Shinto

The last new year article I want to write about was in the January 16th issue. The author is the chief priest of a jinja in rural Shimanë Prefecture. He starts by drawing a distinction between two words for a Shinto priest: shinshoku (“kami job”) and kan’nushi (“kami master”). He says that he feels that the second is somewhat higher status, and indicates someone who can properly call and dismiss the kami at prayers, and who works without holidays. A rural kan’nushi adds the ability to play the drum and… Read More »The Priest’s Knees

One of the new year articles in the January 23rd issue of Jinja Shinpō was by a priest who will turn 72 this year, reflecting on his youth. He is now the chief priest of his family’s jinja, and while he had two elder sisters, he was the eldest son, so his grandfather seems to have thought that he would obviously become a priest. As a child, however, he really, really did not want to. When he was in his first year of junior high school (so 12 or 13… Read More »Young Priest

At the beginning of every year Jinja Shinpō runs a series of short articles from a wide range of people, mostly priests, who were born in an earlier year with the same zodiacal animal. This year, it’s people born in the year of the rabbit. As usual, I want to write about a few on the blog. The first one is from the January 16th issue, and by a priest at a jinja in Iwatë Prefecture, in northeast Japan. His jinja has acquired a robot rabbit, a “rabbot”, which is… Read More »Jinja and Robot

A couple of days ago I was talking to the priests at my local jinja about entirely practical issues. The first was the destruction of one of the stone pillars at the entrance. These were put up about 45 years ago when the jinja was rebuilt, and are (or were) carved with the names of the people who supervised, and helped pay for, the rebuilding. The pillar was destroyed earlier this week when a large truck tried to go up the road alongside the jinja, and it didn’t really fit.… Read More »Practical Issues