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Shinto

Hatsumōdë Survey 2024

As last year, Jinja Shinpō conducted a survey of hatsumōdë across the country by sending enquiries to all the priests who are engaged as local reporters. They received responses from 349 in total. These priests are at a wide range of jinja, from large ones with multiple priests, to multiple jinja that cannot support a full-time priest between them, and cover the entire country. I think the results came out rather earlier last year, and I suspect that the reason for the delay this year was the 2024 Noto Earthquake.… Read More »Hatsumōdë Survey 2024

The Shikinen Sengū Begins

The front and back pages of the April 15th issue of Jinja Shinpō were devoted to the news that the process of the 2033 Jingū Shikinen Sengū has formally begun. Jingū, in Isë, Mië Prefecture, central Japan, is a complex of 125 jinja centred on the Kōtai Jingū, which enshrines Amaterasu Ōmikami, and the Toyo’ukë Daijingū, which enshrines Toyo’ukë Ōmikami. The whole complex is rebuilt once every twenty years, and the sacred treasures for the kami are all replaced at the same time. This is the Shikinen Sengū. “Sengū” means… Read More »The Shikinen Sengū Begins

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