Kototama Okagami: The 1940 Lectures of Yamakoshi Meisho – Lecture 2

LECTURE 2  TIME, SPACE AND WEAVING THE UNIVERSE

Preface

Okunomichi  on 2014.09.04 presented a brief overview, Kototama Researchers of the Modern Period. Kototama is the soul of words as well as the soul of things, and therefore the sacred power of speech. We have devoted several posts to this topic on this site and on Okunomichi, and they can be located through the SEARCH box. As promised long ago, we are now posting notes from the lectures of Yamakoshi Meisho (aka Yamakoshi Akimasa). From Okunomichi:

Yamakoshi Hiromichi (Koudo), Calligrapher to Emperor Meiji

Yamakoshi Akimasa (Meisho), Secretary and son of calligrapher Yamakoshi Hiromichi

Lecture 2

Vowels and consonants, space and time.  Vowels map out space, while consonants map out time. All together they form the universe, uchuu, where u represents vowels and space, and chuu represents consonants and time.

Waka by Empress Shoken. Among the many waka written by Empress Shoken is this.

Shikishima no     Yamato kotoba wo     tatenukini     

orushizu hata no     oto no saya kesa

Shikishima is the name for Nihon in traditional waka poetry. Orushizu hata is doing the weaving with the hata-ori weaving machine, and oto no saya is the beautiful sound of weaving. The empress implies that time and space are being created in harmony, and the country is doing well.

One hundred sounds of kototama.  There are one hundred sounds (syllables) when fifty sounds are reflected in the sacred mirror. There are various folktales about kototama. For example, the folk hero Momotaro has a name that refers to the one hundred (momo) sounds coming out. His grandparents are Isanagi and Isanami [says Yamakoshi]. In another tale, Urashimataro tells about the Chinese visitor who came seeking the elixir of immortality. When he opened the treasure box, only smoke appeared – because he did not understand kototama. [Doesn’t this imply that kototama is the secret of immortality?]

Yama symbol of eight spaces, kume symbol of nine squares.  The yama symbol is the square containing four intersecting lines, one pair forming a ‘+’ and the other pair an ‘x’. These lines divide the square into eight parts, each an isosceles right triangle. The name ‘ya ma’ comes from the indigenous words ya meaning eight and ma meaning spaces. It is equivalent to kume: ku, nine; me, eyes; these ‘eyes’ are the points at the eight ends of line segments plus the point in the center. Yama can also be represented as a square divided into nine equal smaller squares.

Yama symbol of eight spaces

[It is said that kume sennin immortals rode clouds around the universe. Sennin is written 仙人 and means immortal mountain wizard. The adjective kume may refer to wizards who understood kototama.]

Kume symbol of nine squares

The two lines that cross the yama square like a + is the symbol of the kami Kamimusubi. The other two lines that cross in an x form is the symbol of Takamimusubi. Both kami are needed to make sound and things.

The 9 father sounds (consonants) plus 5 mother sounds (vowels) together make 14 sounds, where 14 is toyo: to = 10 and yo = 4. [Toyo, as in Toyota, means excellent, bountiful. So the father and mother sounds together are excellent and denote prosperity.]

The joining of Kamimusubi and Takamimusubi is represented by the crossbeam as well as the the twisted rope shimenawa on a torii; it is a kuchinawa, a snake rope. These days it reminds us of the DNA helix.

Torii and shimenawa by Raggaeman

The Sound Chart: Amenominakanushi, Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi.  The Amanoiwato [the sacred iwa rock-cave] is the human mind. To understand this, just listening won’t do. You must open your mind. The word iwa is i no ha (where ‘i’ means 5 or 50, and ‘ha’ means breath). The 50 sounds are fundamental (hado no moto). ‘Hado’ means vibration, and ‘moto’ means base. All vibrations from the universe enter the brain, and the hundred kami appear. A kami is power; for example the kami of water is the power of water. When we have musubi, the kami are connecting.

Mythological Amaterasu emerging from the Amanoiwato rock cave

The sound U is the kami Amenominakanushi, which gives rise to the two kami Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi. Consider how U divides into A and WA.  A is akarui, light, Takamimusubi. WA is shadow, Kamimusubi. A is clear like fire, and positive; WA is hidden like water, and negative. So the single sound of U separates into WA-A, mizu-ho, water-fire. [Mizuho is also the name of a large financial corporation in Japan.]

Takamimusubi makes things come out – recall that the T sound is a coming out sound. Kamimusubi makes things by connecting. Both kami are needed! They are dual (opposite) energies of U. When U divides into WA and A, the properties of WA and A are as follows.

WA  –  A

Kamimusubi  –  Takamimusubi

water  –  fire

female  –  male

negative  –  positive

right  –  left

down  –  up

unseen  –  physical

black  –  white

heat  –  light

Futomani meaning.  Let us now discuss what happens when we put our hands together when we pray or clap. A is the thumb of the left hand, WA is that of the right hand. The digits of the left hand represent the sounds A TA KA SA HA; the right hand represents WA YA MA RA NA. When we put our hands together we have the pairs A-WA, TA-YA, etc. One clap is ten sounds; two claps are twenty = futo, fu = two, to = ten, and represents the kototama of futomani, the twenty mana. Futomani is the joining of Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi.

Thus uchuurei the universal spirit enters the human head. Kami is the principle of movement of kototama.

Editor’s note:  At the end of this lecture, Yamakoshi is describing the vibration of the universe as kototama. Vibration is movement, as in the above final statement. Or more precisely, the movement of kototama is the vibration of energy which we call by the name kami. Here, Yamakoshi is explaining his opening statements about Amanoiwato as the cave in the human brain, and opening the cave with kototama. He stated that kototama is the principle of every wisdom teaching. Do we see how he arrives at this conclusion?

We have learned the true meaning of Isuzu and now we know why it is as fine a name for a car as for a river. We learn here the greater meaning of Futomani. This basic meaning of futomani as the twenty energies is part of the kototama teaching. The use of futomani to mean divination is an application of kototama knowledge to analyzing a situation and determining an optimal outcome in harmony with the universe. Yamakoshi does not go into it here, but it is well known in kototama circles that the numerals hi, fu, mi, yo, i,… (one, two, three, four, five,…) are themselves powerful kototama syllables. 

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Isanagi’s Rice Paddy Fields. Part One. Awanouta

Ref: http://julian.way-nifty.com/woshite/2009/08/post-93fe.html, dated 2009.08.13

Preface

This is a rendering of another one of Beace-san’s informative — and candid — posts. We find it so interesting for the number of important insights it provides about the Wosite civilization of Jōmon Japan. One insight reveals the existence of paddy-field rice cultivation at an early time in the history of the Jōmon native people of Japan. Another is the initiative of Isanami and Isanagi in improving the communication ability of the diverse tribes so that they could cooperate in growing rice crops. They created a Kototama [power of speech] song called Awanouta, with basic vocal sounds that expressed the positive energies of the universe. The Wosite people developed a cosmic worldview in which the universe is created through the dynamic action of five fundamental energies, an advanced concept over the static description of five static elements. And perhaps it was a precurser of modern quantum mechanics. Wosite learning taught the existence and activity of the human soul. The Motoake chart design described their cosmic worldview. It also served as the referent of a decision-making method called Hutomani. The sheer antiquity of the Wosite civilization of the Jōmon period of Japan attests to the vital contributions of Wosite thought on global understanding of the nature of reality. 

PART ONE

Paddy field reclamation of Isanagi and Isanami and paddy rice cultivation method

The time of Isanagi and Isanami was a time of paddy field reclamation and cultivation [wet rice agriculture]. Now, a big problem was the spoken language. It was difficult to direct and teach people with different dialects. Paddy rice cultivation is all about collaborative work. Also, if the work is done late or too early, it will affect the growth of the rice plants. They couldn’t get the job done without accurate verbal communication.

As an aside, I [Beace] think it was only these two people, Isanagi and Isanami, who noticed these things in detail. Their ancestor is Ta-no-Kunisatuti of the Takamimusuhi [a.k.a.Takamimusubi] lineage. Isanami is in a direct line, being the daughter of the fifth Takamimusuhi. Isanagi is from a subsidiary line. They took over after the 6th generation Amakami who had no children. Isanami grew up in Hitakami (Tohoku), and Isanagi was born in Nenokuni around present-day Kanazawa.

When they were about to join together in matrimony, they may have thought … It’s difficult to succeed to the Amakami, especially because they were two people growing up in different environments and languages. Even after getting married, I’m sure there was some difficulty in communicating in words .

That reminds me, I went to Kagoshima from my home in Kumamoto before the days of TV … It was like going abroad. I couldn’t understand the Kagoshima people, even though I’m from a neighboring prefecture. Recently, thanks to TV, even the elderly can speak the standard language. However … for a while ten years ago, I lived deep in the mountains of Kagoshima. Well, daytime was fine. But at night, I didn’t understand 99% of what the drunken old man and my aunt were talking about! It took me a year to guess most things.

Awanouta, the A I U E O song 

The 48-syllable Awanouta

Isanagi and Isanami decided to make a good-sounding 5-7-rhythm A I U E O song; they practiced vocalization, and arranged the words for the people. And they made the Awanouta [the song of A and Wa]. It can be said that the “A” world represents cosmos and the “Wa” in Awanouta represents Kunitama, the earth; together Awa [A and Wa] represents the entire universe.

This is a song made on the banks of the Awaumi capitol [now Lake Biwako in Ōmi, i.e., Shiga prefecture]. An ancient five-stringed koto called katakaki (an ancestor of Wa-koto, Japanese koto) was struck, and Isanagi sang loudly …

” Akahanama ikihini miuku
　hunumueke heneme okohono “

Izanami followed with a beautiful voice,

” Motorosoyo wotere seyeturu
　Suyuntiri siyitara sayawa “　

People also sang together. As they sang many times, their voices joined, and they felt better. Some people may have enjoyed it so much they started dancing … In-between bouts of labor, surrounding the bonfire at night, they all would have had a great time.

The five sounds A I U E O that form everything

The five elementary sounds are A I U E O. They have names:

A is Utuho [space energy]

I is Kase [wind energy]

U is Ho [fire energy]

E is Mitu [water energy]

O is Hani [solidifying energy].

These five primordial sounds are the processes that make all phenomena and substances in the universe. [Although these words are often translated as “Five Elements,” they are really “Five Elementary Energies” or “Five Elementary Processes.”]

When you say “ahhhhh”, something like Utsuho’s energy enters your body through the sound, into your cells. And it may refresh and activate the Utsuho component that makes up the molecules, atoms, electrons, elementary particles, etc. It is the idea that it affects other components in general and prepares the body and mind.

It is said that mental and spiritual things are also made through these five elementary processes. There are things that can be gathered together. The invisible thing is called Yekura, whose composition also consists of five components: Tama (comprised of three parts, Tama, Kokoroba, Miyabi) and Siyi (composed of two parts, Siyi, Simu). Tama in a thing means that the proportion of Utsuho is higher than that of Muwata (body and organs) that can be seen. In animals, Tama has almost no Utsuho. It seems that humans are different from animals … interesting!

The energy emitted from Amemiwoya forms all things, but Tama is made from the energy of Wo (Urunami) that comes through the sun. Siyi is made from the energy of Me (Yorunami) that comes from the moon. [Note that Wo is male energy and Me is female energy, analogous to yang and yin.] These two are made of energy Tamanowo from the earth and are connected as Tamasiyi. Also, when the person dies, this Tamanowo is detached. Tama returns to Amemioya’s Moto [Origin] through the sun and Siyi through the moon. Tamanowo and the remaining body are each decomposed into the five elements/energies and returned to Kunitama.

Isn’t this refreshing!

[Note the similarity of this Wosite description of soul to that of Shinto. It supports the view that the origin of Shinto lies in the days of the Wosite civilization. The case at hand is the word for the Shinto soul, tamashii.  This word no doubt came from the Wosite tamasiyi, by changing the last syllable. Many of the Wosite syllables beginning with “y” and “w” are no longer in use in the Japanese language.]

The spread of Awanouta

The Awanouta song has spread since then. This was the first forty-eight syllable table, and it represented the elements of Japanese (Wosite characters), but it also brought about a rich healing effect through the voice.

Therefore, Amakami, Kunikami, and others actively instructed and transmitted this uta [song] that prepares the mind and body. Amakami traveled all over the country and taught songs along with technical guidance. Therefore, when a child became able to speak, it was good education to teach Awanouta, to sing it every day, and to prepare the words, mind, and body.

“It is the misogi [purification practice] that cleanses the body, and the uta that cleanses the dust of the mind.”

This is older, much older, than the Chinese Yin-yang five elements. This cosmology is unique to Japan — from the time of the founding of this country … In other words, this concept had already been established long, long ago in Jōmon Japan of 6,000 BCE.

To be continued in the next post.

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Flash Cards to Learn Wosite Characters

A flashcard for Wosite NE, by Kevin Kawamoto.

Kevin Kawamoto, a Wosite student, is teaching himself to recognize the Wosite syllables. He has made a stack of 48 flashcards, one for each character. Here is the card for the syllable ne. The red arrow shows which side is up. He has assigned the number 19 to this syllable. And he has written the name of the syllable in the lower right corner.

Let us know if you try this, and if you have ideas of your own to share.

Best wishes on your study of Wosite!

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Wosite Fundamentals 4. Awanouta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wosite Syllabary

The chart on the left is the Wosite syllabary of 48 syllables. Ignoring the arrows and colors for now, read it from upper right to lower left, going down column by column. We start with  A  and end with  WO. The columns read:

Allographs

There are two allographs in the syllabary chart: the cosmic  A  and the cosmic  WA, to indicate Cosmos and Earth, respectively. This syllabary contains the processes of creation of the world from Space to solid matter. The chart on the right contains other allographs — A,  HU,  and  HE — which serve a different purpose.

Awanouta

This is the Awanouta, the Song of A and Wa, the song of creation. It is a re-arrangement of the glyphs of the syllabary. The arrows point out the order. The blue arrow indicates the syllables from  A  to  NO. The red arrow continues with  MO  to the end, WA.The blue section was sung by Isanagi (male) and the red by Isanami (female). Again, male before female. Here is Awanouta.

Kototama 

Awanouta is the kototama song of Wosite. It contains all 48 processes of creation from Cosmos to Earth. When we sound it slowly and clearly with intention, we connect with cosmic energies and Universe.

 

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Wosite Fundamentals 2. Wosite Syllabary

Written Wosite is a syllabic script of 48 basic characters plus some special forms to enhance meaning, such as for emphasis, numerals, or clarification. Each character is read as a syllable, consonant first and vowel second. There are only two sounds in each syllable, a single consonant and a single vowel. Of course, for pure vowels, there is no consonant sound at all.

Vowels

There are five vowels in Wosite. The vowel sounds are  A,  I,  U,  E,  O. They are pronounced as in Hawaiian or in Spanish. Vowels can stand alone or can be combined with a consonant to form a syllable. Each vowel represents a cosmic energy or a process of creation. Although their names seem to be “things” or “elements,” they are really “actions” or “movements.” Universe creates through movement.

There are five basic vowel glyphs, each shown here with its vowel sound, Wosite name, translation of name in quotation marks, and cosmic energy / creative process. 

The translated names are given for mnemonic purposes, not as literal meanings; meanings are given succinctly in the last column.

Exercise:  Pronounce the vowels out loud. Imagine the type of process each vowel represents.

Consonants

There are ten glyphs indicating nine consonants plus no consonant sound (i.e., pure vowel sound). The null consonant is indicated by a dot. Consonant sounds are indicated by glyphs which are superimposed on vowel glyphs to be sounded as syllables. Consonants are always sounded before vowels. There would be five times ten = 50 characters but there are only 48 ordinary syllables in the Wosite syllabary since two are missing.

Exercise:  Learn the consonants in the given order by sounding the syllables above.

Wosite Syllables

The result of combining the vowels with the consonants produces syllables. In this special case, the written character for the sound  a  is composed of the utuho glyph and the dot. Thus,

Similarly, to form the syllable  ka, superimpose the utuho glyph and the  k  glyph:

Following this procedure for all but two combinations of vowel and consonant glyphs, we obtain the chart of basic syllable characters below, to be read from right to left and top to bottom. The characters are very regular, following the above rules except for a few irregularities. This chart resembles a mathematical table, an array of five columns and ten rows. The columns represent cosmic creative energies and the rows symbolize transformative processes. Herein lies the cosmogony of the Wosite people.

Wosite Syllabary Chart

(Matsumoto 1999)

Reading down the first column, we have:

A   KA   HA   NA   MA   TA   RA   SA   YA   WA

This sequence symbolizes creation of the world from Cosmos A to Earth WA. (Notice that WA is not written with a circle.) With this chart, you will be able to read Wosite literature except for special symbols (allographs such as the cosmic  A).

The second column reads:

I   KI   HI   NI   MI   TI   RI   SI   YI

We note that current Nihongo pronounces  chi  for  ti and  shi  for  si.  These sounds changed after the introduction of the Chinese language. Similarly,  tsu  for  ti.

Third column:

U   KU   HU   NU   MU   TU   RU   SU   YU   WU

We notice that  ru  and  wu  have modified shapes. For the  E  column:

E   KE   HE   NE   ME   TE   RE   SE   YE

For the  O  column:

O   KO   HO   NO   MO   TO   RO   SO   YO   WO

Frequently,  wo  is written with a dot in the center. This completes the entries in the syllabary.

Exercise:  Write the Wosite syllables in the form of the syllabary chart. Compare your chart with Matsumoto’s.

Kototama

The rule in Wosite is that consonant goes before vowel to form a syllable. This is very important because Wosite is a kototama language. This is a rule of kototama, the power of sound, the Spirit in speech. 

Kototama refers to vowels as “mother sounds” and consonants as “father sounds.” A prominent myth of Isanagi (“father”) and Isanami (“mother”) reminds us that “father goes before mother.” As a kototama language, Wosite is powerful, as evidenced by tales in Hotsuma Tsutae. 

Another rule of kototama is the avoidance of voiced consonants (called dakuon) which darken energy and make it more negative. Thus, even the name kototama is preferred over the modern version, kotodama. Dakuon rarely appears in Wosite literature except when necessary.

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Basics of Wosite

Wosite Literature

There are three extant documents written in Wosite script. They are called the Hotsuma Tsutae, the Futomani, and the Misakafumi. Here we show an excerpt from the Hotsuma Tsutae, lines 2576-2583. Wosite literature is read from top to bottom and right to left, the same as in traditional Nihongo. The Wosite documents have been composed and written as poetry with a five-seven rhythm, said to be the rhythm of earth and cosmos.

Each character is read as a syllable, consonant first and vowel second. There are only two sounds, a consonant and a vowel in each syllable. For pure vowels, of course, there is no consonant at all. There are 48 such syllables.

We will show how the syllables are written, starting with their vowel sounds. We will find that the Wosite written language is full of meaning, especially having to do with the energies of creation of Universe. As for spoken Wosite, it may be considered kototama, that is, spoken Wosite carries the power of sound energy. Therefore, one speaks in a responsible manner.

Vowels

There are five vowels.  The vowels are  a,  i,  u,  e,  o.  They are always given in this order because the order represents cosmological process.

    A           Utuho     “space”          Originating energy/process

     I            Kase          “wind”        Vibrating energy/process

     U            Ho             “fire”           Burning energy/process

       E             Mitu         “water”       Flowing energy/process

       O            Hani         “earth”        Solidifying energy/process

Vowel sounds are similar to Hawaiian and Spanish. There are no diphthongs.

Each vowel represents a cosmic energy or process. Although their names seem to be “things” or “elements,” they are really “actions” or “movements.” Universe creates through movement.

Exercise: Pronounce the vowels out loud. Imagine the type of process each vowel represents.

Consonants

There are ten consonants if we count the null sound as a consonant. The consonant order is important for cosmological reasons.

The first five consonant glyphs read (top to bottom):

                                              –         K          H        N        M                                                                     

                                              T          R          S        Y        W

In Nihongo, since there are no consonants per se, one would say, “a  ka  ha  na  ma  ta  ra  sa  ya  wa.”

Exercise:  Learn the order of the ten consonants, reciting “a  ka  ha  na  ma  ta  ra  sa  ya  wa.”

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Awanouta. Part 2. Awanouta and Wosite Syllabary

 

We show how the ideograms/syllables of the Awanouta (in the box above) were derived from the Wosite syllabary. This figure is by S. Sakata.

Wosite Syllabary

Shown in the box is a chart of the Wosite syllabary. It begins with the blue ideogram for  a. Follow the blue arrow to the left for the upper half of the song which Isanagi sings. The red ideogram for  mo  begins Isanami’s lower half. Follow the red arrows to the right to the end of the song at  wa.

You can see why Isanagi’s half is called “upper” and Isanami’s is called “lower”. When the ideograms are written and sung in the given order in 5 – 7 rhythm, the Awanouta of Part 1 is produced.

Verse 402 Hutakami ha

The verse reads:

huta kami ha     arata ni mekuri

wo ha hitari     me ha miki mekuri

ahi utahu     ame no awa uta

Glossary:

hutakami /  two kami.  aratani / newly.  mekuri / to revolve.  hitari / left.  miki / right.  ahi (ai) / together.

Interpretation

The two kami     newly went around

male to the left     female to the right

sang together     song of Cosmos.

This is the famous story of how Isanagi goes around to the left and Isanami to the right. Isanagi sings first and Isanami sings second. That is the proper way. The reason is: Isanagi’s song comes from the upper five lines of the syllabary, minus the last syllable, mo. Isanami starts with mo and goes through the rest of the chart to the end, wa. His lines are regular: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5-1. Hers are irregular: 1+5, 4, 5, 4, 5 and begins with mo. Thus it can be said that it was not proper for her to sing first, as the well-known legend relates. When they realized this, then he sang first and all was well.

The singing and movements of Isanami and Isanagi may be considered to be a ceremony for giving birth to a good country. This insight of theirs came from much praying with their whole hearts.

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2. Wosite Syllabary

Woshite/Wosite.   Woshite is the modern pronunciation of the language originally sounded as Wo-si-te or Wosite. Over the course of time, the shi sound came to replace the si sound. In general communication, we may prefer to say Woshite. However, when we are analyzing the writing, we will say and write Wosite.

Wosite is a syllabic language. Vowels and syllables form words. In general, syllables begin with a consonant.

The Wosite syllabary of 48 ideograms is shown in tabular form above, five rows and ten columns, with two “missing” entries. If we were to read across the  a  row, we would say, “a, ka, ha, na, ma, ta, ra, sa, ya, wa.”  The i row would read, “i, ki, hi, etc.”

In Wosite analysis, we will study the forms of the ideograms and their meanings. In this article, we present the basics of Wosite. Detailed explanations will follow.

Why study Wosite? Wosite is a language and writing system which was designed long ago in a systematic manner. Through  analysis, we learn not only how meanings are contained in language and in writing, both past and present. We learn that Wosite reveals the origin of the universe by powerful, creative, unseen energies. We get an inkling of how energy moves and actualizes things and even life itself.

Figures in this post. The figures shown here are from the book in Japanese, Yomigaeru Nihongo, Vol. I, by S. Aoki and N. Hiraoka, 2009, with their kind permission.

Vowels.   There are five vowels in Wosite: a, i, u, e, o. Shown in Fig. 2-14 are the elementary glyphs for vowels. Vowels are pronounced as in Spanish, Italian, or Hawaiian.

Each vowel sound has a unique creative energy from universe: Space-, Wind-, Fire-, Water-, and Soil-energy.  Vowels represent primary transformations of state. As ideograms, they serve as frames for consonant modifiers. A vowel not preceded by a consonant is indicated by a dot in the ideogram.

Consonants.   There is a symbol (the dot) indicating a pure vowel, plus there are nine glyphs representing nine consonant sounds. These are shown in Fig. 2-15.

The consonant glyphs represent phase changes of state, and serve as more detailed expressions of process.

Ideograms and syllables.  Fig. 2-16 shows how the syllable ideograms are formed from the fifteen basic elements just presented. We see immediately that there are exceptions in the last  column for  w. There are two missing entries. The ideogram in the w  column, u  row, is correctly pronounced “wu”, although in the present age it is pronounced “n”. Also, in the  r   column, the ideogram for the syllable  ru  is written differently than expected. This is how the chart of Fig. 2-13 at the beginning of this article was formed.Yoshinosuke Matsumoto through decades of study determined the Wosite syllabary. Mitsuru Ikeda and researchers of the Japan Woshite Institute developed an understanding of the meanings of the ideograms. If you can read Japanese, we suggest that you read the references given in Post 1.1.

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