The following piece draws on an academic article by Caleb Carter in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies Vol 45, no. 1, p.145-73
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In recent years the boom in power spots has seen an increase in visitors to shrines, motivated … Read the rest
The Shinto shrines I love best are those that originated with sacred rocks. Some are kept out of view, hidden from public gaze as their numinous power might be eroded by human contact. Sometimes the rock is a ‘spirit-body’, visible … Read the rest
Green Shinto has covered the current boom in ‘power spots’ on several occasions, and an overview of how, when and why it developed can be found in a previous posting here. Tokyo Daijingu is Kanto’s most famous example, though … Read the rest
ANA has recently started direct flights from KIX to Miyakojima, an island that lies between the Okinawan mainland and Ishigaki. Not knowing anything about it, I decided to take a long weekend and go explore. It turned out to be … Read the rest
As far as I know, there is no special celebration of the winter solstice in Shinto, preoccupied as it is with clearing away old impurities before the renewal of the year with Oshogatsu (New Year). However, it seems important that … Read the rest
In an interesting article on the net, religious scholar Shimada Hiromi examines the religious boom which has been evident among young Japanese in recent years. Personally I attribute much of this to the increase in nationalist sentiment, as a … Read the rest
In a sense, you could say that the whole notion of ‘power spots’ is a modern re-packaging of ancient notions, since many traditional sites were located in places felt to exude a certain ‘energy’. It explains why most of the … Read the rest
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