A.J. Dickinson has kindly drawn attention to the inspiring thoughts below from Shepherd Bliss of the Dominican University of California. They are extracted from a longer article on the nature of trees,
which can be found here….
Category: Shrine items (Page 11 of 13)
Kansai Scene this month reports a rare opportunity for foreigners to take part in a Shinto festival….
“Nishinomiya International Association is looking for volunteers to help carry omikoshi, portable shrines, in the city’s annual festival on Sunday September … Read the rest
The Yoshinogari theme park in northern Kyushu offers the opportunity to visitors to make a magatama stone bead. (The beads were symbols of spiritual authority in Yayoi times.) It turned out to be much easier than expected. Like much else … Read the rest
Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935) was a fascinating person, who stands in opposition to his one-time friend Lafcadio Hearn. I’ve recently ordered his biography. Chamberlain was a scholar and a rationalist. Hearn was a romantic, who sought escape from convention and … Read the rest
The circular mirror of Shinto is a potent symbol. One often sees it when visiting shrines, where it stands on the altar as representative of the kami. It can play a more vital role too, for it sometimes functions as … Read the rest
At the secret heart of the Shinto shrine is the spirit-body of the kami, locked away in the honden sanctuary and never seen or exposed to public view. It’s a physical object in which the immaterial spirit of the kami … Read the rest
One of the most striking symbols of Shinto is the rice rope used to denote sacred space, called shimenawa. The earliest rites of Shinto are generally held to be associated with the introduction of rice culture in the Yayoi … Read the rest