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Sacred Tree

A few weeks ago, I visited Suwa Jinja in Kitakami, Iwatë Prefecture. (No English on their homepage.) This is a nice example of a fairly large jinja of significant local importance, but that people outside the area would not normally have heard of. The main jinja has six kami, and there are five subsidiary jinja, two of which share a building, but I am writing this article because it has a very impressive sacred tree. This tree is a sawara (Google says Scomberomorus niphonius  — no, wait, that’s a fish.… Read More »Sacred Tree

Formal Prayers

A few days ago I was talking to the chief priest of Asakusa Jinja about the guide to Shinto through Tokyo jinja that I am currently writing for my Patreon. (I was there because I am volunteering for Natsumoude again, and I will write about that when I have finished volunteering for this year — so probably next week.) While we were talking, he mentioned that he, and other priests, would not want people asking for formal prayers (gokitō) just to see something unusual and Japanese. They are prayers, after… Read More »Formal Prayers

Multi-Jinja Pilgrimages

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

Jinja Tours

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

Overseas Shinto Shrines

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

Academic Overgeneralisation

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