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David Chart

Goddess Tour

OK, so “goddess” is a bad translation, but “female kami tour” doesn’t have the same ring. The July 14th issue of Jinja Shinpō had a short article about three jinja on Awaji Island and a neighbouring small island (in Hyōgo Prefecture, between Honshū, the main island of Japan, and Shikoku). These jinja all enshrine female kami, have female priests, and are quite close together, so they decided to team up. They created a set of three special goshuin (御朱印), along with a webpage, to encourage people to visit all three… Read More »Goddess Tour

Digital Publicity

The July 7th issue of Jinja Shinpō had two articles about digital publicity for jinja, both connected to Jinja Honchō. One was quite simple, about a jinja creating a website. These days there is nothing particularly remarkable about a jinja having a website, and most do not get articles about it in Jinja Shinpō. One reason for the article is that one of the newspaper’s correspondents wrote about it. (The importance of that sort of practical reason should not be underestimated.) The other reason is that this jinja, Hiyoshisha (日吉社)… Read More »Digital Publicity

Full-Time Chief Priest

Going back in time a bit, the June 23rd issue of Jinja Shinpō included the next article from Revd Tagawa about her progress as a priest. This article was about when she started working full-time as the chief priest of Fukumo Hachimangū (服母八幡宮), her family jinja. When she started, it was a good month if there were a handful of formal prayers, and as for goshuin the question was whether any would be requested in a year. Nobody wanted omamori at any time other than New Year, and there were… Read More »Full-Time Chief Priest

Matsuri for Nature

The July 14th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an extremely interesting article by a consultant for Jinja Honchō called… Oh! Will you look at that? David Chart! Is my faux naïf act fooling anyone? I had another article published in Jinja Shinpō. It suggests that jinja could perform matsuri to celebrate features of nature in their local area. That could be an old tree, or the cherry blossoms, or fireflies, or birds, or the first snow of the year — anything. I suggested that the matsuri could be held outside,… Read More »Matsuri for Nature

Curriculum Changes

The back page of the June 30th issue of Jinja Shinpō was taken up by an article about upcoming changes in the curriculum for the training course for new priests at Kokugakuin University (國學院大學). The Faculty of Shinto Studies has existed for about twenty years, and society has changed, so they feel the need to change the curriculum. This is not, however, radical. There is a little table showing what isn’t changing, and that covers almost everything. They will still study the Kojiki (古事記), and Shinto ritual, and how to… Read More »Curriculum Changes

Japanese Silk

Silk is a product strongly associated with Japan. However, the June 30th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article by the head of the Dainippon Silk Foundation, bemoaning the collapse of domestic production of silk fibre. Last year, domestic silk farmers produced 38 tonnes of silk thread, a drop of 99.97% since the peak in 1968. Recently, the amount produced has been halving every five years. Three quarters of active silk farmers are 70 or older, and 86% of them have no successor. The reason for this is a drop… Read More »Japanese Silk