Ground Breaking Ceremony, 地鎮祭 (Jichinsai) for HRH
20.02.2011We had the ground breaking ceremony over the weekend (Jichinsai) for the house in Nagoya. This ceremony is a Shinto ritual to appease the God of the Earth and pray for the safety of the construction before new work begins. This ceremony involved the client’s family, builder and the architect led by a priest who presided over the ceremony. The ceremony took approximately 45mins with rituals of chanting, sprinkling of paper squares, symbolic acts of initialising construction, washed rice, salt and sake sprinkling to 4 corners of the site and the offering of specific food items at an altar. The ceremony was more cultural than religious and forms an essential aspect of almost every construction phase in Japan. There was a specific moment when the client symbolically removed a turf of grass from a mound of soil and we experienced a sudden strong breeze, almost indicating that the spirits have arrived to bless the construction site.
