During Kanda Matsuri festival, portable shrines (Mikoshi) with a phœnix on top are brought in religious procession to Kanda Myojin shrine. Because of this event (one of the three most important in Tokyo, every odd year), which is intended to honour the deities (Kami) of this Shintō temple and to strengthen links between members of several communities, a lot of people and ‘phœnix’ merge at the same place.
But this legendary bird in Asia is it the same one as the phœnix of Ancient times in Greece and Rome? What is their different symbolism?
You can find a picture of phœnix almost everywhere in Japan. Of course, it is visible in Kanda Matsuri event:
Also on the roof of Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto:
As a ‘logo’, it is on express trains (Shinkansen) like this one:
A few barrels of sake (in shrine’s courtyards) wear its effigy:
And on the back of 10,000 ¥ banknotes, there is an image of the phœnix of Byodoin, a shrine located in the South of Kyoto:
This banknote bears the highest value of Japanese banknotes (approximately USD 90 or EUR 80); it might be a kind of metaphor of the Phœnix’s high value!
The Japanese fabulous bird, named Hakuhō (or Akuo), comes from India and China, as it came in the archipelago with Buddhism at the end of the VIIth century. Therefore, locations or artefacts linked to China and/or Buddhism in Japan have it as an emblem:
Hakuhō means ‘Chinese white bird’ or ‘Chinese firebird’ in Japanese; its feathers are gold and red, which are imperial colours:
Moreover, this phœnix embodies Confucius virtues such as Goodness, Loyalty and Wisdom, and it is a bird of good omen. Female and male phœnix together symbolize a happy wedding and union.
The name of Hakuhō has been given to a special period of time in Japan. The end of the VIIth century, under the reign of Tenmu Emperor, is called Hakuhō jidai, which implies a renewal, a sort of ‘Renaissance’, in several fields, especially in Arts. As the bird is supposed to rise from the ashes.
Here is the point where the Eastern world’s phœnix myth meets up with the Western one. The Western phœnix (of Egypt, Greece and Rome) was a magnificent bird, with an extraordinary longevity, which was able to come back to life after letting itself burnt on the altar. Hence, both symbolize immortality and revival, cyclic resurgence.
The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about Egyptian phœnix in these words: ‘for the bird seldom comes into Egypt: once in five hundred years, as the people of Heliopolis say. It is said that the phœnix comes when his father dies … His plumage is partly golden and partly red … Flying from Arabia to the temple of the Sun, they say, he conveys his father encased in myrrh and buries him at the temple‘ (History, II, 73; translated by A.D. Godley, 1920).
The Latin way of thinking has inherited the symbolism of death and revival through Pythagorism, a philosophy full of mystical study. This is the reason why the Latin poet Ovid made the Greek philosopher Pythagoras teach about the mythical bird: ‘There is one, a bird, which renews itself, and reproduces from itself. The Assyrians call it the phœnix … When it has lived for five centuries, it then builds a nest for itself, using only its beak and talons. As soon as it has lined it with cassia bark, and smooth spikes of nard, cinnamon fragments and yellow myrrh, it settles on top, and ends its life among the perfumes. They say that, from the father’s body, a young phœnix is reborn, destined to live the same number of years‘ (Metamorphoses, XV; translated by A.S. Kline, 2000).
During the Roman imperial era, this legend became the symbol of an ever-lasting power through continuity of emperors.
In modern times, the phœnix still embodies life coming after destruction. For example, in Bruges (Belgium), you can read on a building these Latin words: Ut phœnix ex cinere suo Brugensium donorum vivisco, meaning: ‘Like the phœnix rising from the ashes, I start to live again thanks to the donations of Bruges citizens.’
San Francisco (USA) also has got this bird for emblem, as this town was destroyed by a great fire in XIXth century and rebuilt since:
Nowadays, ‘Phœnix’ is also the name of a southern constellation, the state capital of Arizona, and a group of eight islands in the Western Pacific Ocean.
Finally, who does not remember the scene (in The Chamber of secrets) when Harry Potter sees a phœnix instantly rising from the ashes, as if by magic, in Dumbledore’s office?