One of Jinja Honchō’s most consistent policies is the strong promotion of the distribution of Jingū Taima, and Jinja Shinpō’s survey about hatsumōdë specifically asked about it. It is, therefore, not surprising that quite a few priests gave their opinions on this subject in the free response section. If you are a priest at a jinja affiliated with Jinja Honchō, this is a topic that you simply cannot avoid thinking about. As noted at the end of my last post, there are some priests who think that Jinja Honchō should stop supporting Jingū, or at least stop getting jinja involved. That seems to be very much a minority opinion, but there are a lot more priests who have concerns.
Broadly speaking, the concerns reported in the paper fall under two topics.
The first is the practical organisation of the distribution of Jingū Taima. This may well vary by area, because it is done through the prefectural Jinjachō and the local groups, but the problems do seem to be widespread. Jinja are encouraged to take on a certain number of Jingū Taima, and then strongly discouraged from returning any that they were unable to distribute. This means that, in some cases, the chief priests of the jinja end up making the offerings for all the remaining Jingū Taima themselves. At rural jinja, that can mean doing so out of their pensions.
One priest went into quite a bit of detail. In their prefecture, the Jinjachō assigns each area a certain number of Jingū Taima to distribute, and does not allow any of them to be returned. In each area, large, wealthy jinja have made it a custom to take any excess Jingū Taima off the hands of smaller jinja, reimbursing the chief priests for the offerings. Historically, this was about 20%, but recently it has got up to 50%, and even the larger jinja are starting to feel the strain. Another priest said that, speaking honestly, the current system was unsustainable, and he expected it to collapse soon.
This suggests that the official numbers for distributed Jingū Taima are an overestimate of the number that are actually venerated across Japan, probably by something of the order of 25%. However, surveys asking how many people venerate a Jingū Taima come up with numbers that are fairly close to the official distribution numbers — they certainly weren’t 25% off when I last calculated them. [Edit: See the comments for a very good suggestion as to the cause of this.] I think it would be a very good idea for Jinja Honchō to stop applying a system that essentially pressures many priests into falsifying the number of Jingū Taima they distribute, because it is not going to be possible to make sensible decisions on what to do based on wildly inaccurate beliefs about what is happening.
The second area of concern was the reason for venerating a Jingū Taima. Several priests said that they were asked why it was important, and that is unsurprising. However, a couple noted that neither Jinja Honchō nor Jingū says anything specific about this. Both emphasise that it is important to venerate a Jingū Taima, but neither says why. The priests want guidance.
They are unlikely to get it. The problem is that there are at least three widely-held interpretations of Jingū Taima, and they are not compatible. (These positions see Jingū Taima as purely symbolic representations of Jingū, as vessels for the power and spirit of Amaterasu Ōmikami, or as sources and symbols of purification.) If the central bodies settle on any of these, there will be strong objections from many priests.
At present, a significant number of priests are not that happy with gathering economic support for Jingū while their own jinja does not have enough money to pay the priests properly, or maintain the jinja. If Jinja Honchō added an interpretation of Jingū Taima with which they did not agree, it is entirely possible that they would simply stop cooperating. Even priests who are reluctant to withdraw cooperation for purely financial reasons might be willing to do so if they did not agree with the theology.
The fundamental problem here, in my opinion, is that the distribution of Jingū Taima is a legacy of State Shinto. It had a clear function within that system — reinforce loyalty to the Tennō and the nation. However, it can no longer serve that function, as it is no longer a state project. Devotion to Isë Jingū really is a widespread feature of Japanese religiosity, with deeper roots than State Shinto, and so the practice has survived on momentum, and due to being the “tradition”. Eighty years after the end of State Shinto, however, we may be approaching the point where that is no longer enough.
I do not have a solution to offer, but neither, it seems, does anyone else.
Something that comes to mind with the number of venerated Jingu Taima not matching up: Does the questionnaire ask specifically if they get theirs replaced yearly? It’s entirely possible a fair number of people venerating them don’t quite see the need to replace theirs every year, which could explain the difference.
That is an excellent point. I do not think the questionnaire did ask that, and if about 70% did replace annually, with the remainder replacing them every two to five years, we would be about 25% off. It is an odd coincidence that the two numbers (distributed and venerated) are so close together, but I think you are almost certainly right about the cause. Thank you!