Jinja Shinpō published its first article about this year’s hatsumōdë in the January 19th issue. As always, it started with Isë Jingū, which had 426,544 visitors over the first three days of the new year, up 10,433 from last year. As of December last year, Isë City had a population of 117,368, which means that the overwhelming majority of these visitors travelled some distance to be there. Jingū also reported an increase in the number of people receiving ofuda.
Meiji Jingū in Tokyo reported an increase in both visitors and formal prayers over last year. The article does not give actual numbers, but considering the numbers published in previous years, that must mean over three million visitors across the three days. (I do not remember past numbers for formal prayers.) They also reported an increase in the number of foreigners, both for ordinary visits and for formal prayers.
These two are reported on every year. Jingū is Jingū, and Meiji Jingū always has the largest number of hatsumōdë visitors. The other jinja reported in the article were chosen because they were significant for some reason this year.
The first was Komagata Jinja (“Horse-shape Jinja”) in Iwatë Prefecture. This was chosen because this year is the year of the horse, and the jinja has a horse statue that people rub for luck. As one might expect, they had a lot of visitors, and a soap bubble performance. That is not standard, but the artist had performed during Shichigosan season, and came back for new year. Apparently, the bubbles froze in the air — Iwatë is in northern Japan, and it does get a mite chilly.
Kamowakë’ikazuchi Jinja in Kyoto has a traditional New Year ceremony involving the viewing of white horses, and this was reported in the media at the end of last year. As a result, they had a lot of visitors over the three days, but apparently saw hardly any foreign tourists. That is slightly surprising, given that Kyoto notoriously suffers from overtourism these days, but it probably has to do with the season, and possibly the specific limitation to tourists — most of the foreigners visiting Meiji Jingū were probably residents.
Ōasahiko Jinja in Tokushima Prefecture has a wooden statue of a horse in the sacred stables in the grounds, but this year people were seen paying their respects to it. The assumption is that this was because it is the year of the horse. Usa Jingū in Ōita Prefecture celebrated 1300 years last year, and also reported an increase in visitor numbers.
A couple of jinja mentioned that they had moved away from ladles to running water at the purification fonts, at least at busy times, because people could purify themselves more quickly. The running water style was introduced during the pandemic, but quite a few jinja have retained it.
The weather also caused problems at some jinja. Kasugayama Jinja in Niigata Prefecture had one metre of snow over New Year’s night, and had to get a snowplough in to make it possible to pay respects. And then the weight of the snow broke a branch of a pine tree that had been attacked by insects and was due to be removed in the spring, so they had to get local experts in to remove the other branches lest they fall on someone. In the end, they reported about one fifth of their usual visitor numbers. That is almost certainly a serious blow.
Mitsuminë Jinja in Saitama Prefecture also had a problem. It started snowing on the second, and in the afternoon an accident caused by a car skidding on the road to the jinja led to the road being closed. That trapped a number of people at the jinja, so they were accommodated in the jinja’s facilities, and fed. (Fortunately, it is a big jinja.) No-one fell ill or got injured, and they all got home the next day, although the road wasn’t reopened for normal traffic until the fourth.
The article closes with a brief report on the Noto Peninsula, which suffered a large earthquake two years ago, and where the first clear signs of recovery and rebuilding can now be seen.
Jinja Shinpō is carrying out a nationwide survey again this year, so in a few weeks we should see the results of that — it is normally very interesting.