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Seoritsuhimë & Hayasasurahimë

In this post, I want to quickly summarise two presentations from the 2026 annual meeting of The Society of Shinto Studies, as reported in issue 279 of their journal. Both concern the Tokugawa period (1603 to 1868). The first, by Satō Mami (佐藤真実) is “The Transition of Beliefs and Conceptions Concerning the Haraedo no Kami (Seoritsuhime) from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period”, and the other, by Kimura Nagisa (木村凪沙) is “Norinaga Motoori’s Theory of the Functions of Hayasasurahime”. Both presentations concern theories about kami who are named in… Read More »Seoritsuhimë & Hayasasurahimë

Practical Priesthood Program

The back pages of the June 22nd and July 6th issues of Jinja Shinpō were all about a particular training program for priests at Kokugakuin University (國學院大學), the Shinto university in Tokyo. The first article described the program, which has just changed in its details, and the second article interviewed four students who started on the new version of the program this April. This program is a way to take the standard four-year degree, potentially qualifying for meikai (明階), the highest non-honorary level of priestly licence, if you take (and… Read More »Practical Priesthood Program

Living Traditions

This week and last, I helped out again at Asakusa Jinja’s (浅草神社) Natsumoude (夏詣) event, and it once more got me thinking about living traditions in Shinto. I didn’t have any dazzling new insights, however, so if you have been reading this blog for a while, this post may sound rather familiar. As Natsumoude happens in the run-up to Tanabata (七夕), on July 7th, one of the activities is writing Tanabata wishes on tanzaku (短冊), strips of paper that are then hung from bamboo. The jinja sets up about a… Read More »Living Traditions

Children’s Activities at Jinja

There was an interesting article on the back page of the June 15th issue of Jinja Shinpō, about educational activities for children being held at jinja. I think this is a delayed response to an installment of a regular column some months ago, in which the author asked why jinja weren’t doing this sort of thing. In his next column, he said that he had been contacted by priests who were doing that sort of thing, and apologised for his ignorance. This is, of course, an inevitable side effect of… Read More »Children’s Activities at Jinja

Funding the Shikinen Sengū

As I have mentioned before, the Shikinen Sengū (式年遷宮) at Isë Jingū (伊勢神宮) is funded entirely from private sources. The total budget this time is ¥57.7 billion, or in US terms about the price of a tank of gas $356 million at the moment. Jingū has about ¥38.7 billion on hand or expected over the next seven years, and so it needs to raise around ¥19 billion. To coordinate it, a non-profit organisation (NPO) has been set up, the Isë Jingū Shikinen Sengū Hōsankai. “Hōsankai” means, roughly, “Money-Offering Group”, so… Read More »Funding the Shikinen Sengū

Okihikigyōji — Experience

As I said in the last post, I participated in the Okihikigyōji (御木曳行事) as part of the Shikinen Sengū (式年遷宮) at Isë Jingū (伊勢神宮) on June 13th. That post explains what that is, and this post is about my experience of it. There were about 30 of us in the group from Jinja Honchō, including the entire International Section and a reporter from Jinja Shinpō, so I expect there to be an article about the event, although I do not need to consult it this time. Most of us went… Read More »Okihikigyōji — Experience