On the first Sunday of July for hundreds of years now, a priest has performed a Shinto ceremony called umibiraki on Shiraishi Island. At this "opening-of-the-sea" ceremony, the priest blesses the sea making it safe for swimming.
Sort of. We prayed last year at this ceremony and got typhoons. We prayed the year before and got rain every weekend. We prayed the year before that and the sea was overrun with giant stinging jellyfish. The ceremony may make the sea safe for swimming but for who? People aren't the only ones that swim. Fish swim. Octopus swim. Jellyfish swim. I'm beginning to think this ceremony is for them.
It was a dismal, cold, rainy day and we all sat in chairs facing the sea while the priest performed the rites of the ceremony in front of us. I couldn't help but wonder: Why are we opening the sea anyway? Like Moses parted the Red Sea, perhaps the priest opens the Inland Sea? And even Moses only did it once. Not every year for hundreds of years. Does the sea really need to be opened? Is the priest like some spiritual can opener?