Skip to content

David Chart

Mikoshi Procession

The procession itself covered quite a lot of ground. The recruitment email said that we would be walking ten kilometres, but judging from what my phone recorded, I think it was nearer 15, and maybe even a bit more than that. There were no really steep hills on the route, but there were a number of definite slopes, and we all really felt them. “The next bit is hell,” is how I was warned at one point. (It wasn’t that bad.) Because the procession included several horses, there were occasional… Read More »Mikoshi Procession

Kami are Heavy!

The mikoshi procession started at 1pm, but the matsuri to transfer the kami to the mikoshi started at noon, and so we were asked to gather at 11am. That is doable from Tokyo, and you do not even need to get the first Shinkansen of the day. The second will do… So it was an early start for me. I arrived at the jinja just as the chief priest was arriving, and he leaned out of his car window to call to me. “Are you Mr Chart?” I guess I… Read More »Kami are Heavy!

Shikariwakë Jinja

At the weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a matsuri at Shikariwakë Jinja (website in Japanese only) in Shiwa, Iwatë Prefecture. The jinja is also known as Akaishi (“Red Rock”) Jinja, because it is red, and has a rock in it. This is the red rock. The information board behind it is, unfortunately, forty years old, and virtually illegible. After the mikoshi procession, I saw children throwing stones and trying to land them on top of the rock. This sort of thing is common, and the idea is… Read More »Shikariwakë Jinja

Purification and Wolves

Princess Akiko (彬子女王) has just published a new book, The Shape of Prayer (Inori no Katachi, イノリノカタチ). It is only available in Japanese, and the link is an affiliate link because it might as well be. This book is another collection of the essays that she has published in the magazine Waraku (和楽) which has a lot of interesting articles about traditional Japanese art and culture. I would read it if I had more free time. It is also the sort of publication that carries adverts for $50,000 watches, so… Read More »Purification and Wolves

Uses for Money

A week ago, I wrote about the budget for the Shikinen Sengū — ¥57.7 billion, or about $375 million. One of my readers asked if there weren’t better things to spend that much money on. The answer has three parts. First, as far as the Shinto community is concerned, the answer is “No”. The point of Shinto is to perform matsuri for the kami, and the Shikinen Sengū is one of the most important matsuri, the most important according to many. Thus, from the Shinto perspective, there is nothing better… Read More »Uses for Money

Summer Ebisu

The August 18th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article about a summer matsuri at Nishinomiya (“Western Sanctuary”) Jinja (西宮神社) in Nishinomiya City, Hyōgo Prefecture. (The jinja is named after the city. “Nishinomiya” was originally applied to a group of jinja around Hirota Jinja (廣田神社), or to Hirota Jinja itself depending on the source you read, because they were (and are) to the west of Kyoto. It seems that the name was formally applied to the area in which this jinja is sited, and that it took its name from… Read More »Summer Ebisu