I have just released a new essay funded by my Patreon. This one is about the types of people associated with jinja, from priests and miko to casual visitors. What do you have to do to become a priest? What sort of people become priests? What is a sōdai, and why do they play an important role? It answers all these questions, and more. If you have missed this essay, don’t worry. You can get back numbers.
Today, I was sent a notification of the publication of an art book containing Rei Torii’s Shinto pictures. I’ve mentioned Mr Torii before; he has painted a lot of works based on Jingū at Ise, as well as other aspects of Shinto. I plan to get the book, although I don’t plan to get it through Amazon. It only seems to be available on Amazon Japan, and the book is in Japanese. However, as it is primarily an art book, that is not such a great issue. It does mean… Read More »Rei Torii
At the beginning of this month I released a new essay to my patrons on Patreon. This essay is a bit different from normal, because I was asked to speak, in English, to a Japanese audience, about Shinto, and the essay is based on my notes for that. As a result, it says more about what I personally think about Shinto, rather than simply reporting the current situation as accurately as I can. If you are interested, back numbers of the essays are available through the Patreon, so please take… Read More »Shinto from the Shore
I have just released the latest essay to be funded by my Patreon. This is about popular attitudes to Shinto in Japan, and is based on a survey conducted under the auspices of Jinja Honchō. If you missed it, but would like to read it, don’t worry: you can get hold of back numbers.
The Japanese academic year ends in March, and every year, in April, Jinja Shinpō publishes an article about the new graduates from the full-time training courses for priests. There are two universities that provide this training: Kokugakuin University, in Shibuya, Tokyo, and Kōgakkan University in Ise. There are also much, much smaller training centres attached to important jinja around the country. The six smaller centres had, in total, 18 graduates this year, while Kokugakuin had 179 and Kōgakkan had 73. Of these newly qualified priests, 60 are women, about 22%.… Read More »New Priests
At the weekend, I went to visit Aso Jinja, in Kumamoto Prefecture, in Kyushu. Aso Jinja is the Ichinomiya for the old Higo Province, and one of the oldest jinja in Japan. The family of the chief priests goes back over a thousand years, as does the jinja itself. There are twelve main kami enshrined at the jinja, who form a family, and the family of the chief priests is said to be descended from the oldest of these kami. These days, its main benefit is said to be safe… Read More »Aso Jinja