The Role of Jinja Shinpō

The July 20^th issue of Jinja Shinpō contained two articles about the 80^th anniversary of Jinja Shinpō. One was a report of the celebratory gathering, on the front page, and the other was the editorial. The editorial was concerned with what Jinja Shinpō should be doing.

It opened with a rather plaintive question: Does anyone actually read it?

Well, I do, obviously. And, in fact, I know that other people do, because I have met several priests who have told me that they have read my articles in Jinja Shinpō. Those articles are typically buried on page five, and don’t get advertised on the front page, so anyone who finds them must be, at least, looking carefully through the whole paper.

So that worry may be slightly misplaced.

The main concern of the editorial, however, was with the purpose of the newspaper. The author felt that the articles in the paper should be backed by “kotodama” (言霊), the spiritual power of words, giving them authority and influence. They also felt that this was not the case.

Their diagnosis was that there was no-one left at the paper who could remember Ashizu Uzuhiko, and that his spirit no longer breathed through the articles.

I think there is a sense in which that is right. Ashizu had a clear position on what Shinto should be and should be doing, and he was willing to fight for that position, rhetorically, even when people disagreed with him, and even when those people were within the Shinto community. He did that, to a great extent, in the pages of Jinja Shinpō.

As I said four years ago, in the article linked earlier, I do not see anyone of his stature in the contemporary Shinto world, and I do not even see anyone who comes close. The chairman of Jinja Honchō said something similar in discussion with the president a couple of months ago. If Jinja Shinpō wants to have that sort of influence, it needs to be publishing someone like that.

And that means it will need to publish articles that do not agree with the surface consensus of the Shinto community.

In fact, I do not think that they could succeed now with one person like Ashizu. He was of his time, when all jinja were just coming out of the forced conformity under state control, and were looking back at it nostalgically, because being a Shinto priest in the immediate post-war years really, really sucked.

Eighty years have passed, and the natural diversity of Shinto has come back to the surface. Many jinja are getting back to their local roots, and their political and social concerns are no longer uniform. To serve that situation, Jinja Shinpō needs to publish articles from a range of people, each with a strong vision for Shinto and practical strategies for it. And, because those visions would be different, it would need to accept controversy and disagreement.

This does not mean that it should publish articles from people who want to abolish the Tennō. That would simply annoy a large number of readers. Rather, it should, I think, go beyond publishing accounts of what jinja are doing, and publish articles on the reason why jinja are taking certain approaches, and how those priests see the role of Shinto in contemporary society.

Publishing such articles would take courage. But, more critically, it would need people to write and submit them.

While they are waiting for those people to appear, they can continue publishing accounts of what is being done across the country, because that does, I think, serve a very valuable purpose for the Shinto community. Even though I can understand why the journalists on the paper might want to do more.