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New Priests 2023

The April 24th issue of Jinja Shinpō carried an article reporting on the graduation of priests from the main training centres for the Shinto priesthood. Overwhelmingly, this means Kokugakuin University in Tokyo and Kōgakkan University in Isë. (The other six have nineteen graduates between them, while Kokugakuin alone has 151.) The reports cover three points. The first is the shortage of priests. At Kokugakuin, 151 people qualified as priests and 109 took jobs at jinja, 102 of them as priests. (The other seven were miko or non-priest staff, and six… Read More »New Priests 2023

Planting Hemp

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the project in Mië Prefecture to grow hemp for fibres. That has actually started now, and there were two articles about it, in the April 24th and May 5th issues of Jinja Shinpō. There were two articles because inclement weather meant that the events did not all happen together as originally planned. First, on April 15th, there was a meeting at the site of the Saigū, the historical residence of the sacred princess at Jingū, with two parts. The first part was a… Read More »Planting Hemp

Shinto Practice in Print

Shinto Practice for Non-Japanese is now available in paperback from Amazon. There isn’t really much else to say about the book. It is still a practical introduction to practising Shinto if you are not Japanese or not in Japan, or most likely neither, and the content is the same as the electronic version, apart from some editing changes to reflect the change in medium. If you would prefer to have a physical version that you can hold in your hands, that is now a possibility. I hope that some people… Read More »Shinto Practice in Print

Kami Guidance for Buddhists

Jishū is one of the major Buddhist sects in Japan, founded by Ippen in 1274. It is one of the sects dedicated to Amida Buddha, and it is famous for its dancing recitation of the name of Amida (“odoru nenbutsu”). The connection to Shinto is that it was founded after Ippen cloistered himself at Kumano Hongū Taisha (in what is now Wakayama Prefecture), and had a vision of the kami. This vision revealed how he should spread the word of Amida’s salvation of all living beings. The April 17th issue… Read More »Kami Guidance for Buddhists

Through A Narrow Gate

The April 17th issue of Jinja Shinpō contained a short article about Kitano Tenjinja in Kōnan, Aichi Prefecture. As a jinja that enshrines Tenjin-sama, the jinja is popular with students taking entrance exams, and trying to get into selective schools and universities. In Japanese, this is referred to as “passing through a narrow gate”. At this jinja, there is a stone torii, with a shimënawa attached. So far, so normal. The gate space in this torii, however, is about 50 cm tall and about 40 cm wide. Even Japanese people… Read More »Through A Narrow Gate

Suberiishi Jinja

Suberiishi (“Sliding Rock”) Jinja (I think that’s the name, but I haven’t heard it pronounced and I can’t find a reading for the kanji on the website — it could be “Kasseki”) is one of the minor jinja associated with Kinkasan Koganëyama Jinja, the jinja on a sacred island in Miyagi Prefecture that I visit every year. The spring issue of the jinja newsletter has an article about it. This jinja is a little way up the mountain, behind the main sanctuaries and beside a small river. There used to… Read More »Suberiishi Jinja