David Chart

I recently finished reading an interesting book: 自宅であげる神棚祝詞 (Kamidana Norito to Recite at Home), by 中澤伸弘 (Nakazawa Nobuhiro). The title is descriptive: the bulk of the book consists of 101 norito for use at your kamidana, with brief commentaries and modern Japanese translations. I think it is a very good book, and I would recommend it (affiliate link), except that it is all in Japanese. It is therefore probably not of much practical use to readers of this blog. I discovered it because it was reviewed, positively, in Jinja Shinpō,… Read More »Kamidana Norito

The May 27th issue of Jinja Shinpō had a thought-provoking article about revisions to a centuries-old shinji (sacred rite). The rite in question was (and is) performed at Tado Taisha, a jinja in Mië Prefecture. It dates back to the fourteenth century, and involves people from the areas that were traditionally dedicated to supplying the jinja riding horses up a slope. Before the changes, the slope was steep (about a 15 m rise over 100 m), and finished with a two metre wall, which the horse had to jump over.… Read More »Matsuri and Animal Welfare

The front page of the May 20th issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about government subsidies for matsuri in Ibaraki Prefecture. This is the first example that they are aware of, nationwide, and it is significant because of the legal obstacles to government support for anything that might be described as religious, even when it is also an important part of traditional culture and threatened by social changes. The support has several conditions: The tradition must be passed on within the prefecture, be carried on by local society or… Read More »Government Support for Matsuri

I have mentioned before that Jinja Shinpō includes a number of regular columns. One of these, “Sunlight Through Leaves” (Komorebi), is shared between eight people who do it on a rota over the course of two years, and then all the authors are changed again. The authors change in May, and this year was a change year. One of the new set, Professor Inaba Keishin, studies contemporary Japanese religion, particularly in the context of natural disasters, and I expect that his columns will be particularly interesting to me. (A couple… Read More »Japanese Religiosity

At the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the National Association of Young Shinto Priests, Her Imperial Highness Princess Akiko of Mikasa (hereafter “Princess Akiko”) gave a speech in which she talked about the purpose of jinja. This was reported in the May 6th issue of Jinja Shinpō. Princess Akiko is a minor member of the Imperial Family. She is a great-granddaughter of Taishō Tennō, which means that her father was a cousin of the previous Tennō. Her activities are certainly not reported on the national news, but I have a great… Read More »For the Kami