The 27th October issue of Jinja Shinpō included a very thought-provoking article about… an interaction between Shinto and Buddhism. One of the reasons it was thought-provoking is that I am not exactly sure how to characterise it.
The event happened at Honryūin (本龍院), a Buddhist temple in Tokyo generally known as Matsuchiyama Shōden (待乳山聖天). The resident priest, Revd Hirata, had found a reference in an early nineteenth-century text to a mikoshi procession based on the temple, and decided to revive it. Revd Haji, the chief priest of Asakusa Jinja (浅草神社), agreed to help.
A mikoshi owned by the local area was placed in the temple precincts, at the bottom of the steps up to the main hall. Offering tables and a himorogi (神籬) were set up in front of the incense stand, and after purification the kami of Asakusa Jinja were invited into the himorogi, and offerings made. Further offerings were then scattered, and the spirits of the three kami placed within the mikoshi. Revd Haji next read a norito, and the Shinto priests, Buddhist priests, and local representatives took turns to offer tamagushi. Finally, the mikoshi was carried up the steps and placed in front of the main hall of the temple, before Revd Hirata led everyone in reading a sutra.
The following day, September 20th, as part of the temple’s festivities, the mikoshi was carried around the area. The date seems to have been chosen because the Edo period document says that the procession happened on the 20th of the 9th month, but that was on the old calendar, and hasn’t yet happened this year.
The comments from both Revd Haji and Revd Hirata were about reviving Edo period culture, and the energy that Japan had at that time.
The temple is not very far from Asakusa Jinja, but there are closer jinja. However, those jinja may not have enough priests to send someone out to perform this ceremony without closing their own jinja. Further, the kami of Asakusa Jinja have their own mikoshi, which are used in one of the largest matsuri in Tokyo — the Sanja Matsuri. It would not have been practical to move those to Matsuchiyama Shōden, but this does mean that the kami “borrowed” someone else’s mikoshi. I do not think that is normal — although, as the mikoshi is just a very fancy box until the kami are placed in it, there is no theological issue.
To be honest, this whole ceremony feels to me as though both sides are trying to find a way to revive combined Shinto-Buddhist festivals, but do not have a clear idea of what that should look like. If they keep doing it, I have no doubt that practices will develop, but this appears to be a very early stage. In any case, the separation between Shinto and Buddhism imposed by the Meiji government over 150 years ago is beginning to break down. It will be interesting to see how the syncretic practices develop this time.