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Daijōsai Purification

The Daijōsai (affiliate link!) (大嘗祭) is a sacred ceremony performed on the accession of a new Tennō, in which that new Tennō offers rice and other food to the kami in specially built ritual buildings. The linked essay has a lot more detail about the ceremony in general. In this post, I want to write about an article in issue 274 of The Journal of Shintō Studies (神道宗教), “Emperor Sutoku’s Daijōsai Ceremony as Recorded in Hosshōjidono on-shidai: An Analysis of the Comments Concerning Rites Preceding the Main Rite”, by Kimura… Read More »Daijōsai Purification

Imperial Prayers

The Summer 2025 issue of The Imperial Family (皇室) included an article reporting a discussion between Tanaka Tsunekiyo, the president of Jinja Honchō, and Okeya Ryōyū, the head of Nenpō Shinkyō. Nenpō Shinkyō is relatively new Buddhist group, founded exactly a hundred years ago, with its headquarters in Osaka. According to the article, it has about 387,000 members, and it has just finished building its central temple. The discussion took place there, and it really looks quite spectacular. Nenpō Shinkyō is an example of a Buddhist practice with strong Shinto… Read More »Imperial Prayers

The Ōmiwa Clan

Volume 273 of the Journal of Shinto Studies (神道宗教 — note that the official English title is not a translation of the Japanese) included an article by Suzuki Akifusa (鈴木顕房) on “The Relationship between the Ōmiwa Clan and the Miwayama Ritual”. Miwayama (三輪山), Mt Miwa, is a small mountain in Nara Prefecture that is very important for the early history of Shinto. It is currently the site of Ōmiwa Jinja (大神神社), and there are a number of early archaeological sites, which are among the earliest evidence for practices that can… Read More »The Ōmiwa Clan

Kami at a Buddhist Temple

The 27th October issue of Jinja Shinpō  included a very thought-provoking article about… an interaction between Shinto and Buddhism. One of the reasons it was thought-provoking is that I am not exactly sure how to characterise it. The event happened at Honryūin (本龍院), a Buddhist temple in Tokyo generally known as Matsuchiyama Shōden (待乳山聖天). The resident priest, Revd Hirata, had found a reference in an early nineteenth-century text to a mikoshi procession based on the temple, and decided to revive it. Revd Haji, the chief priest of Asakusa Jinja (浅草神社),… Read More »Kami at a Buddhist Temple

Yasukuni in Autumn

From October 17th to 19th, Yasukuni Jinja (靖國神社) held its Autumn Grand Festival (秋季例大祭 , Shūki Reitaisai). This festival is held every year, and is one of the three main events in the jinja’s ritual year, along with the Spring Grand Festival and the anniversary of the end of the War of Greater East Asia, August 15th. Jinja Shinpō always covers it, because the rituals at Yasukuni Jinja are very important to the Shinto establishment, and as this year is the 80th anniversary of the end of the war even… Read More »Yasukuni in Autumn

Dance Lessons

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the creation and introduction of two sacred dances, called “Saishimai (祭祀舞)”, for performance at jinja. These dances, Asahi-no-mai (朝日舞) and Toyosaka-no-mai (豊栄舞), were designed for priests rather than miko, and are designed to be performed by a single dancer, although Toyosaka-no-mai can also be performed in a pair or a group of four. Asahi-no-mai is known as “the chief priest’s dance” (Gūji-no-mai (宮司舞)), so I think that may be specifically designed for one person. The 13th October issue of Jinja Shinpō included an… Read More »Dance Lessons