

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan began to adopt the new calendar and abandoned the lunar calendar (lunar calendar) from China. Therefore, the previous traditional festivals were directly applied to the new calendar. This is the case with the Obon Festival. Some places celebrate it directly on the 15th day of the seventh month of the Gregorian calendar, while other places are more traditional and celebrate it in mid-August closer to the old calendar, which is the case here.

Since it is the legendary day when the gates of hell open once a year, everyone will carry out activities such as tomb sweeping and ancestor worship, and some temples and shrines will take the opportunity to hold rituals to pray for the living and for the souls of the dead.

The same is true for Iwama Shrine. Although it is only a small shrine and the number of visitors is far less than those of the big shrines, because their main business is exorcism, their shrine has a special tradition. That is, on the day of Obon, they will perform a ritual to attract all the ghosts and spirits in the surrounding area, and then purify them.

This commission is related to the Ullambana Festival sacrificial activities.

(End of this chapter)