journal of shinto studies

Issue 282 of the Journal of Shinto Studies (神道宗教) included an article by Adachi Ryō, “Thoughts about the Divine Status of Ōmononushi-no-kami in the Kojiki”. Ōmononushi is the main kami of Ōmiwa Jinja in Nara Prefecture, which is one of the oldest jinja in Japan, and he is an important figure in several myths. In this article, Adachi argues that the myths all portray Ōmononushi as a kami who saves people in distress, particularly the nation and the Imperial line. This conflicts with the standard interpretation of one myth, in… Read More »Ōmononushi

Issue 282 of the Journal of Shinto Studies (神道宗教) contained two articles about Yoshida Shinto: “The Early Modern Reception of the Yoshida Family’s Medieval Research on Shrines”, by Arai Daisuke, and “A Study of the Formation Process of Kiyohara Senken’s Gyōjihi”, by Nitta Keizō. I am not going to get into the details, because both papers are careful philological studies looking at the sources used in creating historical works, but I think it would be useful to say something about Yoshida Shinto. Yoshida Shinto was created by Yoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511),… Read More »Yoshida Shinto

Issue 279/280 of the Journal of Shintō Studies included an article by Takeda Atsushi (武田淳) entitled “What is Virtual Visiting to a shrine? Focusing on Shintō Shrines”. In Japanese, he talks about “virtual sanpai”, which is the term I will use here, because English doesn’t really have a good word for “sanpai” (参拝). The first point he makes is that the English word “virtual” does not mean quite the same as its Japanese translations, including the katakana word “baacharu”. In English, a “virtual X” is equivalent to an X in… Read More »Virtual Sanpai

I found one of the articles in Issue 280/281 of the Journal of Shintō Studies particularly interesting. It is “The Significance and Challenges of Research on the Modern and Contemporary History of Individual Shrines: The Case of Atsuta Shrine in Haruno-chō, Hamamatsu City”, by Kawamura Tadanobu (河村忠伸). One of the reasons it is so interesting is that Kawamura is the chief priest of the jinja in question. He addresses that in the paper, and acknowledges that it means he is not entirely neutral. On the other hand, he has access… Read More »Merging Jinja

Issue 279 of the Journal of Shintō Studies has a report on a presentation by Yamanaka Terushige entitled “About the Pre-War and Post-War Shinto Priesthood System: The Transformation of the Rank of Gon-negi”. Readers of this blog may know that, in contemporary Jinja Shinto, there are three ranks of priest at most jinja: Gūji (宮司 Chief Priest), Negi (禰宜 Senior Priest) and Gon-negi (権禰宜 Junior Priest). Large jinja may also have a Gon-gūji (権宮司 Deputy Chief Priest). Gon-negi is probably the most common rank, because a jinja is only allowed… Read More »Priestly Titles

In Issue 279 of the Journal of Shintō Studies, there is a report of a presentation by Adachi Ryō entitled “A Problem in the Composition of Norito: About the Reading and Usage of the Term Saihō”. I think the immediate content of this is of no interest to my readers (you are not likely to be writing norito), but what it shows about the place of norito in contemporary Shinto might be very interesting. First, a little bit of background. Norito are formal Shinto prayers. They are written in classical… Read More »Norito Composition