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journal of shinto studies

Terminal Care

The April 2022 issue of the Journal of Shintō Studies included an article asking “Why Has Shinto Not Been Engaged in Terminal Care?”, by Kaneda Iyo. This is a reasonable question: Christian and Buddhist clergy have been, and are, deeply involved in care for the dying, but Shinto priests are not, and never have been. The contrast needs an explanation. She splits the reason into three broad causes. The first is the social role of Shinto priests. The job of a priest is to perform matsuri for the kami, and… Read More »Terminal Care

Tasuki

I recently received the latest issue of the Journal of Shintō Studies (April 2022), which contains several interesting articles. This post, however, is inspired by something mentioned in passing in one of them. The article itself is about the function and origin of tamagushi, and I have already written about that research, because a summary of an earlier stage was published a year or so ago. The bit I want to pick up concerns “tasuki”. This is the Japanese for a sash: a loop of cloth worn over one shoulder… Read More »Tasuki

The Function of Tamagushi

It may occasionally seem on this blog as if I learn everything I know about Shinto from Jinja Shinpō. That is not quite true, as I will demonstrate today. I am also a member of the Society of Shintō Studies, an academic society based at Kokugakuin University, and so I get their journal, The Journal of Shintō Studies, or Shintō Shūkyō in Japanese. (The literal translation would be “Shinto Religion”, but that is not the official English title.) The articles are often extremely interesting, and I want to pick up… Read More »The Function of Tamagushi