One Winter Day, to Look for SHOKI

Looking for Shoki, Who Has Walked Half His Way from a Ghost to a God

   Viking-like statues in Kyoto and Nara.  They are on the roofs.  That was the start of the story.  A friend of mine asked me to surf the net, make some phone calls, and even to take him to a roof tile factory in Fushimi, where I met Shoki for the first time in my life.  He left Japan. Yet, he still asked me to visit a certain area in Kyoto to take pictures of Shoki, where he and his family first found Shoki.  By the time, however, I myself had got interested in Shoki, too.  One winter day, I decided to go to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple with my wife.
   Through the window of the Keihan Rapid Train, we found snow started falling.  We got off the train at Gojo Station, and took Matsubara-dori to get to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, via Kiyomizu-zaka, as Matsubara-dori used to be Gojo-dori, one of the main streets in Kyoto during its medieval days.  The more we go up the hill, the more it snowed.  When we crossed Higashi-oji-dori, where we could find the Kiyomizu-zaka bus stop, one of the nearest bus stop to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, it was hard for us to look up and see the tops of the roofs.  As we climbed up Kiyomizu-zaka, our chance to find Shoki seemed scarce.  At the end of the slope, in front of the temple's gate, a ceramic statue with a wooden flame around it was gazing down upon us through the heavy snow.  It was Shoki.  A sales clerk at the Japanese sweet shop told us the shop was built some 30 years ago, and Shoki had been there since then.  That was the all story he could tell us, besides the uncertain information that we could find some other Shoki in the older town.
   We decided to visit the Kiyomizu-dera Temple first, as it snowed too hard to keep looking for Shoki in an unfamiliar town.  At the entrance, one of the middle aged receptionists of the temple informed us that we could find the statues along Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka, although the other receptionists looked uncertain or even had no idea of Shoki.
   After making a prayer at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, we walked down Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka, which lead you to Shijo-dori via the Maruyama Park and the Yasaka-jinja Shrine.  As we enterd stone paved Sannen-zaka, we soon found several Shoki in our sights, and light-heartedly walked down stone steps.  After taking photos of a few Shoki, we got into a souvenir shop, and talked with a shop lady, who had married with the owner about 30 years ago.  "7 years ago, we had a big earthquake, and the house was much damaged.  So we repaired roofs and so on.  Under the scenic sites preservation ordinance, we could not change the appearance.  We kept 'bengara-goshi' (red painted wall and wooden window flames).  One of the carpenters brought us new Shoki."  My wife asked her if Shoki faced the Kiyomizu-dera Temple.  "Oh, it has nothing to do with the temple.  We, shop owners, put up Shoki to look daggers at the other shops, as we face each other across the narrow street."
   Finding many other Shoki, new ones and old ones, we kept walking down into Ninen-zaka.  One Shoki was standing on the roof together with Ebisu and Daikoku, who are gods of marchants.  Another was with some dolls.  There we even found porcelain Shoki on the roof of a porcelain shop.  At the end of Ninen-zaka, we turned and headed to Gojo-zaka, another possible street you may take to get to Kiyomizu-dera.  Walking down Gojo-zaka, we could find no Shoki.  After having 'yuba zen' lunch at Yuba-sen (a 'yuba' restaurant) near the Gojo-zaka bus stop, the other nearest bus stop, we walked up Chawan-zaka this time.  The slope had many pottery shops, as the street's name suggests, and looked quite new as a sightseeing spot; and even there we could find a few Shoki.  Although we are not sure if it has a consistent law or rule, the shops with Shoki along the street were all selling potteries, not other souvenirs or foods.
   New Western style buildings certainly have no Shoki.  Yet, we find new Shoki, along with old ones, even on a re-roofed Japanese style houses.  I wonder if Shoki tradition is ceasing or reviving.  A few months ago, I talked with a priest, helping my friend's inteview.  The priest had gathered numbers of old Shoki, which had been rejected during the bubble economy. "I have been trying to embrace them.  Otherwise, I'm afraid, Shoki would be a hobgoblin instead of making a god."  Will we someday see Shoki as our 8 million and first god?  He might change his role or grace, something like a gurdian of small shops, maybe.  I would rather find Shoki shrined in a temple or something, not in the least find him in a video game fighting as a ....