The following is put together from an article by the Associated Press which appeared in the Mainichi and Japan Today. The article tells of a shrine in Tokyo that at the beginning of May provided an online service for those worried about the Corona virus. This was at a time when shrines were shut in compliance with government regulations to avoid people gathering together.
The live streaming took place at the Onoterusaki Shrine in downtown Tokyo, just ten minutes from Ueno Park. It meant that worshippers could view the rituals from their homes and bow etc at the appropriate time. They could also send in messages on virtual ema prayer boards to be offered to the kami.
For Machi Zama, a freelance writer, that’s just what she needed. Zama prayed for her friend who recently had surgery, and everyone else experiencing difficult times, as well as for an early end to the global pandemic.
Watching the priests perform the purification rites, she felt as if she was at the shrine, Zama said. When one of the priests faced the screen and waved a religious paper streamer, she would bow. It was like her prayers were answered, she said. “Wherever you are, I think it’s your feelings and thoughts, the wish to pray, that’s what’s important,” Zama said. “Whether online or offline, I don’t think it matters.”
The decision to go online was apparently not welcomed by more traditional minded Shinto authorities, who could foresee a decline in physical attendance at shrines should the practice catch on more widely. However, the Onoterusaki head priest claimed this was only a temporary measure due to the Corona crisis.
With university classes going online, and with social distancing likely to be the new norm in the coming months, it does seem possible that Shinto shrines will increasingly look to the internet. One of the virtual worshippers called Naomi Shiba tweeted six prayers at the online shrine, in the hopes of an early end to the pandemic and for herself to lose some weight. “Perhaps this is the way to do it in the current age,” she said, though one can’t help thinking that if instead of tweeting she actually walked to the shrine she would be helping the kami fulfil her wish!
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