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New Book: Toshigoi Norito

My latest book is The Toshigoi and Tsukinami Norito, and it is available on Amazon and Gumroad. (Affiliate link to Amazon.)

The title of this book is clear and informative if you are an expert on Shinto, and almost completely opaque if you are not. Unfortunately, the clearer titles would be insufficiently specific, because there are lots of other norito coming from the same source.

That source is the Engishiki, a tenth-century legal compilation that includes details for the rituals through which the court bureaucracy venerated the kami. Those regulations include the texts of the prayers, the norito, recited at those rituals. The Toshigoi Matsuri happened in the second month (March-ish), and was primarily concerned with praying for a good harvest, while the Tsukinami Matsuri happened in the sixth and twelfth months (July-ish and January-ish), and was more concerned with praying for the Tennō. The bulk of the norito for the two matsuri are the same, which is why I am treating them together.

These are the oldest surviving norito we have, and they are almost certainly older than the Engishiki (I discuss the evidence in the book). Thus, they give us a lot of insight into early Shinto practice. In addition, the phrases from these norito are still used to write norito today, so they are an important part of contemporary practice as well.

The book includes a transcription and translation of the norito, as well as a commentary to set it in context. It is, as usual, a repackaging of essays from my Patreon, and so patrons there already have it.

I have a Patreon, where people join as paid members to receive an in-depth essay on some aspect of Shinto every month, or as free members to receive notifications of updates to this blog. If that sounds interesting to you, please take a look.

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