“Children Refectories” is a straight translation of “Kodomo Shokudō”, the topic of the editorial in the July 22nd issue of Jinja Shinpō. This is an idea that has grown as a grassroots movement in Japan, apparently starting in 2012, and now having about 9,000 examples across the country. Because it is a grassroots movement with no central coordination the idea is a bit vague, but the core is the provision of free or very cheap collective meals for children.
In a survey carried out in 2021, the most common goals given by the various places were “providing children with food” and “providing children with a place where they can be themselves”. However, “support for single-parent families”, “inter-generational contact”, “local community building”, “support for the poor”, and “supporting parents in child raising” were also very popular. Thus, although they do not appear to be a Japanese counterpart to food banks, they do serve some similar purposes.
So, why was this in Jinja Shinpō? Well, among the other reasons given for running these refectories was “passing on traditional events”, and that is something that jinja are very concerned with. However, in the survey only 3.2% of the refectories were run by religious corporations, and many of those were probably not jinja. The editorial was suggesting that this was something that jinja could do to contribute to their local communities.
I think this is an excellent idea, for a number of reasons. First, these refectories provide a valuable space and service. There are doubtless cases in which the meal is important to the children’s health, and in those cases it is really important. However, even when the children would be physically healthy without the extra meal, the opportunity to spend time with other children, and for the parents to get a break, is very valuable, and something that families who are financially struggling might find it difficult to provide in other ways.
Second, this sort of space is likely to build a community. Children make friends, and thus drag their parents into community relationships that they might not have otherwise formed. Building such links at a jinja is exactly the sort of thing that the Shinto community claims jinja are all about.
Third, this fits perfectly into Shinto ritual traditions. A matsuri is traditionally followed by a shared meal, and while this is almost entirely symbolic in a lot of contemporary cases, it can be a full meal, even today. This is the ‘naorai’, and it would make a lot of sense for a jinja to hold a short matsuri first, and then have everyone attend the naorai.
The editorial does not mention this last point, which is interesting. I can think of a couple of possible reasons. The first is that tying the meals to a “religious” event might cause problems, and the author does not want to push it. The second is that, if the meal is to be free, the people attending the matsuri cannot be asked for an offering. Given that offerings for matsuri are a major part of the income for most jinja, this is a precedent that they may not want to set.
In any case, I hope that something does happen as a result of this editorial. If there are articles about it, I will report them here.