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Shinto

Fractious Board Meeting

The August 5th issue of Jinja Shinpō contained an article reporting on a meeting of the Jinja Honchō Board of Directors that was held on July 19th. Much of the business was important but uninteresting — for example, one bit of the Jinja Honchō regulations needed to be modified to delete Tsurugaoka Hachimangū from the list of Beppyō Jinja (particularly important jinja that are supervised directly by Jinja Honchō rather than by the Prefectural Jinjachō) because Tsurugaoka Hachimangū has left Jinja Honchō entirely. Two topics, however, were more controversial, and… Read More »Fractious Board Meeting

Children Refectories

“Children Refectories” is a straight translation of “Kodomo Shokudō”, the topic of the editorial in the July 22nd issue of Jinja Shinpō. This is an idea that has grown as a grassroots movement in Japan, apparently starting in 2012, and now having about 9,000 examples across the country. Because it is a grassroots movement with no central coordination the idea is a bit vague, but the core is the provision of free or very cheap collective meals for children. In a survey carried out in 2021, the most common goals… Read More »Children Refectories

Back to Basics

This post was inspired by an article in the July 8th issue of Jinja Shinpō, but it does not engage with its content in any detail. These are really my personal musings. A very common idea in Shinto is that of returning to the source, origin, or initial idea. Because Shinto is small-c conservative, this is seen as a good thing, and it is quite common for people to urge the community to do so — whether it is a return to the origin of Shinto in general, to the… Read More »Back to Basics

Remote Offerings

The 8th July issue of Jinja Shinpō had an interesting historical article about the ways people made offerings to Jingū in the early sixteenth century. It was written by the head of Nagasaki Prefectural Jinjachō, based on surviving documents from what is now Okayama Prefecture. These record 479 people who visited Jingū with a particular onshi (the priests who gathered adherents for Jingū and organised their visits), and give details of how they made their offerings. It seems that only 82 of them took cash to Isë and made their… Read More »Remote Offerings

Living Things at Jingū

The Jingū column in the July 8th issue of Jinja Shinpō was about living creatures at Jingū. There are about 2,800 kinds of animals, and about 140 birds, including mammals such as boars, raccoon dogs, and rabbits, birds such as kingfishers and owls, and river creatures such as catfish and frogs. There are also lots of insects and other bugs. Do you notice anything missing from this list? That’s right! Trees! The article does go on to discuss the importance of preserving the forest in order to provide the habitat… Read More »Living Things at Jingū

The Imperial Line

Hereditary lines are important in Shinto, and none more so than the line of the Tennō. As far as the Shinto establishment is concerned, it is absolutely vital that there be a Tennō, and that he (not she) be a descendant in the male line of Jinmu Tennō, or possibly Tenji Tennō if we want to restrict attention to Tennō who certainly existed. A few articles in the June 24th issue of Jinja Shinpō touched on this in an interesting way, taken collectively. Two were about the annual meeting of… Read More »The Imperial Line