This week and last, I helped out again at Asakusa Jinja’s (浅草神社) Natsumoude (夏詣) event, and it once more got me thinking about living traditions in Shinto. I didn’t have any dazzling new insights, however, so if you have been reading this blog for a while, this post may sound rather familiar.
As Natsumoude happens in the run-up to Tanabata (七夕), on July 7th, one of the activities is writing Tanabata wishes on tanzaku (短冊), strips of paper that are then hung from bamboo. The jinja sets up about a dozen leafy bamboo branches along the sacred path, six on each side, and the event office sells pairs of tanzaku for ¥100. These tanzaku have pictures related to Natsumoude on one side, and a blank reverse for writing your wish. One of the organisers of the event runs a printing company, and prints them on durable paper so that they survive even when it rains.
Tanabata tanzaku are an old Japanese tradition, going back centuries at least, and possibly over a thousand years in some form. Most of the elements it is built from were originally Chinese, but I believe they were merged in Japan to make something new. Whatever its origins, it is a tradition that is very much alive today. Indeed, it was so popular that the organisers ran out of tanzaku on the 5th. More were rushed in, arriving at 11am on the 6th (when I was there), and we got through about 500 before we shut up shop at five. I have no idea how things went on the 7th, but I suspect they may have run out again. I’m not at all sure there were 500 left.
Part of the demand was foreign tourists following the Japanese custom while on holiday — we had a couple of groups who had just arrived, and were using Japanese money for the first time. (Which is why I forgave them for paying ¥100 with a ¥10,000 note.) On the other hand, I think about half of the people doing it were Japanese, and at least some of them were local. (At least, I presume the man who said he would take them home to write and then bring them back to hang up was local…) So this is not only a living tradition, it is one that exists both for the tourists, and for the locals.
On the other hand, Natsumoude itself was started by Asakusa Jinja in 2014, so it is a new “tradition”. I have been in Japan since before it existed. It is now celebrated at 626 jinja and 33 Buddhist temples across Japan, so it is becoming popular, but it is not yet on anything like the scale of hatsumōdë. It runs from the summer purification on June 30th to Tanabata on July 7th, and so it incorporates and builds on existing traditions, which is probably one of the reasons why it is spreading so quickly.
Tanabata itself is, arguably, not Shinto. It certainly isn’t “core” Shinto. Similarly, Natsumoude may have started at a jinja, but it has always been open to Buddhist temples to participate. Nevertheless, Japanese people show very little resistance to incorporating both into the annual cycle of events at their jinja, which certainly is Shinto. I expect these broad habits to keep Shinto alive and active in people’s lives for many years to come.