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David Chart

Tenjinsai in Romania

The January 29th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article on “Tenjinsai in Romania”, an event held in Bucharest on the 4th and 5th of November last year. In March last year, Japan and Romania signed a strategic partnership, and the Romanian government declared November “Japanese Culture Month”, with a range of events, including this one. Osaka Tenmangū, a large and important Tenjin jinja in Osaka (you could probably have guessed most of that), was responsible for it. The annual Tenjinsai is one of the larger matsuri in Osaka, and… Read More »Tenjinsai in Romania

The Year’s First Poetry Gathering Ceremony

On January 19th, the “Utakaihajimë no Gi”, or “Year’s First Poetry Gathering Ceremony”, was held at the Imperial Palace. This is an annual event, and while it has changed substantially its roots go back at least seven centuries. The core is that the Tennō sets a topic, people compose traditional 31-syllable waka poems on that topic, and those poems are declaimed in the presence of the Tennō. The details of the topic, who gets to compose, and how the poems are declaimed have changed a great deal, but the basic… Read More »The Year’s First Poetry Gathering Ceremony

Hatsumōdë 2024

The January 22nd issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about hatsumōdë, as normal for this time of year. The Noto Earthquake, of course, cast a pall over things this year, but hatsumōdë went ahead in the rest of the country and, as usual, it was strongly influenced by the weather. For the article, Jinja Shinpō contacted five major jinja around the country. The first was, of course, Jingū. This was the only jinja to give a number: they had 377,011 visitors over the first three days of the year,… Read More »Hatsumōdë 2024

The 2024 Noto Earthquake 2

As expected, Jinja Shinpō has continued to report on the Noto earthquake. NHK news has also been covering it; the new problem is heavy snowfall, which might bring damaged buildings down and is hindering recovery efforts, as well as putting people in evacuation centres at risk of hypothermia. It sounds as though the authorities have set up to make it possible for everyone in evacuation centres to move temporarily to hotels in safer areas, but that means leaving their homes behind for an unknown period of time, so most have… Read More »The 2024 Noto Earthquake 2

Goshintai

The goshintai is the object in the main sanctuary of a jinja that is thought to house the kami. They can take many forms, and as a rule they are concealed at all times. Normally, it is inside the main sanctuary, which is closed up, and even when the doors are opened there are curtains, screens, and quite possibly boxes hiding it from view. There are some goshintai that are never taken out of all the boxes, even when they are moved for repairs to the sanctuary, so even the… Read More »Goshintai

The 2024 Noto Earthquake 1

As readers of this blog are probably aware, unless they are reading this post some time in the future, there was a serious earthquake in Japan on January 1st. I, my family, and my friends are all fine, because we live on the other side of Japan, but the Noto Peninsula, on the Japan Sea, and neighbouring areas were badly affected; as of the time of writing, the death toll is over 200, and is likely to rise a bit more — although hopefully not much. Jinja Shinpō’s first articles… Read More »The 2024 Noto Earthquake 1