Shinto

As I mentioned last week, I volunteered at Asakusa Jinja’s Natsumoude again this year. Scheduling meant that I was able to be there on the 1st and 7th of July, so as well as the Natsumoude goshuin, I was able to get the Tanabata goshuin, which is only available on the 7th (because Tanabata is July 7th). The event is organised by the jinja and a committee created to help run this event, and while they cooperate very closely, their responsibilities are divided. Shinto rituals are done by the jinja,… Read More »Natsumoude 2024

Continuing the theme of jinja tours, there have been several articles in Jinja Shinpō recently about groups of jinja getting together to create programs on which people visit all of them, acquiring something at each jinja so that you complete a set if you go all the way around. These are normally generated by the priests themselves, sometimes with external help. In the June 10th issue, there was an article about three jinja in Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, that have got together to offer magatama (curved jewel) omamori based on… Read More »Multi-Jinja Pilgrimages

The June 10th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article that was of particular interest to me, in the “Mori ni Omofu” (“Thoughts in the Forest”) column section. It was by Suzue, who is a singer/songwriter and Shinto priest, and it concerned the various people who act as intermediaries between people and the kami. The main topic was people who divine which jinja is your ubusunagami (“personal kami”, I guess, although originally it was the jinja covering the place where you were born), and apparently there are people who make… Read More »Jinja Tours

I recently finished reading an English-language academic book about Shinto. (Yes, yes, that may have had something to do with the last two posts.) The book is Overseas Shinto Shrines by Karli Shimizu, and I highly recommend it. You can buy it directly from the Bloomsbury website, but if that’s difficult for you, it is also available on Amazon (that one is an affiliate link). The title is slightly misleading, because the first chapter is about Kashihara Jingū, in central Japan, and the second is about jinja in Hokkaidō, which… Read More »Overseas Shinto Shrines

The second problem (the first problem is here) that I have with English-language studies of Shinto is that they tend to overgeneralise from a limited range of evidence. This problem is certainly not limited to Shinto studies — I read a very interesting book on the “immigrant experience in Japan” that was based on a handful of group sessions with a few dozen people, recruited through about three different groups. My personal experience of the immigrant experience in Japan is broader and deeper than that. However, it is particularly relevant… Read More »Academic Overgeneralisation