The gift ceremony which is held at the pavilion MIWA is based on Shinto, the 1300 year old Japanese art of wrapping gift packages “Origata”.

 

Over 700 years ago, there was profession of Origata for Imperial family named "Kidono", and Shogunate family "Orikamigata". We think they are not just wrapper but there should be ceremony of Origata like tea ceremony. Unfortunately the ceremony was already lost. So we research deeply on the ceremonies in Shinto and shogunate, and start to renovate the Origata ceremony in the pavilion MIWA.

 

The meaning of the ceremony

In Shintoism, the ancestral religion of Japan, there is no Bible and rules. That considers that the primary source of human evil lies in our inability to be in the world: we are constantly worried about our future and constantly dwell on our past, which prevents us from being happy.

 

The rare moments of absolute happiness appear in these brief moments of grace, when we are suddenly inhabited only by our feelings and our mind is silent.

In our living, we accumulate worries, regrets, anxieties, and we carry these evils - called "tsumi" in Japanese - that pull us down, that suck our energy.

The purpose of this ceremony is to have the donor's heart passed on in this gift, to be translated by the movements of the paper and cords, and to be offered with sincerity to the addressee.

 

With this ceremony, getting rid of the Tsumi, the donor’s heart will dwell on the gift. Origata will confine the gift with paper and paper knot. By devoting your time to someone dear to you, you transform your gift into a truly unique and heartfelt offering. It is impossible to delegate those moments when one devotes his time and thoughts to another, those moments when one is entirely in the present. This is why we cannot perform the ceremony in the absence of the donor. The pavilion MIWA offers you the appropriate place and the appropriate time for this nearly sacred experience.

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Process

1) Please make an appointment to visit Pavilion MIWA with your gift.

2) We will make an orientation for ceremony and  fix the day of ceremony

3) The ceremony will be held only for you. If you want to invite receiver, you can.

4) The gift after the ceremony will be kept in MIWA for 1 night. We will deliver wherever you want in Paris next day.

5) The duration of ceremony will be 40 - 50min

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Officiant Shinto for the gift ceremony / Masasugu OKUTANI

Masatsugu Okutani is the 25th successor as chief officiant at Yabuhara Shrine in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The Yabuhara Shrine was founded in 680. The family, originally from Kyoto, moved to Nagano prefecture just after the Heian capital burst in 1180.

Since then, the family has always guaranteed succession in the direct lineage of the offspring. Until the end of the period (1185), his family served from generation to generation for the Hachiman-gu Shrine in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, and went to the present shrine just after the end of the Heian period.

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