{"product_id":"antique-japanese-calligraphy-scroll-ise-grand-shrine-names-arakida-priest-signed-dai-dai-kagura-commemoration-edo-period","title":"Antique Japanese Calligraphy Scroll, Ise Grand Shrine Names, Arakida Priest Signed, Dai-dai Kagura Commemoration, Edo Period","description":"\u003cp\u003eWritten in bold, formal script, this scroll sets down the ceremonial names of Japan's most sacred shrine complex: 天照皇大神宮 (Tenshō Kōtaijingū), the formal name of Ise's Inner Shrine, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami, and 豊受大神宮 (Toyouke Daijingū), the Outer Shrine, dedicated to Toyouke no Ōkami, guardian of food, clothing, and industry. Together these two shrines make up the core of Ise Jingu, the spiritual head of Japan's entire shrine system and the shrine most closely tied to the imperial lineage itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSmaller columns of text frame the two shrine names. To the right: 大々御神楽奉行紀念 — a record commemorating the fulfillment of a Dai-dai Kagura offering, one of the most prestigious forms of ritual worship available at Ise. Dai-dai Kagura sits near the top of a graded system of sacred music-and-dance offerings performed for worshippers at Ise's kagura halls, historically described as the single greatest aspiration of the Edo-period Okage-mairi pilgrimage — the mass pilgrimage movement in which, by some estimates, one in six Japanese people traveled to Ise at least once in their lifetime. To offer Dai-dai Kagura was, for an ordinary pilgrim, close to the height of what a visit to Ise could achieve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo the left, the scroll is signed: 従三位荒木田神主謹書 — \"Respectfully written by Arakida Kannushi, Junior Third Court Rank.\" Arakida Kannushi was not a personal name paired with a title, but the hereditary clan-name itself: according to shrine records, the family received this compound name — surname and priestly title combined — during the reign of Emperor Seimu in antiquity, and it was used this way by the clan for well over a thousand years. For over a millennium, the Arakida held hereditary right to serve as negi (senior priests) of Ise's Inner Shrine, a position they held continuously until 1871, when the Meiji government abolished hereditary shrine priesthoods nationwide. A scroll signed this way, by definition, places its authorship before that reform — making this very likely an Edo-period document, written by a member of one of the very small number of families entrusted with Japan's most sacred site.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBelow the signature, a dense, square red seal in archaic seal script confirms the priest's identity and status, alongside a second, smaller red seal near the shrine name at upper right — likely marking authentication or issuance through the shrine's own office.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe scroll carries further confirmation beyond the main signature: two additional red seals, one reading 皇大神宮 (Kōtaijingū) — repeating and reinforcing the Inner Shrine's name in archaic seal script — paired with a second, denser seal likely marking an associated administrative or priestly office, consistent with the kind of dual-seal authentication used on formal Shinto religious documents of the period. The wooden roller itself carries a faint, separate handwritten notation in an abbreviated numeral shorthand, of the kind traditionally used by professional scroll mounters (hyōgushi) to record a scroll's exact dimensions during mounting — a small, practical trace confirming the piece passed through skilled hands for its formal presentation. A further inscription on the scroll's grey silk backing has faded too much with age to read reliably, its ink likely having oxidized over well over a century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the collector, this is a rare category of object: not a painting, and not calligraphy made purely for aesthetic display, but a formal religious document — connecting directly to Ise Jingu's inner priestly hierarchy and to a specific, documented, and historically significant form of Shinto worship, at a level of access very few pilgrims, then or now, ever reached.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chikoyaki","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46417016684623,"sku":"CKY-CAL-1313","price":179.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/6588\/1423\/files\/IMG_E3870_result.jpg?v=1786870722","url":"https:\/\/chikoyaki.com\/products\/antique-japanese-calligraphy-scroll-ise-grand-shrine-names-arakida-priest-signed-dai-dai-kagura-commemoration-edo-period","provider":"Chikoyaki","version":"1.0","type":"link"}