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David Chart

New Book

I have published Myths from Fudoki Fragments 1 on Amazon, collecting three of my essays from 2023. Yes, I have got a bit behind. There’s only one of me… To quote the blurb on Amazon (which I wrote, so I am allowed): The Fudoki are gazetteers of regions of Japan, compiled in the eighth century. They include many myths, some of which give different versions of stories recorded in the central histories, and some of which seem to be completely different. Many of the Fudoki only survive in fragmentary quotations… Read More »New Book

Hamaori

Issue 277 of Shintō Shūkyō reported on the annual meeting of the academic society that publishes the journal, and contained several interesting articles. The first I want to write about is “Mikoshi Parades in the Bōsō Peninsula”, by Kobayashi Hiromi. The Bōsō peninsula is part of Chiba Prefecture, which is immediately to the east of Tokyo and part of the Kantō metropolis. While that metropolis is no longer officially the largest city in the world (the UN changed its definitions), it is still number 3, but the Bōsō peninsula stretches… Read More »Hamaori

Hatsumōdë 2026

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… Read More »Hatsumōdë 2026

The Diversity of Priests

At the beginning of every year, Jinja Shinpō publishes a lot of short articles by people connected with the Shinto community who were born in the same year of the Chinese zodiac as the current year. A few are invited, particularly 96-year-olds who are up to writing something, but I think most are submitted. Almost all the writers are priests, but not all — they published the one I wrote in the last year of the boreboar. This year is the year of the horse. Because the authors can write… Read More »The Diversity of Priests

Visiting Jingū

The front page of the January 12th issue of Jinja Shinpō carried an article about the visit of Prime Minister Takaichi and eleven cabinet ministers to pay their respects at Isë Jingū on the 5th. After visiting the Outer and Inner Sanctuaries, they offered kagura (which is the Jingū version of a formal prayer, gokitō), and Takaichi gave a press conference at the Jingū office. In the press conference, she summarised her plans as prime minister, and affirmed the significance of the Shikinen Sengū. This is a tradition. As I… Read More »Visiting Jingū

Godlings All the Way Up

I have recently read a very interesting book on medieval British history, Twilight of the Godlings. (That’s an affiliate link, and this book is in English.) It traces the history of fairies, looking at how belief in fairies related to and developed from earlier pagan beliefs, and, indeed, Christian beliefs. (As the book points out, one of the gods imported under the Roman Empire clearly did survive in Britain — Christ.) The very high-level summary is as follows. Fairies and the like appear to play the same role as pagan… Read More »Godlings All the Way Up