Sazare-ishi | さざれ石

さざれ石/細れ石

Gravel/Pebbles

My interest in Sazare-ishi was piqued after coming across them at both Okawa Jinja and Meguro Hachiman Jinja. Sazare-ishi literally means gravel/pebbles or boulder formed from gravel and sediment. It is the latter of these which is relevant here. The kind of boulder we are talking about is defined thus:

"a sedimentary rock composed of rounded, gravel-sized clasts (rock fragments) that are cemented together by calcium carbonate. This rock forms when substances like calcium carbonate fill the spaces between pebbles and stones, and over long periods, the pressure and mineral deposits harden the collection into a single, solid mass."

They can be found in jinja around the country, though far from all jinja. The one in Omii Jinja in Hyuga-shi, Miyazaki-ken, is considered to be the largest in the country. The photo to the right is taken from the shrine's home page.

The reason sazare-ishi are revered in jinja is that they are actually mentioned in Kimigayo, the Japanese national anthem, in order to wish the emperor a long life.　Following is the text of Kimigayo, the translation is by Basil Hall Chamberlain：

君が代は
千代に八千代に
さざれ石の
巌となりて
苔のむすまで

Thousands of years of happy reign be thine;

Rule on, my lord, till what are pebbles now.

By ages united to mighty rocks shall grow.

Whose venerable sides the moss doth line".

Just 45 characters long, the Kimigayo is the world’s shortest national anthem, and as the the lyrics first appeared in the Kokin Wakashu, an imperial poetry compiled from 915 to 920, it is also the world’s oldest national anthem. The first three characters of the poem were originally 我が君, read wagakimi, meaning ‘my lord,’ and they were changed to their present form 君が代, Kimigayo, sometime in the Kamakura Period, 1185-1333. The rest of the poem remained unchanged. It was originally sung on various social occasions, e.g. birthday parties, and it was not until the late 19th century that Kimigayo first began to be used to refer to the emperor. Another century passed before a law was passed establishing Kimigayo as the country’s official national anthem. This was on August 12, 1999.

Jinja on this webpage where Sazare-ishi are located

Okawa Jinja Maezuru-shi, Kyoto-fu

Meguro Hachiman Jinja Meguro-ku, Tokyo