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hatsumōdë survey

Going Digital

The hatsumōdë survey published in the March 9th issue of Jinja Shinpō also covered several aspects of the digital transformation. Social media, AI, and cashless payments were picked out as major issues, and there seem to have been a lot of responses. The attitude to social media is broadly positive, and a lot of priests are seeing good results from putting photographs of their jinja on Facebook or Instagram. They also mentioned that if you put information about events and such online, people, particularly young people, find it there, and… Read More »Going Digital

Jingū Taima 2026

Both the results of the hatsumōdë survey published in Jinja Shinpō on March 9th and a couple of articles, including the front page lead, on March 16th deal with the distribution of Jingū Taima. Jingū Taima are ofuda from Isë Jingū, and the position of the Shinto establishment is that every household in Japan should have one on their kamidana. According to the articles published on the 16th, last season (that is, over the new year period coming into this year) 7,836,747 were distributed, a fall of 106,101 from the… Read More »Jingū Taima 2026

Hatsumōdë Survey 2026

Jinja Shinpō has once again conducted its annual survey of its correspondents, priests at jinja across Japan, to find out how hatsumōdë went, and to hear about other issues. The results were published in the March 9th issue. This survey was started during the pandemic, but it seems that I am not the only one to find its results very interesting and useful. This year, there is no mention of the pandemic or of changes related to it, and so it seems to have become a regular annual event. I… Read More »Hatsumōdë Survey 2026

Miscellaneous Issues

The respondents to Jinja Shinpō’s hatsumōdë survey also touched on a range of other issues. One was money. The need to accept digital money has become more obvious, with many more jinja looking positively at introducing it even than last year. There are still voices of caution, and people asking for guidance from Jinja Honchō. In this case, they are going to get some in the fairly near future — Jinja Honchō has been a bit slower than would have been ideal, but it is not too bad. The service… Read More »Miscellaneous Issues

Opinions about Jingū

One of Jinja Honchō’s most consistent policies is the strong promotion of the distribution of Jingū Taima, and Jinja Shinpō’s survey about hatsumōdë specifically asked about it. It is, therefore, not surprising that quite a few priests gave their opinions on this subject in the free response section. If you are a priest at a jinja affiliated with Jinja Honchō, this is a topic that you simply cannot avoid thinking about. As noted at the end of my last post, there are some priests who think that Jinja Honchō should… Read More »Opinions about Jingū

Promoting Jingū

The hatsumōdë survey reported in the 3rd March issue of Jinja Shinpō included quite a few responses from jinja that were taking particular steps to encourage local people to receive Jingū Taima, the ofuda from Isë Jingū. (The previous post talks about the overall state of play there.) In this post, I want to look at some of the things that they are doing. The most common activity is to put up posters or nobori flags, or distribute literature. (Nobori flags are long but narrow flags, hung vertically so that… Read More »Promoting Jingū