Shinto

It's worth the effort to get to this collection of shrines on a hillside on Kyoto's edge, one of the city's most important and striking Shinto shrines. The gods of agriculture and commerce are worshipped here, and locals flock to pray for business success. Clamber up the hillside under the watchful eyes of stone ...

Al, a retired Air Force man of few words, did allow that once you had seen one Buddhist or Shinto shrine you had seen them all, and he wasn't wrong. Like all trips, this one could be broken down into a series of moments, like the one late one afternoon in Hososhima, Japan, when while visiting with Lin and ...

The objective of this proposal is to restore the traditional interactions between Jinja (Japanese Shinto Shrine) and local people by reterritorizing a busy urban corner in Ginza, Tokyo with a vertically organized Jinja cum rice-farming complex. In the past, Jinja and rice farming were the center of Japanese ...

The top stories in Paganism and Shinto for the week Apr 9th- 15th… Left: Depiction of witch hunt [public domain] Right: Festival at Matsubara shrine (for illustration purposes only). By Kaztima109 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons ...

I'm going to try and do weekly round-ups of Pagan & Shinto news and opinion piece from the media. I monitor the news fairly closely, because I like to know what's going on in the day-to-day worlds of Paganism, Shinto and religion in general, and how Paganism and Shinto are covered in the media.

The Mie Prefectural Government has granted a local association a license to cultivate cannabis for making items used in Shinto rituals, including shimenawa (traditional ropes hung at a shrine's entrance). It is the first time the license has been issued in the prefecture. It was granted Thursday based on the ...

In order to maintain the separation of religion and state, the imperial household normally covers costs of Shinto rites with the royal family's private expenses. Shinto is Japan's indigenous religion in which the emperor is venerated as a descendant of the sun goddess. But following the death on Jan. 7, 1989 ...

If you're visiting Japan, of course you're going to do Tokyo or Osaka and experience all the kitsch and kawaii things the city has to offer. By heading south-east from Tokyo, past Nagoya and into Mie Prefecture, however, you'll see a completely different side to the country, steeped in Shinto tradition.

These gates, which have a traditional shape and structure, are closely related to the Shinto religion. Typically located at the entrance of Shinto shrines or in spots that hold special religious significance, they signal to worshipers a transition from the profane world to the sacred. By walking through the torii, ...

One of the more interesting aspects of this lurid story is the idea of a Shinto shrine as a lucrative family business. In principle, the association controls a shrine's activities, including its financial situation and the appointment of the head priest, but Tomioka Hachimangu — even the name is linked to the family ...

A crowd gathered in the newly reopened Seattle Japanese Garden on Sunday, March 4, to witness a Shinto blessing ceremony that was meant to bring good fortune to the green sanctuary within the Washington Park Arboretum. “May the ceremony bring good fortune to the garden and everyone who visits it ...

For years, I've been uncovering more and more about my Japanese ancestry. I've learned about the history of Shinto, the ancient spirituality of Japan. Like many cultures around the world, Shinto connects us to our ancestors and also sees spirits in all of creation. I was particularly empowered to learn that ...

The Shinto priest recited prayers. The language of these prayers is ancient, Tsukamoto wrote and unintelligible to modern Japanese. “Presumably, the Shinto priest has welcomed the return of the Japanese cloth to the mother land, and wishes the Japanese cloth to meet its owner somewhere in the heaven ...

The Seattle Japanese Garden in the Washington Park Arboretum reopens Sunday, with a Shinto blessing to start the 2018 season. Juki Iida designed the 3.5-acre garden, and oversaw its installation in 1959. The Seattle Japanese Garden opened in 1960. The Arboretum Foundation has long supported the ...

"Now the balloon's up and they're under starter's orders," I barked. "Regal Monarch, the favourite, looking settled with the inside draw … " No interest from the sacred horse standing before me, the sole inhabitant in a sacred stable, though a crowd of Japanese inspecting wooden carvings nearby became ...

With Wes Anderson's new film Isle of Dogs, out March 23, the director and composer Alexandre Desplat continue their fruitful collaboration. The duo's previous pairings have included 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox, for which Desplat's score was Oscar-nominated and, more recently for 2014's The Grand Budapest ...

On February 21st, I was very fortunate to attend a special event at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London – “The Origins of Shozoku”. Shōzoku (装束) are garments worn by those involved in Shinto ritual, including priests, miko (“shine maidens”) and performers of ritual music and dance. This talk ...

KYOTO: Fans of the Japanese figure skaters Satoko Miyahara and Yuzuru Hanyu have visited the Goou Jinja Shinto Shrine in Kyoto where they left written prayers for their success in the upcoming PyeongChang Olympic Games. The temple is famous as the home of gods that protect legs and the lower ...

An exhibit that lets children explore Japan's contemporary "kawaii" culture as well as traditional Shinto beliefs about nature opens Saturday at the Children's Museum of Manhattan in New York. The "Hello from Japan!" exhibit, which has toured children's museums across the United States since its 2015 ...

People at a Shinto shrine in western Japan have celebrated the annual "Setsubun" festival to drive off evil spirits and bring good luck. The bean-throwing festival is held every year on the last day of winter on the old lunar calendar. At Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine in Wakayama Prefecture, priests wearing ...

I talked about how the most important part of the Shinto shrine is the ofuda; a paper charm that carries the essence of kami. ... My ofuda is originally from Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine, my favourite Shinto shrine of all and the main shrine dedicated to the main kami I venerate, Inari Ōkami. But I didn't order the ...

Two new restaurants and one existing business are asking the city of Naperville to increase its cap on late-night liquor permits so they can sell alcohol until 2 a.m. on weekends. Shinto Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi House, Taps N Tenders and MidiCi Neapolitan Pizza presented their requests last week ...

In that story, I mentioned that despite the most important deity in Shinto being female, and that evidence suggests women historically held high ranks in ancient Japanese religion, women are unable to participate to the same extent in Shinto as men today. A common reason given is that women are “impure” ...

Separation of religion and state in Japan means that Shinto shrines and other places of worship must rely on private donations to survive. That's why you'll find ample opportunities to donate money at a Shinto shrine in Japan. You traditionally throw loose change into an offertory box before praying to the ...

TOTTORI--A wooden doll with a Buddhist face that would take the blame for disasters has been unearthed in this western city. The human-shaped piece of wood is probably a “hitogata,” or "scapegoat doll," which was used in purification ceremonies or other arcane Shinto rituals. The dolls could, for ...

TOTTORI, JAPAN—The Asahi Shimbun reports that a seven-inch strip of wood found at the Aoya-Yokogi archaeological site on the island of Honshu may have been used in rituals that blended elements of Shinto and Buddhism. Infrared photographs revealed a human image on the piece of wood, which ...

Konkōkyō (also known as just Konkō, meaning “golden light”) is a Shinto sect founded in 1859. The religion has much in common with mainstream Shinto beliefs, but worship is primarily centred on the deity Tenchi Kane No Kami. For more information about Konkōkyō I can recommend reading the Living ...