It’s a question that has vexed many a person over the years. Is Shinto a religion or a way of life? It begs a further question: does it matter? At certain times in history it’s been a matter of vital … Read the rest
Category: Ancestor worship (Page 2 of 8)
Chichibu Shinto festival carries on centuries-old tradition
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS /December 5, 2019 Asahi Shimbun
An interesting description in the Asahi Shimbun of a traditional festival in Japan run by a priest who is a leading proponent of Shinto’s … Read the rest
Today Emperor Akihito officially abdicated, marking the last day of the Heisei era. In Shinto terms this meant that he reported his abdication to the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu ōmikami, as the purported great ancestor of his lineage. Reporting events … Read the rest
March 11, 2011 was a devastating day for Japan. Over 18,500 people perished in the gigantic tsunami that swept over the coastline of Tohoku in the country’s north-east. What’s more it led to a nuclear meltdown, the consequences of which … Read the rest
The scholar Takagi Hiroshi writes that: “After the Meiji Restoration, an idea of the everlasting and unbroken single line of emperors was created, and at the same time, closely related to that idea, imperial mausoleums were invented anew. The latter … Read the rest
My attention was caught recently by a book review of Ghosts of the Tsunami in the TLS by Times correspondent, Richard Lloyd Parry. The book is an account of the Fukushima disaster and its terrible tsunami aftermath, and the review
… Read the rest
On this day (November 13) in 1894, Lafcadio Hearn published an editorial for the Kobe Shimbun. He’d taken a job there as a journalist following his unhappy spell teaching in Kumamoto. The editorial provides an interesting insight into his … Read the rest