Mimusubi

On the 18th of this month, the Tennō and Kōgō (the Emperor and Empress) visited Jingū at Isë, and paid their respects at the Gekū and Naikū. The purpose of the visit was to inform the kami of the Tennō’s upcoming abdication, on the 30th of this month. As the main kami of the Naikū, Amaterasu Ōmikami, is, according to myth, the ancestor of the Tennō, important events in the Imperial family are always formally announced to the kami. This includes such things as foreign trips, but for relatively minor… Read More »The Tennō at Jingū

The accession of the next Tennō is getting very close; it will happen at the end of this month and the beginning of next. Given the importance of the Tennō to the Shinto establishment, at least, it should come as no surprise that they are putting a lot of effort into preparing for the event, and ensuring, as far as they can, that it is celebrated appropriately. There are a lot of ceremonies associated with the succession, and while they start on April 30th, some of the most important ones,… Read More »The Sword and the Jewel

The name for Japan’s next era, which starts on the first of May with the accession of the new Tennō, was announced yesterday: Reiwa (令和). The announcement was made at 11:41 yesterday morning, and it has dominated the news since. Much of this news has been about people’s impression of the name. My daughter (age 11) was unimpressed, and thought that it sounded like it had been chosen by a bunch of old guys. Which is accurate. As a sound, it has grown on me, and I think it will… Read More »The New Era Name

I have had an article published in the latest Jinja Shinpō. It is a response to a review of a book about foreigners moving to Japan and taking over that was published a few weeks ago. Earlier drafts were a lot less temperate than the final one… In the end, I focused on a genuine problem that was mentioned, and that jinja can actually do something about. The problem is this. It is not uncommon for immigrants to a country to gather in areas with many people from the same… Read More »Jinja and Immigrants

Japan, as you may be aware, has a lot of natural disasters. It has so many, in fact, that Our Imperial Family, a quarterly magazine published with a lot of support from Jinja Honchō (if you are a Honchō-accredited priest, it is my understanding that a subscription is basically compulsory, although not officially compulsory) has a column in every issue about jinja recovering from the effects of natural disasters. The disasters and jinja change, but there is always enough material. The important thing about the columns is that they are… Read More »Rebuilding Jinja