The August 11th issue of Jinja Shinpō (神社新報) had a front page article about the first meeting of the Shikinen Sengū (式年遷宮) committee. This committee has 33 members, and exists to provide Isë Jingū (伊勢神宮) with advice on important questions concerning the Shikinen Sengū — the rebuilding of the sanctuaries, recreation of the sacred treasures, and transfer of the kami that has taken place every twenty years for the last 1300 (with occasional interruptions and delays due to war).
One of the main concerns of this committee is fund raising, and that was one of the issues raised at the first meeting.
The budget for this Shikinen Sengū is ¥57.7 billion, or about $375 million at current exchange rates. ¥19 billion of that needs to be raised over the next eight years. The editorial in the August 18th issue gave the numbers for last time as well: a budget of ¥55 billion, of which ¥22 billion needed to be raised.
Although the Shinto establishment is clear that the Shikinen Sengū should be a state event, it is not, and it receives no government funding or subsidies. All the money is raised by Jingū itself. There are, I think, three main sources: the annual distribution of Jingū Taima, offerings made by visitors to Jingū, and donations that are not connected to either of those activities.
It is clear from the budget that Jingū has gathered more money this time around, as they have, or anticipate getting, around ¥39 billion, while last time they had ¥33 billion. The economy has not been booming, which means that it is unlikely that general donations have gone up. The numbers of Jingū Taima distributed every year have been falling slowly but steadily since before the last Shikinen Sengū, and although the recommended offering has been increased, I doubt that the income has risen significantly.
That suggests that offerings made during personal visits to Jingū must have gone up, and there is good reason to think that they have. Despite the pandemic, the number of people visiting Jingū has risen recently. The year of the last Sengū, 2013, saw 14.7 million visitors, the highest number on record. (That means “since 1895”. There are records of earlier years when a lot of people from all over Japan visited Jingū, so it may not be the highest ever — although overall population trends suggest that it could well be.) Even in 2019, there were still 9.7 million visitors, and last year the numbers were back up to 7.5 million, after (of course) a massive fall during the pandemic. I believe this is significantly higher than the numbers at this point of the last cycle, although I do not have those numbers to hand, and so Jingū is probably right in anticipating greater income from in-person offerings.
A separate organisation will be set up to collect donations specifically for the Sengū, as has been done every time since the war. However, since the last Sengū the law on non-profit foundations has changed, and so they are taking a bit longer over the process this time. The article does not spell out the details, but they should be able to get “public benefit” status for an organisation supporting such an important part of Japanese culture. If they do, there are tax benefits to donating to it. Thus, I think they are consulting to make sure that they set the organisation up in such a way that it can qualify for “public benefit” status. And since they have never done this before, it is taking a bit longer than normal.
There are a lot of practical issues involved in successfully completing a religious rite on this scale.
Since the process is already underway… Was that first meeting some time ago, and Jinja Shinpō is just now getting around to discussing it? It seems to odd for it to first meet at this point.
The first meeting was recent. This committee was preceded by the Preparation Committee, which, at its last meeting, recommended that this committee be established. There is a lot of overlap in membership and function between those committees.
Even the administration of the Shikinen Sengū is ritualised. Part of this is that there are things that they cannot do until the Tennō has said “OK”, but given the scale of the operation they need to start practical operations earlier — so there are different names, and formal distinctions, between bodies.
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