Mimusubi

Kasuga Taisha is in Nara, the site of Heijōkyō, the eighth-century capital of Japan. The jinja was founded in the early eighth century, soon after the foundation of the capital, to enshrine the patron kami of the Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara had become politically important about fifty years earlier, and were to remain of great importance for another four centuries. The jinja enshrines four kami, and each has their own small main sanctuary. Like Jingū, Kasuga Taisha had a tradition of rebuilding the sanctuaries every twenty years, and unlike Jingū… Read More »Kasuga Taisha

May’s Patreon essay was about the myths of Sujin Tennō, and it is now available on Gumroad. It is also available on Amazon as part of Myths of the First Emperors, where it is combined with March’s essay about the myths of the accession of Jinmu Tennō, which is also on Gumroad. These myths (of Jinmu and Sujin) are not, I think, very well known outside Japan, but they are very interesting for the history of Shinto. First, there are a number of descriptions of Shinto rituals, which appear to… Read More »New Essay

The ongoing pandemic seriously disrupted the May meeting of Jinja Honchō’s Oversight Council. With states of emergency in effect across much of Japan, including Tokyo, the leadership of Jinja Honchō took the decision to not gather the full Oversight Council, but rather just have a meeting of the Standing Committee. This is permitted by the rules; the Council can vote to allow the Standing Committee to perform some of its functions in exceptional circumstances, and a pandemic certainly counts. The proposal was sent to all members of the Oversight Council… Read More »Preparing for the Oversight Council

“Saisen” is the money that you offer on a normal jinja visit, dropping it into the offering box before you pay your respects. There is a common custom of offering five yen (about 5c US), because the Japanese for “five yen” sounds like the Japanese for “good connection”, but jinja sometimes say they would like you to offer at least ¥100 (about $1). In any case, the amounts are much smaller than those associated with a formal prayer, which start at about ¥5,000, and are called “hatushoryō” or “tamagushiryō”. There… Read More »The Origins of Saisen

The 3rd May issue of Jinja Shinpō had a very interesting article about Kashima Jingū, an ancient jinja in Ibaraki Prefecture. The jinja claims to be well over 2500 years old, which is probably not true, but there are archaeological discoveries from the fifth century, so it is certainly over 1500 years old. The article was about part of the jinja’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is currently holding proxy matsuri on the first day of every month, for the benefit of people who cannot currently travel to the… Read More »Veneration by Proxy

I’ve been asked to give some recommendations for books to read in Japanese about Shinto, because some of the people following my blog can read Japanese. If you can’t, this post is not going to be of much use to you — sorry. My first recommendation is the official texts for the Jinja Kentei. At least some of these are available from Amazon US (and I have added affiliate links), which is one reason to recommend them. However, Amazon Japan will also ship overseas, so I have added (affiliate) links… Read More »Jinja Kentei Textbooks 1