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Why I Do This

The previous post, about my most recent article in Jinja Shinpō, touches on the question of why I am writing about Shinto and working for Jinja Honchō. In this post, I want to address that question directly. I am not doing it for the money, although the fact that I get paid means that I can afford to spend enough time on it to do something potentially useful. I am also not doing it just because I am interested in, and a practitioner of, Shinto, although obviously I would not… Read More »Why I Do This

Mimusubi in Jinja Shinpō

The March 2nd issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article about Mimusubi. Admittedly, it was by me. The article was an explicit response to an article published in December, by a priest from Aichi Prefecture. That article was officially about how omamori are, and should be, treated in Reiwa, the current Japanese era. However, the main message was that jinja should avoid supplying omamori to foreigners, because they will just resell them online, treat them badly, and throw them away. He also mentioned that he felt fed up at seeing… Read More »Mimusubi in Jinja Shinpō

Buddhas as Kami

The second question raised for me by A Path into the Mountains (still an affiliate link!) was “Can Buddhas be venerated as kami?”. The reverse is clearly possible, as it is generally agreed to have been common for about a thousand years of Japanese history. Kami were taken to be provisional manifestations of more fundamental Buddhas — forms taken to enable the Buddhas to bring enlightenment to the Japanese. Thus, the kami were revered as Buddhas, and this was a standard part of Japanese Buddhism. What about the reverse? Is… Read More »Buddhas as Kami

Shugendō and Shinto

I have recently read A Path into the Mountains, by Caleb Swift Carter. (Affiliate link!) The book is about historical practice at Togakushi Jinja (戸隠神社), and I have to confess that I had a serious problem with the methodology. Essentially, Carter’s position is that if a tradition doesn’t, institutionally, look like Tendai Buddhism, with a coherent set of deities, doctrines, and lineages, then it probably doesn’t exist, and certainly isn’t important. This results in the claim that Shinto only became involved at Togakushi in the mid Edo-period, because there is… Read More »Shugendō and Shinto

A Sword Discovered

The February 9th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article about a sword. About five years ago, Kumata Jinja (杭全神社) in Osaka was sorting out a store room for the jinja’s treasures, and they found a box with eight swords bundled inside. It seems that there were no helpful records at the jinja, because they called in an expert. He looked at them, and said that it was very likely that one of them was the work of Gojō Kuninaga, a swordsmith active in the mid-eleventh century. The swords had… Read More »A Sword Discovered

Spirits of the Dead

Issue 277 of Shintō Shūkyō included thirty short reports on research presentations made at the conference. I am not going to write about all of them here, but there are four that I want to pick up and introduce. The first is “The Characteristics of the Dead in Ancient Times”, by Kobayashi Norihiko. That is the official English title, but the Japanese title is explicit that the report is about the spirits of the dead. Dr Kobayashi argues that in ancient times, which means the eighth and ninth centuries AD… Read More »Spirits of the Dead