Mimusubi

Tottori Prefecture, on the Japan Sea coast, has the lowest population of any prefecture in Japan — 530,000, or about a third the population of Kawasaki. This means that it has all the problems of depopulation, including the ones that directly affect jinja. The December 2nd issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about part of the response. The prefectural association of young priests has set up a group that links jinja looking for extra priests for special matsuri with young priests who want to get more experience of serving… Read More »Mutual Aid for Priests

The December 16th issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about an overseas jinja and, coincidentally, it was founded from Okuni Jinja. The jinja is in J-Park Sriracha, and given that the katakana transcription of “Sriracha” was “Shiracha”, I am not going to transcribe any of the other Thai names from the article, because I would almost certainly get them horribly wrong. J-Park was built to cater to local Japanese expatriates (I get the impression that Japanese car companies have a significance number of factories in the area), and to… Read More »A Jinja in Thailand

At the end of last week I visited my local jinja, Shirahata Hachiman Daijin, and the autumn leaves were looking very good. The trees and other plants in the precincts at this jinja have been carefully planned so that there is something worth seeing at almost any time of the year. Unfortunately, the gingko had to be pruned a few years ago, and the leaves are only just recovering. This year, they did turn quite yellow, so maybe they will be back to being photo-worthy soon. I do not post… Read More »Trees for Christmas