The recent royal wedding in the UK prompts thoughts about the imperial family in Japan. In both cases the monarch is the head of the presiding religion, though a female monarch in Britain’s case would currently be an impossibility in … Read the rest
Category: Japanese culture (Page 7 of 19)
The Aoi Festival is one of Kyoto’s Big Three Festivals, though if like me you appreciate authenticity over pageantry you might say it’s one of Kyoto’s Big Two (together with Gion Matsuri in July). Like the Gion Festival, there are … Read the rest
Shrine murder highlights huge amount of cash — most of it off-book — raked in by Japan’s religious sites
BY PHILIP BRASOR AND MASAKO TSUBUKU
In December, the former gūji (head priest) of Tokyo’s famous
One of the prime functions of Shinto in Japan is the sacralisation of the country’s history. It’s a vital part of the national sense of identity, and why Shinto is sometimes called a religion of Japaneseness. The role shrines play … Read the rest
It seems that we have only just finished Oshogatsu with its new year shrine visits, and Kyoto is still cold enough to feel as if it’s mid-winter, yet here we are already on the brink of Setsubun and looking forward … Read the rest
Green Shinto has carried several reports about Tanabata over the years, and an overview of previous posts can be found here. One of the most interesting accounts we’ve come across is by neopagan Shintoist Megan Manson.
Tanabata is … Read the rest
An article in the Japan Times highlights the nature of Endo Shusaku’s ‘swamp’ in which a foreign religion like Christianity is unable to take root but will simply rot and perish. It’s something I had to think about in my … Read the rest