Shinto

In Japan, most people die Buddhist. (Born Shinto, Marry Christian, Die Buddhist) However, a few people do have Shinto funerals, and some family graves are Shinto graves. (Cultural difference alert: Traditionally, people in Japan are buried in the family grave, and the grave stone just says that it is the family grave. The individuals in the grave are recorded somewhere, but that seems to vary.) Traditionally, members of the family tend the family grave over the generations, and perform the appropriate rites for their ancestors. There are even special provisions… Read More »Rites for the Dead

As discussed in the last two posts, as well as this one, I attended the 30th Kanagawa Prefectural Meeting of Jinja-Related People last week. There was time for conversation, so in this post I want to reflect a bit on what it was like. The first thing was that it was very male-dominated. There were women there, including one of the priests from my local jinja who was collecting her 25 year certificate, but they were a small minority. On my table they were three out of nine, and we… Read More »In the Company of Priests

I though I was going to write about the 30th Kanagawa Prefectural Meeting of Jinja-Related People in the last post, but in the end the kyōsan’in system took up all the space. I think all the prefectures have one of these meetings every year. A lot of them are reported in Jinja Shinpō, but I haven’t counted up systematically, so there might be some prefectures that don’t, or that do it irregularly. (Obviously, everyone did it irregularly during the pandemic.) While the details differ from prefecture to prefecture, and year… Read More »The 30th Kanagawa Prefectural Meeting of Jinja-Related People

On Wednesday, I attended the 30th Kanagawa Prefectural Meeting of Jinja-Related People to receive a Certificate of Gratitude from Kanagawa Prefectural Jinjachō. That sounds impressive, but it’s not really. Kanagawa Prefectural Jinjachō gives these certificates to anyone who has been a “kyōsan’in” of Jinja Honchō for at least a certain number of years. Given that I got it this year, I am guessing that the “certain number” is ten, although the certificate just says “many years”. To be a kyōsan’in, you have to apply through your local jinja, and then… Read More »Certificate of Gratitude

A problem that comes up from time to time when I am talking to priests is that of jinja capacity. Suppose someone wants a gokitō (a personal matsuri making a request) performed. This must be done by a priest, so you need to have a priest there. If the only priest at your jinja is not full time (as is the case for most priests), this presents an immediate problem. If you do have a full time priest, for example because the chief priest’s mother is retired and has a… Read More »Jinja Capacity

Many jinja are centuries old, and it is not uncommon for them to date back more than a thousand years. Obviously, the structures in the precincts do not last that long without some sort of intervention, either repair or rebuilding. Sometimes jinja do this after a disaster destroys or badly damages the existing buildings, while others do it on a significant anniversary when the need for repairs has become pressing. A few jinja, mainly larger and wealthier ones, do it on a regular cycle, often of around twenty years. Whatever… Read More »Refurbishing Jinja