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Okihikigyōji — Experience

As I said in the last post, I participated in the Okihikigyōji (御木曳行事) as part of the Shikinen Sengū (式年遷宮) at Isë Jingū (伊勢神宮) on June 13th. That post explains what that is, and this post is about my experience of it. There were about 30 of us in the group from Jinja Honchō, including the entire International Section and a reporter from Jinja Shinpō, so I expect there to be an article about the event, although I do not need to consult it this time. Most of us went… Read More »Okihikigyōji — Experience

Okihikigyōji — Background

On June 12th and 13th I had the opportunity to visit Jingū (神宮) in Isë and participate in the Okihikigyōji (御木曳行事). Translated literally, that is something like “Honourable Tree-Pulling Formal Event”, which is obviously a terrible translation. I have already written about the ceremony held to mark the start of these events, and the reason I said I would write about the events themselves later was that I knew I was going to be participating. In this post, I will write about the background to the tradition, and explain its… Read More »Okihikigyōji — Background

Living Together

The regular “Thoughts in the Forest” column in the June 1st issue of Jinja Shinpō was by Yamatani Eriko, a member of the House of Councillors (the upper house of the Japanese Diet), and one of the two sponsored by Shintō Seiji Renmei and the Shinto community. It isn’t really about Shinto, but it is about foreigners in Japan and in the Shinto newspaper, so I am going to write about it. The topic was the recent revision of the immigration control law, which has been a major issue. One… Read More »Living Together

New Book

My latest book, Myths from Fudoki Fragments 3, is now available on Amazon (affiliate link!). Here is the blurb: 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 in later works, and it seems likely that some of the supposed quotations are not actually from ancient Fudoki. Nevertheless, many shed interesting… Read More »New Book

A Calm Oversight Council

The main annual meeting of Jinja Honchō’s Oversight Council was held on May 21st and 22nd, and reported in the June 1st issue of Jinja Shinpō. As I have reported here, this has tended to be, shall we say, lively in recent years, but this year was, by all reports, very calm. Indeed, the most controversial topic this year was the plan to refurbish the Jinja Honchō headquarters, and that was only discussed in more detail because one of the councillors wanted a bit more clarity on which bits were… Read More »A Calm Oversight Council

The Origins of Shinto Weddings

Issue 279 of the Journal of Shintō Studies (神道宗教) reported on the annual meeting held in 2024. As always, there are a few longer articles based on presentations in the main symposium, and dozens of short pieces reporting on the research of different members of the scholarly association that hosts it, and publishes the journal. As normal, I would like to write about several of the articles, spread over a few posts. First, I want to pick up one talk from the symposium. The theme was “The Media and Religion”,… Read More »The Origins of Shinto Weddings