Mimusubi

The September 4th issue of Jinja Shinpō carried an article about the revival, after 150 years, of a matsuri at Hirota Jinja, in Hyōgo Prefecture. The matsuri in question is centred on the public display of a jewel: a crystal with a flaw in it that looks like a sword. According to the jinja’s account, this crystal is the “wish-fulfilling jewel” that Okinagatarashihimë (also known as Jingū Kōgō) is said, in the Nihonshoki, to have found before travelling to conquer the Korean peninsula. As Okinagatarashihimë is also said to have… Read More »Sword Jewel Matsuri

Baseball is very important in Japanese culture. It was first developed in the Kofun Period, and… No, OK, it was imported from the USA in the nineteenth century. But it’s still really important. The baseball results are the ones reported on the national news every morning, and the national high school baseball championships in spring and summer (known as Kōshien, after the stadium in which they are held) are shown live on television. (This year’s summer victors had their second victory, after a 107 year wait.) It does not have… Read More »Baseball

A couple of weeks ago I went on holiday to Beppu, in Kyūshū, with my daughter, and while I was there I visited a jinja, Hachiman Asami Jinja, several times. One reason for making multiple visits was that the jinja is putting a lot of energy into its goshuin. The main sanctuary is a merger of two jinja, Hachiman Jinja and Onsen Jinja, and so they have two regular goshuin, one for each. These are ¥300 each, and I got them on my first visit. They also have two special… Read More »Hachiman Asami Jinja

The August 21st issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about Seki Semimaru Jinja, a jinja in Shiga Prefecture, on the shore of Lake Biwa. There are two sanctuaries, an upper and a lower, and the main kami is Semimaru. Semimaru is a famous, and semi-legendary, early poet, and some legends say that he was blind but recovered his sight, so the jinja is connected to the arts and to eye conditions. One of Semimaru’s poems is in the Hyakunin Isshu, the collection of one hundred poems by one hundred… Read More »Seki Semimaru Jinja

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Great Kantō Earthquake. It struck southwest of Tokyo at lunchtime, and the strong shaking and subsequent fires are estimated to have killed over 100,000 people, and destroyed about 290,000 buildings. September 1st is now Disaster Prevention Day in Japan. To mark this, Jinja Shinpō had a special two-page article in the August 21st issue, reporting a dialogue between two academics who have studied the role of jinja (and other religious groups) in disaster relief: Professor Inaba of Osaka University and Professor Fujimoto of… Read More »The Great Kantō Earthquake

Some jinja were founded at particular times by particular people, and we have clear records of who and when. Others, however, developed naturally, and the oldest jinja are believed to fall into that category — even the ones, like Jingū, that have very mythical foundation myths. It is natural to think of this process as something that happened in the distant past, and not today. That may not be entirely correct. The August 14th issue of Jinja Shinpō includes an article about a very interesting process. During the pandemic, a… Read More »The Birth of a Jinja