The back page of the June 30th issue of Jinja Shinpō was taken up by an article about upcoming changes in the curriculum for the training course for new priests at Kokugakuin University (國學院大學). The Faculty of Shinto Studies has existed for about twenty years, and society has changed, so they feel the need to change the curriculum.
This is not, however, radical. There is a little table showing what isn’t changing, and that covers almost everything. They will still study the Kojiki (古事記), and Shinto ritual, and how to write norito, and so on. Society might have changed, but the core functions of a Shinto priest have not.
There are a couple of structural changes. One is a shift to a semester system rather than full-year courses, to make it easier for visiting students to participate. (The fact that the Japanese academic year runs April to March causes major problems for visitors from September-August regions. If the courses run April-September and October-March, things will be a lot easier.)
The other looks a bit odd on paper. The university used to have a “day course” and a “night course” for priestly training. The night course was intended for people who were planning to serve at a jinja in (or near) Tokyo during the day, and attend courses at the university in the evening. This was one of the systems in place to enable people from jinja families with little money to complete their studies. (There are also straightforward scholarships.) In the changes, these courses are being abolished, but the system is being maintained — the essential courses will still be given in the evening, so that people can still get their degree and licence this way. This presumably means that most, at least, of the essential courses will be given twice, just as they are now. So, it is not clear what this change is for. My best guess is that by abolishing the formal distinction between the two courses, it increases the flexibility for students — you could serve at a jinja on Thursdays, for example, and take day courses on the other days of the week.
The substantial changes appear to be seven new courses, most of which look like one year courses; the exception is a methodological course on doing surveys, so that students can do their final year research project on that sort of thing. The courses all look interesting, including ones on Religious Culture and Contemporary Society and Religious Culture and the Media, and one on religion and psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. I think those would all be valuable background for priests. Two other courses are of more immediate, practical relevance. One is on Religion and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. I imagine that this will be popular with students whose family jinja own, or organise, things designated as cultural heritage
The other is on Shinto and Social Contributions, and will look at how a jinja can serve as a hub for nurturing people who will build local society, preserving the environment, and responding to disasters. It seems that the plan is to look at examples, and to also cover the issue of keeping the jinja itself viable. Personally, I suspect that this should take up rather more time than a four (out of 124) unit course, but in fairness the faculty are very unlikely to know how to teach it until they have tried. It may well expand a bit over time.
It is good to see that at least one of the two Shinto universities is adapting its curriculum to changing circumstances, and that the content of the new courses is appropriate to the ways in which society is changing.