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David Chart

Protective Ofuda

Jingū in Isë grants several kinds of ofuda, small sacred panels that are often said to hold the power of the kami. The most common, and best known, are the Jingū Taima, which Jinja Honchō would like every household in Japan to venerate. However, they also grant ofuda that you can only get by visiting Jingū in person — these are called Juyo Taima.  An article in the August 1st issue of Jinja Shinpō reported on an interesting custom that relies on them. The custom is maintained in an area… Read More »Protective Ofuda

Kuroki Torii

There are many different kinds of torii, the open gateways at the entrance to jinja. An article in the July 18th issue of Jinja Shinpō was about the erection of a kuroki torii at a jinja in Kyoto Prefecture. “Kuroki” literally means “black tree”, but it actually refers to wood with the bark still on. Thus, in a kuroki torii the trunks and branches of trees are used in their original form to create the gate. This is described as “the original form of a torii” in the article, but… Read More »Kuroki Torii

New Book on Izumo Myths

The latest short book in the Mimusubi Essays on Shinto series is Myths from the Izumo Fudoki. The Fudoki are descriptions of the ancient provinces of Japan, commissioned by the Tennō in the eighth century, and thus valuable records of what Japan was like in the distant past. The ones that survive are, at least. There should have been somewhere between sixty and seventy of them (the number of provinces was changing around the period when they were being written, so it is hard to say how many were expected),… Read More »New Book on Izumo Myths

Board Meeting & Kanagawa Resolution

The August 15th issue of Jinja Shinpō contained two things connected to the current controversy over the president of Jinja Honchō, but only one of them was technically an article. That article was on the front page, and reported on a meeting of the Board of Directors held on August 5th, which was attended by the chairman and both claimants to the presidency. This meeting appears to have been open to the press, or at least Jinja Shinpō, and nothing in the article can be interpreted as meaning “and then… Read More »Board Meeting & Kanagawa Resolution

For the Future

The July 25th issue of Jinja Shinpō had quite a long article about a matsuri in rural Kyoto Prefecture to mark the designation of Saguri Jinja as a “Jinja to Promote the Revivification of Jinja in Depopulating Areas”. (As normal, the title sounds better in Japanese.) I am pretty sure that I have mentioned these programs before — the Shinto establishment is aware that rural depopulation is a major threat to rural jinja, and has been trying to address that for decades. The problem has not been solved, but it… Read More »For the Future

Big Big Purification

The July 25th issue of Jinja Shinpō had a short article about an Ōōharaë, or possibly Daiōharaë (大大祓) ceremony at Takuhirëshi Jinja, in Toyama. This was performed on the flood plains around the Jinzū River, which runs just behind the jinja (and which has a name meaning “passing kami river”). The ceremony is performed to give thanks for the blessings of nature, and the senior priest at the jinja, Revd Hayashi (who, I think, is the son of the chief priest) started doing it two years ago in response to… Read More »Big Big Purification