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The Ritual of the Daijōsai

The Daijōsai is one of the most important Shinto rituals. It is performed once each imperial reign, by the Tennō in person, to honour Amaterasu Ōmikami and all the other kami. The current Tennō will perform it in a week’s time, and I have just released a paid essay on my Patreon describing how the ritual is performed. If you are interested in seeing it, the Patreon Back Numbers page contains details on what to do: you should sign up to my Patreon, pledge $2, and ask me for it as your additional essay at the beginning of next month.

The next essay is about the meaning of the Daijōsai, so it makes a good pair with this one.

2 thoughts on “The Ritual of the Daijōsai”

    1. Thank you!

      To answer your question, yes, you can, but it is very unusual. Shimenawa mark the boundary between the sacred and the mundane, so they are not normally put on the entrance to a house. (You do see them over the entrances to houses within the grounds of jinja, but that is because the area outside the house is sacred.) What is common is shimekazari, which are based on shimenawa, but are more of a decoration. In most areas, these are only put up at New Year, but in and around Isë they are kept up all year round. If you wanted to do something of that nature, that would probably be the best choice. You can order them online in Japan, but I can’t find anything in English. (They are actually called “Ise Shimenawa”, but they do not look much like standard shimenawa, and do look a lot like standard shimekazari.)

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