Hatsumōdë Manners

Quite a few of the responses to Jinja Shinpō’s survey on hatsumōdë dealt, in one way or another, with hatsumōdë etiquette.

One problem that has come up before is that people are too well-mannered. They line up to pay their respects, and wait patiently in line, even when the line gets really, really long. One priest noted that they try to get four or five people to pay their respects at once, because there is plenty of space, but if they (the priests) go away again, it soon drifts back to two people at a time. Last year one jinja mentioned putting up dividers for “social distance”, which got people paying respects four at a time. That sort of psychological trick might well be necessary to solve the problem. Still, people are obviously keen to pay their respects at the jinja, because they do wait.

A few priests also mentioned increasing numbers of foreign visitors, specifically tourists. Several mentioned that more foreigners were asking for goshuin, or writing requests on ema in a variety of writing systems and languages. One specifically noted that they were seeing more foreigners paying their respects with a sincere attitude, and that they were delighted about this. One priest did express concern about people visiting jinja without paying their respects at all, but their suggested response was to raise awareness of the expected etiquette among foreigners, maybe by getting influencers involved. (Been there, done that. The population of “Foreign” is very big, and difficult to reach…) Another priest mentioned that they were managing to handle requests from foreigners by using translation apps on their smartphones, but that they felt that they were going to have to do more to make foreigners welcome in the future.

As normal, the only foreigners the priests are somewhat concerned about are the ones who don’t practise Shinto while visiting the jinja.

The attitudes expressed about pets at jinja were not as positive. Several priests mentioned that people were bringing their pets and, because they are “members of the family”, not keeping them under control. They said that they were going to start making some clear rules about it, because some people were simply not paying any attention to the fact that they were in a sacred space.

A few were a bit more general, with longing for the “good old days”. One priest commented that young people are treating hatsumōdë more as an event than a religious occasion, making offerings for omikuji fortunes but not offering formal prayers. Another said that people today were much more selfish, and didn’t give money to the jinja without asking what was in it for them. (It takes a surprising amount of self-awareness to notice that you are accusing people of being selfish because they are not giving you money.)

One repeated a common complaint. In the good old days, old people were models for the community, but old people today don’t know how to behave at jinja, while young people are much better at it, possibly because they look it up online. This really is a common complaint, and is actually easy to explain. Twenty years ago, old people had grown up before the war, and thus had been required to attend jinja and learn the etiquette as children. Old people today grew up post-war, in the period when jinja were unpopular due to their association with the militaristic wartime government. Young people today grew up in a period when jinja were more favourably regarded. So, I predict that in another twenty years or so, old people will be better behaved. And not only because I’ll be one of them.