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shinto overseas

Saipan Katori Jinja

The 15th December issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article about the reisai (例祭) — annual grand matsuri — of Saipan Katori Jinja (彩帆香取神社). This jinja is, as the name suggests, on Saipan island, and thus outside Japan — at least now. According to the article, the jinja was founded in 1914, when Japan took over the administration of Saipan from Germany, without bloodshed. (This was clearly connected to World War I, in which it is important to remember that Japan was allied with the British.) The warship Katori, which… Read More »Saipan Katori Jinja

The Sale of Ofuda

The May 6th issue of Jinja Shinpō included an article about the sale of ofuda by, er, me. This is the next step of my strategy to make it easier for people overseas to legitimately get hold of ofuda and omamori: convince the Shinto community that there is a problem here that needs to be solved, and that creating practical, legitimate channels through which ofuda can be obtained from outside Japan is the best way to solve it. There are a number of obstacles to establishing such channels, some of… Read More »The Sale of Ofuda

Jinja Kō

My patrons continued discussing Shinto overseas after my recent post on the subject, and one of them raised an interesting point that ties into historical customs. They asked whether some sort of proxy jinja visit would be possible, and that is something that was a standard part of practice within Japan for centuries. One of the biggest problems for people who want to practise Shinto outside Japan is getting hold of ofuda. While I am continuing to work with Jinja Honchō on this issue, there are still a lot of… Read More »Jinja Kō

Shinto Overseas

Another question that came up on my Patreon after my post about the future of Shinto was the question of how I saw Shinto developing outside Japan. Obviously, I am directly involved in that, so I have rather more concrete goals than I do for the future of Jinja Shinto within Japan. The first point to make this time is that very few people outside Japan have even heard of Shinto. Readers of this blog are members of an intellectual elite! The purpose of Mimusubi is to make it easier… Read More »Shinto Overseas

Getting Ofuda Outside Japan

An “ofuda” is an item that contains the spirit of the kami of a jinja, which devotees can receive from the jinja in order to venerate the kami in their own home. Physically, they are wooden boards, with the name of the kami or jinja written on, and the spirit of the kami is instilled in a special matsuri at the jinja. Ofuda are the only essential item on a kamidana, a shelf where kami are venerated in the home; if you have no ofuda, you have no kami on… Read More »Getting Ofuda Outside Japan