Skip to content

David Chart

Passing on Tradition

Every year, Jinja Shinpō runs a series of short articles from people connected with the Shinto world who were born in the same zodiacal year as the current one — this year, that means the year of the dragon. The first article this year, in the January 1st issue, was from a chief priest born in 1928. The fact that he is still the chief priest of his jinja, rather than emeritus, makes him a bit remarkable, as does the fact that the jinja actually has a full-time working priest… Read More »Passing on Tradition

The Shōgun and Amaterasu Ōmikami

A few weeks ago, I received issue 270/271 of the Journal of Shintō Studies, and I want to pick up on some points from the articles in it for this blog. This issue isn’t themed, so there is quite a range across the five articles, and all of them have something that I think might be interesting to my readers. The first thing I want to pick up is from “The Tokugawa Shogunate and Amaterasu Ōmikami: The Period of Shōgun Iemitsu”, by Tanido Yūki. The article is a bit more… Read More »The Shōgun and Amaterasu Ōmikami

Sacred and Profane

One of the amusing features of working closely with jinja is the official avoidance of language suggesting a commercial transaction when talking about how people get omamori or ofuda. Yes, there is a little label there showing an amount of money, and yes, you hand over that amount of money and get an omamori in return. You can even get change. But this is not a sale. (And, to demonstrate that, you generally don’t get a receipt.) This can lead to some awkward circumlocutions. “We need to prepare new suggested… Read More »Sacred and Profane

Silk for Amaterasu Ōmikami

The autumn issue of The Imperial Family included an article on the preparation of silk for a matsuri held at Jingū twice a year, the Kanmisosai. “Kan” is another reading of the “kami” kanji, “miso” means “clothing” here (I haven’t come across this reading anywhere else, although the kanji are standard), and “sai” is matsuri. This matsuri is very unusual at Jingū in that it is only held at the two jinja enshrining Amaterasu Ōmikami: the Goshōgū (main sanctuary) of the Inner Sanctuary, which enshrines her nigimitama, and Aramatsuri no… Read More »Silk for Amaterasu Ōmikami

New Traditions

The 18th/25th December issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about the transfer of the kami back to the main sanctuaries at Tatsuta Taisha, in Nara Prefecture. This was because the roofs of the main sanctuaries had been redone, and the kami are always moved out of the sanctuary while that sort of repair is completed, and then moved back, with a lot of ceremony, afterwards. In this case, because Tatsuta Taisha is an ancient jinja and one that the Tennō historically sent a lot of offerings to, there was… Read More »New Traditions

Context

One of the front page articles on the December 11th issue of Jinja Shinpō was about a study session held online by the Shinto Youth Association, on the topic of “The Role of Jinja in Contemporary Society”. This consisted of two talks by Professor Kurosaki of Kokugakuin University. The first was on the role that jinja can, and have, played in disaster response, a topic that Prof. Kurosaki has researched extensively. The second was about “context”. There is a famous distinction in social sciences between “high context” and “low context”… Read More »Context