A Shinto Shrine’s Storytelling Strategy

In postwar Japanese society, the increase in population brought about major changes in the social environment, such as the “examination race” and the “baby boom.” In response to these changes, people increasingly visited Shinto shrines to pray at life’s milestones, such as “omiyamairi” (a baby’s first shrine visit), “Shichi-Go-San” (ceremonies at the ages of seven, five, and three), passing entrance exams and weddings. In other words, shrines have promoted a homogeneous and unusual approach to life rituals in response to the social conditions of a growing population.

In recent years, however, Japanese society has experienced an accelerated population decline, falling birthrates, and an ageing population, and the operation of Shinto shrines have fallen into a very difficult situation. The number of people who visit shrines at life’s milestones is declining, and the existing model of life rituals that relies on Japanese customs in extraordinary circumstances is reaching its limits.

There are two main types of Shinto shrines. One is the “Ujigami Shrine.” Ujigami Shrines are shrines that worship the Ujigami (tutelary deity) of the location and its community, and those who reside in a certain area around the shrine are called Ujiko (parishioner). The other is “Sūkei Shrine,” which is a shrine that is worshiped by an individual with special beliefs irrespective of geographical or blood relationship. Ujigami Shrines are limited to a certain region or locality, and as the local population declines, the survival of these shrines will become extremely difficult. Therefore, I believe that a “hybrid type” of shrine will become indispensable in the future. In other words, it will be necessary, in light of social conditions, to change Ujigami Shrines into Sūkei Shrines so as to not limit its geographical area, while also maintaining the other characteristics of Ujigami Shrine. In changing to a hybrid type, I assume that to build relationships that transcend regional boundaries, it will be effective to transmit history and stories in line with the benefits of the deities enshrined in the shrines. Each of the approximately 80,000 shrines in Japan has its own history and story, and each is an original entity. What is required of shrines is to go back to their origins, where their essence lies, and morph them into sustainable model shrines.

Hattori Tenjingū, where I serve as a Shinto priest, is a shrine in Osaka Prefecture, that has aspects of both Ujigami and Sūkei Shrines. Hattori Tenjingū is a shrine dedicated to the deity of feet (Sukunahikona), and in order to pass on the blessing of the deity of feet to people today, the shrine has launched an initiative to build a daily culture for runners. With the increase in health awareness and the COVID-19 pandemic, the running population has been growing, and more and more people are visiting the shrine for running. Runners who wish for physical and mental health visit Hattori Tenjingu to receive blessings from the deity of feet. The feet are the most important part of the body for running, and, naturally, people visit the deity of feet to pray for their health. Running is an easy practice to implement during the pandemic, as it is a way to avoid crowds, which is also the reason why it was adopted as a daily practice of the shrine. This adoption of running has included the organization of a monthly running event at the shrine. Visitors treat the shrine as a Sūkei Shrine by visiting it irrespective of their living area. In order to protect Shinto shrines all around Japan, we have to rethink their model of them to have relationships with contemporary society.

© Taishi Kato, 2022.

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cover Image: “服部天神宮 本殿” by 久次米一弥 is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Taishi Kato

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Taishi Kato is a Shinto priest at Hattori Tenjingu Shrine, Osaka, Japan (https://hattoritenjingu.or.jp/?lang=en). He was born as the eldest son of a multi-generational family serving their 1000-year-old Shinto shrine. He committed to introducing Shinto to people all around the world. He participated in The Religions for Peace 10th World Assembly 2019 as the representative of Shinto. Together with two American collaborators, he produced an illustrated book of Shinto Moments in 2020 (https://tinyurl.com/y8rpen9r), which aims to show how religion resonates with the shared human experience.

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