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David Chart

Practical Issues

A couple of days ago I was talking to the priests at my local jinja about entirely practical issues. The first was the destruction of one of the stone pillars at the entrance. These were put up about 45 years ago when the jinja was rebuilt, and are (or were) carved with the names of the people who supervised, and helped pay for, the rebuilding. The pillar was destroyed earlier this week when a large truck tried to go up the road alongside the jinja, and it didn’t really fit.… Read More »Practical Issues

Hatsumōdë 2023 Impressions

As normal, Jinja Shinpō is writing about hatsumōdë, an event that is central to the viability of many jinja. There was a front page article in the January 23rd issue, which I will write about here, and they are planning another article soon, when they have collected information from their reporters across Japan. This article primarily relied on contacting a number of prominent jinja, in different areas: Jingū, in Isë, Meiji Jingū in Tokyo, Takëkoma Jinja in Miyagi Prefecture, Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka, Hōfu Tenmangū in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and Munakata… Read More »Hatsumōdë 2023 Impressions

LGBTQ Course

People who have been reading this blog for a while may remember that there was a scandal a while back when the Shintō Seiji Renmei, the political campaigning organisation closely linked to Jinja Honchō, distributed a leaflet to members of the Diet that included a summary of a speech saying that LGBTQ people were mentally ill. The January 30th issue of Jinja Shinpō includes an article on a couple of training sessions held online by the Osaka Prefecture Shinto Youth Association and Prefectural Shintō Seiji Renmei. One was on SDGs,… Read More »LGBTQ Course

“Tales of Sacred Forests”: Shōri Daimyōjin

Jinja Honchō has put the English version of the next video in the “Tales of Sacred Forests” series online. This is the last one I have done, so there won’t be any more for a while now. My understanding is that the series will continue, but I don’t know the details, and those are the sorts of plans that change. This is an interesting jinja. As you can see, it is very small, it is built on an ancient tomb, and the identity of the enshrined kami is not entirely… Read More »“Tales of Sacred Forests”: Shōri Daimyōjin

First Decision on Presidency

The dispute over Jinja Honchō’s presidency continues. I am writing an update because the first court has issued its decision on the case launched by Revd Ashihara against Jinja Honchō asking the court to confirm that he was the president. (Click on the tag to get links to earlier posts, as there is a lot of background to this case. I will refer to the parties in this case as Revd Ashihara and Jinja Honchō because my understanding is that that is the legal situation — even though the dispute… Read More »First Decision on Presidency

Visiting Himeji Jinja

Last week, I went with one of my colleagues from Jinja Honchō to visit Himeji Jinja, and talk in more detail about what they are going to do, and what support they need. This was a day trip, which was a bit of a push because Himeji is about 500 km from where I live. It was also, however, extremely valuable. It really is very helpful to visit a place in person when you are going to write guidance for visitors. For example, this is the view of Himeji Castle… Read More »Visiting Himeji Jinja