Hello World. If you've ever been to Japan or watched anime or dramas,
You might have come across gates like these.
They come in all shapes and sizes, but
what are they?
They're torii, which are the entrances to jinja
and jinja are sacred spaces and the seats of kami.
OK, so those are three new terms to learn.
Luckily, our guide today, David Chart
happens to write just a little bit about Shinto traditional practices.
And before you start furiously typing in the comments
about why I chose to interview some random British dude about Shinto,
Chāto-san is actually a naturalized Japanese,
works as the English translator for Jinja Honchō,
the Association of Shinto Shrines,
and writes extensively about Shinto on his blog Mimusubi.
So like I said, he knows a little bit.
OK, so, the torii is the gates that you see all over the place
and for the rest, well,
why don't we go inside and have a look around.
That'll make it easier.
Sure, I think one question that viewers might have
is can anyone off the street just walk on in?
Yeah, you don't need an appointment to go and visit a jinja
and you can just go in as you're going past.
OK, let's go!
three steps later
So, the torii marks the outer boundary of the sacred space.
So this is a good place to straighten your tie and get ready to go in.
Most people bow slightly before they pass through the torii.
It's a natural way to express respect for the kami.
OK, so now we're in the sacred space,
but I've noticed that inside of a torii,
there's a wide variety of settings.
Like for example at one,
they have a playground where kids are playing.
And another one seems to be popular with office space workers where they go there for their lunch break,
eating like onigiri.
Right, inside the sacred space you have to show respect for the kami,
but playing and eating are not necessarily disrespectful.
Leaving litter would be,
and some larger jinja ask you not to eat inside to avoid the litter.
If you're at the jinja to pay respects to the kami,
You follow the sacred path, sandō in Japanese, up to the sanctuaries.
The custom is to walk along one side, rather than up the center.
Some people say that's because the center is reserved for the kami.
I've actually made a video about how in Japan, you usually walk on the left-hand side,
just like when you're driving, you drive on the left-hand side.
When you're at a jinja, does that same general rule apply?
No, not really.
If the jinja's not really busy, it doesn't really matter which side you walk up.
If the jinja is busy, you just follow the flow of people.
So... no, no real rule about it.
But, as you can see here,
the handrail is at the center of the stairs,
which makes it natural to walk on one side or the other.
So one thing that seems to be a common feature is climbing up stairs.
What's up with that?
It's true. A lot of jinja are built on higher ground.
I think it's to do with the separation of the kami and the sacred space.
So a lot of jinja do have a flight of stairs up to the sanctuaries.
Fortunately these days, almost all jinja have another way to get there.
At this one, you can go along the road over there, and come in at the back through the car park.
Hmm... OK, that's good to know.
And right here, we're actually at a water station.
So, what's up with this water station?
This is for purifying ourselves.
So purification, called "oharai" or "misogi", is a very important part of Shinto.
And you're definitely supposed to purify yourself before you go and pay your respects to the kami.
In fact, some priests have told me,
that if you don't purify yourself, they would prefer you not to come at all.
It's like taking your shoes off before you go into a Japanese home. You're not supposed to bring dirt in with you.
Now, I wouldn't like to say that taking your shoes off before you go into a home is part of Shinto,
but they're definitely related.
So, to purify yourself, you take the ladle in your right hand.
Fill it with water.
Pour a little over your left hand to rinse it.
Over your right hand...
Pour a bit into your left hand.
Rinse your mouth.
Then, rinse your left hand again.
And use the remaining water to rinse the ladle, before you put it back.
That's interesting, because, you did it really nicely.
I've noticed that not everyone does it just in the same manner that you did?
Right, the official way to do it is a little bit complicated,
and not all the Japanese people remember it.
As long as your rinse both hands and your mouth, and you don't put your mouth to the ladle,
that's good enough to keep the priests happy.
- So, another torii, so I normally bow again. - OK.
And you don't have to do that if there's a whole tunnel of torii though.
OK, that's good to know, because I've seen those tunnels of torii,
and I always thought, like do you have to bow at each one?
- That would be a lot of bowing. - Yeah.
Um... OK, we've washed up, what do we do next?
Well, next, we go to the prayer hall, which is just over there
to pay our respects to the kami.
OK.
So, people normally pay their respects just in front of the prayer hall,
where there's a box for offerings and often a bell with a rope.
You shake the rope to ring the bell, and you throw your offering into the box.
It really doesn't matter which order you do that in.
So, my daughter and I, we used to watch this anime called Noragami.
Which means, as you know, stray kami.
So instead of a stray cat, it's a kami without a home.
And one of his things, was that he would grant any wish.
[phone ringing]
Hello! Thank you for calling!
Fast, affordable, and reliable! Delivery God Yato, at your service!
But even though he was desperate for cash, he was a homeless kami after all,
he would do it all for a 5 yen coin.
You're a god, right? Help me!
Money.
You charge money?!
It'll cost ya this much.
50,000?! 500,000?!
I'm a god, remember?!
And everyone knows you're supposed to offer 5-yen coins to gods!
Your wish...
... has been heard loud and clear!
Right.
5 yen is a really popular offering at a jinja,
because the Japanese for 5 yen, goen,
sounds exactly like the Japanese for honourable connection.
So it gives you a good link to the kami.
The priests really don't mind what you offer, as long as it's not
1 yen coins, because they're really annoying to count.
OK, so that sounds a bit different than the Christian churches I'm used to
because I remember their offerings being just a little bit larger.
This is largely symbolic. Obviously the priests don't mind if you offer more money.
But if you're going to make a larger offering,
you'd usually receive an omamori, or just give the money directly to the priests.
The money that you put into the box...
... is symoblic. It's another form of purification.
Ringing the bell is the same.
They're both ways of further purifying yourself before you pay your respects to the kami.
Let's pay our respects.
Up to the bell rope. Ring the bell.
Put the money into the offering box.
Bow twice.
Clap twice.
Bow once.
And we're done.
We should leave this way, so that we don't turn our back directly to the kami.
And going this way takes us to the jinja office, where we can get omamori.
Omamori are amulets.
They're a way of taking part of the power of the kami with you, when you leave the jinja.
You make an offering of a few hundred yen, a few dollars, and the priests give you the omamori.
Now there are a lot of different kinds of omamori for different requests.
For example, this one is for safe child birth.
This one is for pets.
This one's for work.
And all the different types of omamori have an appropriate offering noted.
So, you make the offering, receive your omamori, and take it away with you when you leave the jinja.
OK. So you taught me a lot about jinja, but what about kami?
Ah, now that's a big question.
We should probably go and sit down to talk about that.
finding a place to sit
Well, it's a big question,
but actually, it's a lot less important than you might think.
Shinto is much more about what you do then about what you believe.
This is why the priests really care
that you use the correct etiquette when you come to pay your respects to the kami.
That's why we introduced the etiquette in so much detail.
They really don't care very much about what you believe.
They will welcome people of any religion to come and pay their respects to the kami.
Now, a devout Christian might not want to pay their respects at a jinja because they might think it's against their religion.
But the priests leave that up to the individual.
Now, of course, people do believe things about the kami.
For example, there are said to be 8 million of them.
Wow! It turns out there are a lot of kami.
But 8 million?
That's not an exact number. Nobody thinks there are actually 8 million kami.
It just means a large number, a fortunate number, of kami.
And if we look at one of the most popular definitions of kami, we can see why there are so many.
"Kami" refers first of all to those kami mentioned in the ancient legends,
and to spirits enshrined at jinja,
but also to human beings, and animals, birds, and plants,
or seas, mountains, and similar that are unusual and outside the normal range of such things.
This does not just mean the venerable, virtuous, or beneficial,
but also includes things that are remarkable for being evil or uncanny.
All these things are called "kami".
That definition is from Moto'ori Norinaga, a scholar who lived about two hundred years ago.
And on that definition, Mt Fuji, the physical mountain itself, is a kami,
and there are some practitioners of Shinto, and some priests, who follow that definition.
Obviously, in this sense at least some kami exist.
Similarly, remarkable people are kami, while still being human.
There are people today who think that the Tennō, the Japanese emperor, is a kami,
but they also think that he is a human being, and in that sense just the same as them.
If we approach things this way, then "kami" is more like "big" or "red" than it is like "human" or "dog".
It is a feature that things of many kinds can have, rather than a kind of thing.
However, the practice of Shinto treats kami as invisible spirits who can hear and respond to prayers.
These spirits might be the spirits of natural things, like mountains or trees, or the spirits of ancestors.
They can also be spirits of other types.
There is a jinja in Nara, Tamakazura Jinja,
where the kami is a fictional character from the Tale of Genji,
a novel written about a thousand years ago.
OK, we went pretty deep there.
Before speaking with you, I never realized there were so many kami out there.
Now, I think onsen are quite spectacular. Are they kami?
Yes, they are. Onsen, hot springs, that's what onsen means.
They're out of the ordinary run of springs because they come out of the ground hot.
People like them, so they're a blessing, yes, they're kami.
If you take the first view, then the spring itself, is a kami.
If you take the second view, then there is a kami who is the spirit of the spring.
You probably noticed when you've been to onsen, that the proper onsen,
have a continuous flow of hot water through them.
The springs comes out into the pool and then flows out again.
But even so, you're expected to wash before you get into the onsen.
And even when there's nowhere to actually wash,
you're expected to rinse yourself off
with water from the spring before you get in.
And, now I'm not sure about this,
but I think that may be a sign of purifying yourself
before you interact with the kami.
It's a way of showing respect to the kami of the hot springs.
OK, so as long as you wash yourself first the kami don't mind you jumping inside of them?
That's right.
OK, note taken.
Um, but to get serious again.
From your explanation, the definition of kami
it doesn't really seem like what I think of as a god.
Right.
God is a terrible translation of kami, they're really very different.
Even if you use spirit, that's a bit too much of the second definition, which not everyone accepts.
So, I just don't translate the word.
- Is there anything that people agree about? - Oh yes!
People agree that you should treat the kami with respect.
So, if you visit a jinja,
you should pay your respects to the kami first, before you do your sightseeing and your tourist photography.
It shows respect for both the kami and the priests,
and the priests at least, definitely notice.
OK, so when I was a kid,
I used to go to church on most Sundays, that I remember.
Do people in Japan visit jinja regularly?
Very few people go that often.
But about 70% of the population visit a jinja at New Year for Hatsumōdë.
Hatsumōdë, the first visit to a jinja or Buddhist temple in a year, is a very popular custom.
Millions of people line up at jinja across the country just before midnight on New Year's Eve,
ready to pay their respects, draw a fortune, and maybe receive amulets or similar to get the kami's favour for the new year.
Meiji Jingū, in Tokyo, is visited by about three million people over the first three days of the year, every year.
Even a local jinja in an urban area, like the one we visited earlier in this video,
can expect well over ten thousand.
Out in rural areas, every single person in the village might attend.
Most people also take their children to a jinja soon after birth for Hatsumiyamairi,
and at the ages of three, five, and seven for Shichigosan.
I've actually done this with my children. his is what I was told about it.
Shichigosan is formally a prayer of thanks that the child has safely reached their age,
and a request for their healthy growth in the future.
In practice, it is often a family celebration, with the children dressed up in spectacular rented kimono.
Traditionally, it happened on November 15th, but these days it happens at weekends,
when the whole family has time off work, any time from late October to early December.
If you visit a jinja at those times, you have a very good chance of seeing at least one family.
People also go to attend the regular matsuri at their local jinja.
Strictly speaking, a matsuri is any ceremony held to one of the kami.
But for most people, it means the big event held with maybe portable jinja, maybe dancing,
and definitely food stands.
Remember I said that eating and playing were not necessarily disrespectful of the kami?
Well, a lot of that goes on at matsuri.
A few matsuri are enormous, and extremely famous.
The Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, for example, lasts for the whole of July,
and includes multiple parades, and is listed by UNESCO as intangible World Heritage.
Most local matsuri happen on a single day, and are only attended by people from the area,
but many of them are recognised as being culturally important by some level of government.
The sacred dances at Shirahata Hachiman Daijin, for example,
are registered as important folk customs by the city of Kawasaki.
People also go to jinja with particular requests.
They might just make the requests while paying their respects, like we saw earlier.
or they might ask the priests for a more formal prayer,
which is conducted inside the prayer hall.
For those you normally need to offer at least 5,000 yen.
So where are we now?
Well, different jinja have reputations for different sorts of benefits.
And right now, we're at Yushima Tenjin, in Tokyo.
This is a Tenjin jinja, and it's very famous for academic success.
Tenjin jinja are all famous for academic success,
but this one is particularly famous because it's very close to Tokyo University,
the most famous university in Japan.
Every year many people, particularly teenagers, come here to pray for success in examinations.
Particularly entrance examinations.
They have lots, and lots, and lots of study amulets,
including little packs of pencils that you can use to take your exams with.
Upon learning this, I took it upon myself to buy an ema,
which is a wooden plaque you can write wishes on.
Using my excellent penmanship, I crafted this incredibly original message.
Nihongo ga jōzu ni narimasu yō ni.
I wish to get better at Japanese.
Okay!
There you go!
After learning about all the ways that Shinto is a part of the everyday lives of Japanese,
is it fair to say that Japanese are religious?
No, we wouldn't say that.
Only 3% of Japanese claim to be Shinto.
Only 36% claim to have any religion at all, and most of them are Buddhist.
It's kind of the opposite of the U.K., where about 70% of people say they're Christian and about 3% go to church.
In Japan, about 3% say they're Shinto and about 70% go to jinja.
How does that work?
So many Japanese people going to jinja, yet so few stating that they are Shinto?
Most people don't think about the activities that you do at a jinja as a religion.
It's just part of Japanese culture.
In that way it's quite similar to say, kabuki, or the tea ceremony.
You have to do the right sort of things, you have to treat it with respect, it's important,
but not necessarily a religion.
Even Shinto priests are often quite reluctant to describe Shinto as a religion.
Yeah, I think Westerners would have a hard time understanding how going to a sacred place
and praying for benefits, is not religious.
It's inscrutable.
Now obviously, in some senses, Shinto is a religion,
but it's not very similar to the way that religion is thought of in the West.
It's not an identity.
It's something you do, it's not something you are.
If you're a Shinto priest, then you might well do it a lot of the time.
But even then, you might also follow another religion, particularly Buddhism.
It just doesn't work the same way as it does in the West.
Oh, OK. So then that's something I actually like about Shinto then,
that's it's judging me based on my actions, not on my faith.
It's nice to know that people, no matter their beliefs, can participate.
Yes, Shinto is possibly the most open and welcoming part of traditional Japanese culture.
Priests at all jinja would be delighted to see foreigners who came to visit and pay their respects correctly.
Especially if they have that 5 yen coin.
Ah, quite.
OK. I didn't screw that up after all.
- OK, and then it's just my... plug for you, essentially. - Yes.
- Yes. - Hahahaha.
Yes, gotta get, gotta get that right. Don't screw that up, that's really important.
I'd like to give a special thanks to David Chart for giving us that great beginner's guide to Shinto.
Now he also writes for his own website, called Mimusubi.
It's an excellent resource in English about Shinto.
So if you're interested in Shinto, I highly recommend going there.
Thanks for watching, see you next time, bye! Where you're from, what traditional practices do you follow?
Tourist snapshots at jinja are fine. However, you should really get permission for anything commercial or on
YouTube, which we received thanks to:
Shirahata Hachiman Daijin Yushima Tenjin
At Yushima Tenjin, petting the cow (nade-ushi) is said to improve your luck.
OK, and then I'll be a really pain in the butt and say one more time.
Oh, proper direction.
Oh, kawaii!