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David Chart

Mountaintop Sanctuaries

The 24th February issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article about the rebuilding of the main sanctuary of a small jinja. This jinja, Misumiyama Jinja, is on top of a low (508m) mountain, Misumiyama, in Tottori Prefecture. The old sanctuary was built in 1845, and was designated as a tangible cultural property by the city. However, in February 2022, some hikers reported that it had been completely destroyed by fire (after a lightning strike, it seems). The chief priest, Revd Tanaka, went to the site, and was able to retrieve… Read More »Mountaintop Sanctuaries

Cashless Payments Revisited

The 17th February issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article reporting on the latest meeting of Jinja Honchō’s committee to consider contemporary issues, which basically means the questions of how jinja should deal with the online world, and what they should do about cashless payments. As I have mentioned before, since the pandemic Japan has become less and less of a cash-based society, and foreign tourists often do not have Japanese cash at all. This raises an issue for jinja, because they are not set up to take cashless payments,… Read More »Cashless Payments Revisited

Dedicating New… Toilets?

The 17th February issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about the dedication of a new toilet block at Taga Taisha, in Shiga Prefecture. The previous toilets were built in the Shōwa thirties (between 1955 and 1964), and were difficult for the elderly and people with children to use. (That probably means that they were squat toilets, which were the Japanese standard sixty years ago, but are almost unknown now.) The rebuilding started last April, and the toilets were “reborn as facilities appropriate to the times”. On the day of… Read More »Dedicating New… Toilets?

Mihishiroki Hōeishiki

At the end of February, Isë Jingū announced the dates for the first large public events of the 63rd Shikinen Sengū, and this was reported in the 10th March issue of Jinja Shinpō. The Mihishiroki Hōeishiki will take place on June 9th at the Inner Sanctuary and June 10th at the Outer Sanctuary. This is the “Honourable Hishiro Tree Pull Offering Ceremony”, and it involves trees being pulled into the precincts of the Inner and Outer Sanctuaries. These are (almost) the most sacred trees in the whole ceremony — the… Read More »Mihishiroki Hōeishiki

Trees and Hair

The other article about trees in the 10th February issue of Jinja Shinpō was by Suzuë, in one of her regular “Thoughts in the Forest” columns. The title is “The sacred mystery of hair”, which is a pun because the Japanese for “hair” is “kami”, and the article is mostly about hair, particularly hers. Apparently, it has a natural wave, which is unusual in Japan, and she used to have a complex about it. She also mentions that Izanagi Jingū, on Awaji Island in Hyōgo Prefecture, has an annual ceremony… Read More »Trees and Hair

Shinto and Noh and Diplomats

Last Saturday I was interpreting at a seminar that Jinja Honchō held for the Diplomatic Corps in Tokyo, on Shinto and Noh. This was the latest in a series that used to be annual, but that got interrupted by the pandemic — it finally restarted this year. As the speaker who opened said, Noh has a reputation for being hard to understand, boring, and soporific. Fortunately, the seminar wasn’t. That opening speaker, Kenji Kato, noted that there has been a lot of work on the relationship between Noh and Zen… Read More »Shinto and Noh and Diplomats