2020

The slogan in Japan these days is “with corona” (wizu korona), which suggests adapting the way you do things so that you can get on with something as close as possible to normal life before COVID-19 has gone away. Jinja are also doing this, in an attempt to maintain both the traditions and their financial basis. The October 5th issue of Jinja Shinpō included a report from the chief priest of a jinja in Tokyo, Ōtori Jinja (probably — the reading for the kanji is not given, and jinja are… Read More »Matsuri Strategy

Revd Sano’s article really seems to have started a new trend for articles critical of Jinja Honchō in Jinja Shinpō. The October 5th issue included a short article criticising a different aspect of Jinja Honchō’s activities: its response to the pandemic. To be honest, this criticism is rather more muted, because it opens with an appreciation of the guidelines and pictograms that Jinja Honchō and the prefectural Jinjachō have made available, and goes on to raise two questions rather than directly criticise. The questions, however, are critical. The article was… Read More »Disagreement about COVID-19

Jinja Shinpō is continuing to publish articles from individual priests criticising, or at least questioning, Jinja Honchō’s recent actions. At the end of September, they published two more. One, from a chief priest in Okayama Prefecture in western Japan, is focused on the recent problems over the sale of employee accommodation. He gives a summary of what he has picked up about the events, but notes that there has been no substantive statement from Jinja Honchō, and even Jinja Shinpō has been short on details. He argues that Jinja Honchō… Read More »Focused Dissent and Deep Dissent

The hatsumōdë jinja visit at the beginning of the new year is a firmly established tradition in contemporary Japan. Anywhere from dozens to millions of people descend on each jinja to pay their respects, receive ofuda to venerate in the new year, and provide the foundation for the jinja’s financial survival over the following year. This presents jinja with a major problem this time. They cannot afford to simply cancel hatsumōdë, in most cases; the income is vital to paying the bills over the rest of the year. On the… Read More »Yōhai Gohei

A few weeks ago, Jinja Shinpō ran a pair of articles on the Yakumo Koto. This is a particular kind of koto, a stringed instrument with strings stretched over a long (1 metre or more) sounding board. The strings are plucked, and held at various points to make different notes. Koto have been associated with Shinto ritual since the earliest legends: a koto is used in a ritual described in the Nihonshoki. The Yakumo Koto does not go back that far; the impetus for the articles was the bicentenary of… Read More »Yakumo Koto

According to the 28 September issue of Jinja Shinpō, Abë Shinzō, the former prime minister of Japan, visited Yasukuni Jinja on September 19th. This does not seem to have raised the same amount of international controversy as his previous visit, on December 26th 2013, possibly because he was not prime minister this time, having formally resigned on September 16th. It did still make the front page of Jinja Shinpō, however. I am raising it here, because I think this visit is evidence in favour of my interpretation of his previous… Read More »Abë at Yasukuni