Twice a year, most jinja carry out Ōharaë (大祓), a purification ceremony for all the impurity that has built up over the previous six months. “Ōharaë” means “great purification”, and the one in summer is held on June 30th, and called “Nagoshi no Ōharaë” (夏越の大祓), which means “great purification crossing summer”. The winter one, held on December 31st, is called “Toshikoshi no Ōharaë” (年越の大祓), which means “great purification crossing the year”. The summer one tends to be more of an event, at least in part because it includes the chinowa (茅の輪), a ring of grasses, straw, or reeds set up in the jinja precincts. (The winter one may also get overshadowed by New Year.)
On July 1st, I was at Suwa Jinja (諏訪神社) in Kitakami, Iwatë Prefecture, after my annual holiday at Getō Onsen, and they still had their chinowa set up. It is common to leave it up for a week or so, so it is not at all surprising that they still had it up on the following day. The instruction board on the left tells you how to walk through (you pass through three times, forming a figure of eight around the ring before going on to the sanctuaries). This is standard.
The second, smaller one outside the inner courtyard is not standard — this was the first I had seen. I did wonder what it was for, but the little squares of paper on the top have drawings of dogs and cats from the back, as if they are walking through the ring. So, this is a chinowa for pets. While the number of Japanese having children is falling, the number with pets is, I believe, rising, and so jinja are starting to offer ceremonies for the animals. However, this is a bit controversial, because some people find it distracting to have pets in the sacred areas. This, I suspect, is why the pet chinowa is outside the inner courtyard, and placed before you reach the purification font. It is inside the first torii, so it is clearly inside the jinja, but it is outside the areas for which you purify yourself before entering. I didn’t talk to the priests, but I should think this was a deliberate choice.
My visit also coincided with the jinja reroofing the wall around the inner courtyard. This jinja has recently rebuilt the subsidiary jinja in the precincts (there was an article about it in Jinja Shinpō, and they do indeed look new), so it seems that they have enough money. It looks as though this is the main jinja for Kitakami City, but even so it is doing well. One possible reason is that, according to the staff at the onsen, the city is actually growing at the moment, as semiconductor factories have opened in the area. However, the jinja also seems to be very active in offering formal prayers, based on the information boards in the precincts, so I doubt that its prosperity is purely due to the growth of the city.
Kitakami City is a long way from Tokyo (three hours on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train), a bit less if you change from an express Shinkansen to a local Shinkansen at Sendai, rather than getting the local Shinkansen all the way from Tokyo). Thus, it seems to be a rare example of a fairly rural area that is prospering at the moment. And that is also good for the local jinja.
Ahh a little 茅の輪！that’s super cute, but it did make realize that I’ve never seen a pet on shrine grounds before.
I too got to experience the Oharai, it was very funny seeing Japanese people forgetting which way to go too 🙂 Small neighborhood shrine so maybe around 25ppl?
I think there is a general idea that you don’t take pets there. It is not universal, however, and that sometimes leads to problems, I believe.
And yes, the reason there is often a sign is that Japanese people do not remember from one year to the next.