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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

Okihikigyōji — Background

On June 12th and 13th I had the opportunity to visit Jingū (神宮) in Isë and participate in the Okihikigyōji (御木曳行事). Translated literally, that is something like “Honourable Tree-Pulling Formal Event”, which is obviously a terrible translation. I have already written about the ceremony held to mark the start of these events, and the reason I said I would write about the events themselves later was that I knew I was going to be participating. In this post, I will write about the background to the tradition, and explain its… Read More »Okihikigyōji — Background

Living Together

The regular “Thoughts in the Forest” column in the June 1st issue of Jinja Shinpō was by Yamatani Eriko, a member of the House of Councillors (the upper house of the Japanese Diet), and one of the two sponsored by Shintō Seiji Renmei and the Shinto community. It isn’t really about Shinto, but it is about foreigners in Japan and in the Shinto newspaper, so I am going to write about it. The topic was the recent revision of the immigration control law, which has been a major issue. One… Read More »Living Together