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David Chart

Shōwa Inari Jinja

While I was visiting jinja in Tokyo to make the final checks for my upcoming book (it takes you round six jinja in Tokyo to explain the history and cultural background of Shinto), I came across this jinja. As you can see, it is quite small. Despite the sacred forest being one tree, it still manages to dwarf the sanctuary, and completely hide it from view if you stand in the right place. The precincts are so narrow that the torii has to be placed sideways on to the sanctuary,… Read More »Shōwa Inari Jinja

Attitudes to Jingū Taima

Following on from the previous post, I want to look at the results for Jingū Taima, the ofuda from Isë Jingū that the Shinto establishment wants to see venerated in every household, and the results for local jinja, the so-called ujigami jinja. The first striking result is that only 25% of people have even heard of Jingū Taima. Given the vastly higher level of recognition of Jingū itself, this suggests that there is room for improvement in this respect. Even if 98% awareness of Jingū Taima seems unreasonable, the 50%… Read More »Attitudes to Jingū Taima

Awareness of Jingū

Earlier this year, Jinja Honchō commissioned a survey of people’s awareness of, and attitudes towards, Jingū. This is the third such survey, and they have been held at ten-year intervals. This means that the last one was held the year after the most recent Shikinen Sengū, while this one and the first one were held roughly midway in the cycle. The basic results, the proportions of each answer to each question, were published in Gekkan Wakagi on September 1st. (Gekkan Wakagi is the monthly newsletter that Jinja Honchō sends to… Read More »Awareness of Jingū

“True Japanese”

The August 19th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article reporting on the annual meeting of the association of priests with educational connections. In most cases, that means priests who are also school teachers. The theme of this meeting was “Raising True Japanese Rooted in the Shinto Spirit”. I am very uncomfortable with that sort of slogan, but it is quite common in the Shinto world. In this post, I’m going to explain why I don’t like it. First, a couple of things that aren’t the reason. It isn’t that… Read More »“True Japanese”

Jingū Shikinen Sengū Preparation Committee

The August 19th issue of Jinja Shinpō led with an article about the first meeting of the Jingū Shikinen Sengū Preparation Committee. The committee is an advisory body for the Senior Chief Priest of Jingū, with the remit to investigate and discuss important issues. It is chaired by the Chairman of Jinja Honchō, Revd Takatsukasa, who is himself a former Senior Chief Priest of Jingū. Revd Tanaka, the President of Jinja Honchō, is also on the committee. The meeting was held on July 31st, in Tokyo, and other members of… Read More »Jingū Shikinen Sengū Preparation Committee

Translation

This post is a bit less about Shinto and a bit more about what I do for Jinja Honchō and more generally for the Shinto community. As readers probably know, most of what I do is the preparation of English material to introduce Shinto to a foreign audience. (I occasionally work as an interpreter for people at Jinja Honchō, but that is minor in terms of time spent — although it pays well.) Since the beginning, I have been emphasising that simply translating the Japanese material for a Japanese audience… Read More »Translation