Water deities
Gratitude for the blessings of water plays a big part in Shinto, and there are many shrines dedicated to water deities. Sujin is a composite deity of water, and Ryujin a water dragon particularly associated with the sea. … Read the rest
Category: International (Page 23 of 26)
Shinboku
Go to visit a Shinto shrine and you’ll surely find a shinboku – a sacred tree favoured by the kami. But what makes some trees sacred and others not? It’s a question I’ve often asked priests about, and the … Read the rest
Avebury stone circle
There are sacred rocks (iwakura) all over Japan, but I’ve never seen a date put on them. The supposition is that they date to the Yayoi Age (300 BC-300 AD), when waves of immigrants … Read the rest
OPENING UP
One of the burning issues of contemporary Shinto is insularity versus internationalisation. Is Shinto a religion of and for the Japanese? Is it, as many maintain, not even a religion at all but synonymous with Japanese lifestyle? While … Read the rest
How and why did you become a volunteer at Kamigamo Jinja (Kyoto)?
When I learned that my husband was going to Afghanistan for 2 years I decided that I would return to Japan during that time. I packed up my … Read the rest
A bad storm has hit the Tsubaki shrine near Seattle in the US, and an appeal has been launched to help clear the many trees that have been felled by the elements. At one point the situation seemed quite serious, … Read the rest
1) Previously we had an interview with your friend, Pat Ormsby. I believe you also trained at Asakawa Konpira, as well as doing the residential course at Kotohira. How did you find it?
I loved it. From the basic routine … Read the rest