Mimusubi

The Tennō and Empress were out of Japan to make state visits to the Netherlands and Belgium from June 13th to 26th. The visit to the Netherlands reportedly involved the King and Tennō sitting down together to watch the Japan-Netherlands match at the World Cup, so it is perhaps just as well that it was a draw. Such overseas visits are, of course, an important part of the jobs of the Tennō and other members of the Imperial family. While the Tennō is out of the country, his constitutional duties… Read More »When the Tennō Leaves

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

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

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