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Dance for the Kami

The 10th November issue of Jinja Shinpō included two articles that talked about dance offered to the kami, as well as a couple more that mentioned it. Between them, they raise interesting questions of definition. The first was about a set of matsuri praying for recovery that were held in Toyama Prefecture. This area was badly affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake last year, because it is right next to the peninsula. During two of the matsuri, immediately after the norito, Hikari-no-Mai (光舞)  was offered by priests. At one of… Read More »Dance for the Kami

Cat Shrine

Nekogamisha (猫神社), “Cat Shrine” on the signs, is a jinja within the grounds of Sengan’en (仙巌園) in Kagoshima City. This site was the site of one of the residences of the Shimazu lords of this area, and this jinja is connected to one of those lords. According to the explanatory signs in the precincts, the seventeenth Shimazu lord, Shimazu Yoshihiro (1535–1619) took seven cats with him into battle, and distributed them among his troops. This was so that the officers could tell the time by looking at the way the… Read More »Cat Shrine

Mountain Kami

A couple of weeks ago I went to Kyūshū with my wife, and we visited some jinja. I want to write about two of them here, one in this post and the other in the next. The first one is at Kirishima Jingū (霧島神宮), a jinja that venerates Ninigi-no-mikoto, the grandson of Amaterasu Ōmikami who founded the Imperial line, at the mountain where he is said to have descended from the heavens. The jinja is ancient, and the main sanctuary buildings (which date from the eighteenth century) were designated National… Read More »Mountain Kami

Issues at the Oversight Council

The Oversight Council (評議員会) of Jinja Honchō (神社本庁) meets twice a year, in May and October, and this year the October meeting was on the 24th, and reported in the November 3rd issue of Jinja Shinpō (神社新報). In recent years, meetings of this council have been dominated by a series of related scandals (the court case and the disputed presidency), but all of those issues have now been resolved, and this has made a difference. The disputed presidency is still an ongoing issue, because Jinja Honchō is looking into whether… Read More »Issues at the Oversight Council

Daijōsai Purification

The Daijōsai (affiliate link!) (大嘗祭) is a sacred ceremony performed on the accession of a new Tennō, in which that new Tennō offers rice and other food to the kami in specially built ritual buildings. The linked essay has a lot more detail about the ceremony in general. In this post, I want to write about an article in issue 274 of The Journal of Shintō Studies (神道宗教), “Emperor Sutoku’s Daijōsai Ceremony as Recorded in Hosshōjidono on-shidai: An Analysis of the Comments Concerning Rites Preceding the Main Rite”, by Kimura… Read More »Daijōsai Purification

Imperial Prayers

The Summer 2025 issue of The Imperial Family (皇室) included an article reporting a discussion between Tanaka Tsunekiyo, the president of Jinja Honchō, and Okeya Ryōyū, the head of Nenpō Shinkyō. Nenpō Shinkyō is relatively new Buddhist group, founded exactly a hundred years ago, with its headquarters in Osaka. According to the article, it has about 387,000 members, and it has just finished building its central temple. The discussion took place there, and it really looks quite spectacular. Nenpō Shinkyō is an example of a Buddhist practice with strong Shinto… Read More »Imperial Prayers