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Shinto

Cherry Blossoms

I think the Japanese may have a reputation for being a bit obsessed with cherry blossoms. This is largely justified. To support that stereotype, here are some photographs I took recently of the cherry blossoms at Shirahata-san, my local jinja. As you might notice, they were not all taken on the same day. The precincts at Shirahata-san have several varieties of cherry trees, and they blossom at slightly different times. The last photograph was taken yesterday; I think this is the time of year when the precincts at Shirahata-san are… Read More »Cherry Blossoms

A Norito for Noto

The National Association of Young Shinto Priests recently prepared and published two norito for use when praying for recovery from the 2024 Noto Earthquake. They can be downloaded (in Japanese, of course) from the association’s website. One of the norito is for use in jinja, while the other is for use at home, at one’s kamidana. I thought that my readers might be interested in the kamidama one, so I contacted one of the vice-presidents of the group, with whom I had worked on one of the projects through Jinja… Read More »A Norito for Noto

Kusano Jinja

The March 11th issue of Jinja Shinpō devoted half of its back page to the rededication of Kusano Jinja, in Namië, a town in Fukushima near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The article was published thirteen years to the day since the disaster, and the jinja had only just been rebuilt. The author is currently the head of the Fukushima Prefectural Jinjachō, and he was the deputy at the time of the disaster. The area of Namië in which the jinja stood was devastated by the tsunami, and not… Read More »Kusano Jinja

Crowdfunding Trees

I have mentioned the use of crowdfunding in the Shinto community before, and in this post I am going to introduce one that is currently active. This is organised by Daini no Furusato Sōsei Kyōkai (Second Hometown Creation Group, although the official English translation is apparently “The Japanese Festival and Forest Association”), an organisation I have done quite a bit with — they organise the volunteers for Natsumoude at Asakusa Jinja, which I have done several times. This crowdfunding is for replanting the sacred forest at a jinja in Iwatë… Read More »Crowdfunding Trees

The 2024 Noto Earthquake 5

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the March 4th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article on the damage in Toyama Prefecture. This article was a solid page of text listing jinja, again by chief priest, and the damage to each jinja. Even so, it didn’t cover the whole of the prefecture — two areas were held over for a later issue. A comparison between this article and the corresponding article for Ishikawa Prefecture makes the difference in impact starkly apparent. The Ishikawa article included a number of… Read More »The 2024 Noto Earthquake 5

Approaches to Depopulation

The February 26th issue of Jinja Shinpō devoted over a page, including most of the front page, to a study group meeting held on February 6th and 7th. Representatives from jinja that have been selected to lead Jinja Honchō’s efforts to deal with depopulation attended and discussed their situation and the efforts they were making to address it. I want to pick up a few points from the articles; one of the strong impressions it gives is that a lot of different approaches are being tried in different areas. The… Read More »Approaches to Depopulation