David Chart

There was another article about sacred forests in the January 24th issue of Jinja Shinpō, and this one was also by Prof. Watanabë. It is not about sacred forests per se, but rather about the use of plants and trees in Shinto matsuri. This article is a problem to write about, because it refers to all the specific species of plants that are used in matsuri at different jinja and in different regions of Japan, and it does so by their Japanese names. I recognise most of these in Japanese,… Read More »Plants in Matsuri

The video in this post gives an overall impression of the ceremonies around the transfer of the kami from one sanctuary to another at a jinja in rural Kyoto Prefecture. It has proper English subtitles for the explanations (although the English translation is not as great as it could be), so it should be accessible to most of my readers. It’s also short — only three minutes. The making of the video was reported in the January 24th issue of Jinja Shinpō, which is how I found out about it.… Read More »Sengū Video

The January 17th issue of Jinja Shinpō carried the latest article about sacred forests, this one concerning “big trees”. The article is by a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, Watanabë Hiroyuki (probably… there is the usual problem with the reading of the name not being given), and is about large, famous trees and their relationship with jinja. The Japanese government has a formal standard for “kyoboku” or “kyoju” — “big trees” or “giant trees”. This is that the trunk must have a circumference of at least three metres at “chest… Read More »Big Trees

Recently, I have read a number of articles in different places (not all Jinja Shinpō!) that made me think about the role of lineage in Shinto. OK, so some of the articles were in Jinja Shinpō. Every year, they publish a number of short pieces by people associated with Shinto in some capacity who have the same zodiacal animal as the current year, the tiger this year. As there are twelve years in the cycle, that means people who are going to be 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, or 96.… Read More »Lineage

About a month ago, a new textbook for the Jinja Kentei was published. This is a manga version of the basic textbook (affiliate link!), and is the textbook for this year’s introductory level exam. I would like to start by saying that it is good, and it should be no problem for people who have passed JLPT N1 to read this; the unusual kanji all have their readings given, and the point of the text is to explain what they mean. If you are JLPT N2 level, I think you… Read More »Jinja Kentei Manga Textbook