Today being 9/9, it’s the day of the Crow Sumo Festival at Kamigamo Jinja. (Green Shinto has carried a report on this unique event before; see here.)
Three has been a magic number with spiritual import since … Read the rest
Category: Shamanic connections (Page 5 of 8)
A news item recently caught my attention relating to the world’s oldest pair of trousers, found on some Chinese skeletons. The trousers were thought to be those of shamans.
It’s thought shamanism was widespread in early cultures, and Plato … Read the rest
A fascinating post on the Japanese Mythology website, which can be found here, reaches back into Jomon times to posit the existence of a ‘soul tree’ on which magatama beads were hung. How far modern Shinto can be … Read the rest
Cause for celebration
July in Kyoto means one thing in Shinto terms: the Gion Matsuri. The streets are alive with the sound of Gionbayashi (the special Gion music), and downtown in the backstreets one can see the huge wooden … Read the rest
Westerners are often drawn to the animist side of Shinto, and for those of us who look to the past before the religion was made into an emperor-centred ideology, one of the salient characteristics of early Japan is rock … Read the rest
The Oomoto sect is particularly open to foreigners, and has established overseas branches. The well-known Japanologist, Alex Kerr, was involved with them from 1977, helping run their art seminars. It’s also of interest for its inspirational role in the … Read the rest
When one thinks of deer in Japan, one thinks naturally of Nara Park and the connection of the animal with the Fujiwara clan, for whom it was a sacred animal. One of the clan’s founding kami, Takemikazuchi no mikoto, … Read the rest