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Katagaki

At the weekend I watched a television programme, on NHK, that featured Princess Akiko of Mikasa. However, they did not refer to her as a princess, or address her as “your highness” — they simply called her “Akiko-sama”. This is because she was not on the programme as a princess. She was there as an expert. The programme was about an exhibition of Japanese art in the collection of the British Museum that is happening in Tokyo at the moment. Akiko-sama’s D.Phil  (PhD, but from Oxford) was on the reception… Read More »Katagaki

Matsuri Preservation

Recently, the dissolution of the “Folk Cultural Properties Research Council” (民俗文化財研究協議会), an organisation that was managed from within Jinja Honchō, was announced, and the August 10th issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article explaining what it was, and why it had been dissolved. It was founded, in 1971, to get legal recognition and support for matsuri as folk cultural properties. It is being dissolved because it has succeeded. Japanese culture has always placed importance on preserving traditional practices, and that was codified in law early on. Arguably, the law governing… Read More »Matsuri Preservation

Appropriate Clothing

What is appropriate clothing to wear to visit a jinja? This is a question that causes me repeated trouble, both in writing advice for my own publications and in the material I prepare with Jinja Honchō. It is also a question that recently made the international news, when Yasukuni Jinja (靖國神社) banned cosplay and military uniforms that the wearer was not entitled to by virtue of being in service. I do not know whether Yasukuni has a problem with people coming dressed as Sailor Moon, but they do have a… Read More »Appropriate Clothing

Myths from Prayers and Poems

I have just published a new book on Amazon, Myths from Prayers and Poems. This is a compilation of three of my Patreon essays, covering the myths of the kami that are found in the norito prayers in the tenth-century Engishiki, and those that are found in the poems in the eighth-century Man’yōshū. There is less in these sources than one might expect. Most of the norito do not retell myths, and the kami are not a substantial presence in the Man’yōshū poems. That is interesting in itself, of course,… Read More »Myths from Prayers and Poems

Led by Sacred Dance

The August 3rd issue of Jinja Shinpō also included the first article by another Komorebi author. Revd Yokota is a sacred dance instructor for Hiroshima Prefectural Jinjachō, and a junior priest at Yoshiura Hachiman Jinja (吉浦八幡神社). Her articles in this series will focus on her half-century and more of experience of sacred dance, and so the first one, naturally enough, is about how she got started. She was born into a priestly family (second daughter, third child). She was part of the family’s preparation for matsuri from a very early… Read More »Led by Sacred Dance

Caring for Sacred Forests

The August 3rd issue of Jinja Shinpō included a double-page spread of articles about sacred forests. One article was about the sacred forests at Jingū, but since I wrote about them two weeks ago, I will skip over that one here. The other articles were about caring for sacred forests. One was by an expert on urban trees, talking about the issues specific to them. As he points out, trees die. They live a lot longer than people, but they do die, and then fall over. Before they reach that… Read More »Caring for Sacred Forests