Mimusubi

A problem that comes up from time to time when I am talking to priests is that of jinja capacity. Suppose someone wants a gokitō (a personal matsuri making a request) performed. This must be done by a priest, so you need to have a priest there. If the only priest at your jinja is not full time (as is the case for most priests), this presents an immediate problem. If you do have a full time priest, for example because the chief priest’s mother is retired and has a… Read More »Jinja Capacity

Many jinja are centuries old, and it is not uncommon for them to date back more than a thousand years. Obviously, the structures in the precincts do not last that long without some sort of intervention, either repair or rebuilding. Sometimes jinja do this after a disaster destroys or badly damages the existing buildings, while others do it on a significant anniversary when the need for repairs has become pressing. A few jinja, mainly larger and wealthier ones, do it on a regular cycle, often of around twenty years. Whatever… Read More »Refurbishing Jinja

The November 4th edition of Jinja Shinpō had an article about a tradition of sacred dance at two jinja in Gifu Prefecture, Hakusan Jinja and Matusno’o Hakusan Jinja. Looking at the maps, these jinja seem to be in a very rural area, in a mountain valley. The sacred dance is called “Sugōjishi”, because the area is called “Sugō” and it is a form of Shishi dance, in which the dancers “dress” as “lions”. The scare quotes are because the shishi do not look much like lions, and the costumes are… Read More »Sustaining Tradition

One Shinto tradition that seems less well-known outside Japan is that of “Yakudoshi”. These are years (doshi) when people are thought to be particularly susceptible to misfortune (yaku). For men, they happen at the ages of 25, 42, and 61, while for women they are at 19, 33, and 37. These are both measured by “counted years”, according to which you are born at the age of one, and become two at the first January 1st after that.  There are a lot of theories about the original meaning of these… Read More »Yakudoshi

There are many myths in the Kojiki and Nihonshoki. However, one class of myths is notable by their absence. There are no myths of great floods, or of the world being overturned in a great earthquake, or of a volcanic eruption. Even when we do get a myth about the kami cursing the population, the curse is an epidemic. As with most absences, this is hard to notice, but once I did, it struck me as in need of explanation. If there was ever a country that you would expect… Read More »The Missing Myths