Shinto in Everyday Japanese Life

Hello world. Everywhere in Japan you go, you'll see these gates. They're called torii. They mark the entrances to the sacred spaces of Shinto called jinja. Since Shinto seems to be everywhere in Japan, I wondered how much it was part of everyday life. There are the obvious examples, like when you see torii. There are so many of them around Japan. You might also see shimenawa, which is what was attached to the hood vent of a knife maker I was filming. Or there was the little jinja inside of a soba noodle restaurant I was eating at. But I wanted to know if there was Shinto in everyday Japanese life that wasn't so visually obvious. To help me answer that question, I invited back David Chart, who helped me make a Shinto video two years ago. Thanks for having me back Greg. Thank you. And I'll just address the obvious. While David is white and speaks English like a British bloke, he's in fact Japanese and a practitioner of Shinto. He works for the largest Shinto organization in Japan called Jinja Hongchou, although today, I'm only speaking for myself. So David, where can we find Shinto in everyday life in Japan? Well, last time we mostly talked about fairly large jinja like this one. But I'm sure you've also seen small jinja on the street all over the country. Yes, I actually filmed such a jinja and viewers were asking what it was about. They're exactly what they look like. They're small jinja venerating the kami of that particular location. Some of them were founded for a particular historical event, others are maybe more Buddhist than Shinto, but when they were built, that wasn't such a clear distinction, although that's a large issue for another time. Now, I've noticed they seem to be in the gardens of ordinary houses. Those houses are a bit bigger than ordinary, really. But yes, that's very common. Those are called yashikigami, which means the kami of the ground on which the house is built. And those jinja are often dedicated to Inari, but they can be dedicated to any kami and their private jinja for the owners of the house. So rich people can have kami inside of their house? Not just rich people. Ordinary people have them as well. I have one. I have a kami-dana inside the house. On a kami-dana, you have the ofuda, which you get from a jinja. That's the kami. You often have a small jinja model, which you put the ofuda in. To sakaki, by the side, and a sambo, a little platform for offerings, with rice, sake, water, and salt on it. Ideally, you make offerings and pay your respects to the kami-dana every day. So how many people have kami-dana in their homes? Well, according to a survey that Jinja Honshou did in 2016, it's about 40% overall. More in the rural areas, fewer in the cities. The number of people who actually do it every day is probably even lower. So what about things that everyone does? Can we see bits of shinto and things that are done every day? Oh, yes. There are lots of things like that. When you come to a jinja, before you come in properly, you're supposed to rinse your hands and rinse your mouth with water in the purification form. And most Japanese people, when they get home, they also wash their hands and rinse their mouth before they go into the house. Yeah, my wife does that. She told me that at daycare, they taught her to do guji-guji-pe, and guji-guji-pe is the sound that you do when you're rinsing your mouth, like guji-guji, and then pe is the spitting sound, and they wash their hands afterwards. And she made our kids do that as well. But it never struck me as something that she did because of shinto. Right, it's just cleaning up. But when you come into the jinja, that's also just about cleaning up, as well as being a shortened version of misogi, which is purification with water. Priests are supposed to take a bath before every matsuri, even ones that are held every day, which, again, is like Japanese people taking baths every day. Ah, interesting. I love Japanese baths. It's one of my favorite parts of the culture. It makes sense that it's a form of purification, but I didn't think people thought of it as a religious thing when they bathed. Right, I'm sure they don't. But they also don't think of a lot of the things they do at jinja as religious activities. In fact, last year, an area in Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu did a survey of all the priests there, and only half of them thought that shinto was a religion. So if something has to be consciously religious in order to be shinto, about half of all shinto priests aren't doing shinto. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. Do you have any other examples for me? Yes, there are lots. For example, before meals, almost all Japanese people say itadakimasu. Right, I made a kyushoku video about this, and kids do that every day. Itadakimasu. Right, so itadakimasu means I humbly and gratefully receive, but from whom? When you do it at home, the person who made the meal and the person who paid for the meal also say itadakimasu. If you're in a farming family, the person who grew the food says itadakimasu. So shinto priests say that you are thanking the kami for the food that is in front of you, like saying grace in Western countries. But I don't think most Japanese people think of it as a shinto activity. All right, so there aren't many things that have a clear and explicit link to shinto, and that makes things difficult. If only it was that easy. No, there are also things that do have a clear and explicit link to shinto. But which might well not be part of shinto practice. Let's start with matsuri. Matsuri, right, so that's when you wear yukata and do some dancing, or maybe it's in hanabi, where you have the fireworks festivals in the summer. Right, but matsuri, the word, is the word for all the ceremonies that honor the kami. And a lot of summer festivals, and that's matsuri, are connected to a jinja, but not all of them. But even if it's a matsuri and it's connected to a jinja, people who are just there to eat yakisoba and watch fireworks don't seem to be in a shinto environment. Right, and drinking beer. I noticed this because in Canada you can't walk around drinking alcohol. Right, actually beer is another good example. Yebisu beer. Yebisu beer, how is that connected to shinto? Right, well, yebisu is actually a kami, and the picture on the beer can is a standard representation of yebisu. He's a kami associated with successful fishing and business success more generally. But I really don't think that everybody drinking yebisu beer is engaged in a shinto ritual. Yeah, I wouldn't think so. Right, but, you know, sake, alcohol is very important in shinto. Usually it's sake, rice wine. It's offered to the kami. You drink it afterwards. The balls of sugi branches that you see outside sake shops are derived from a jinja or miwa jinja in Nara, because that kami is particularly associated with sake. At a wedding in Japan, the bride and groom break open a barrel of sake rather than cutting a cake, because cutting is not a good image for a wedding. Yeah, I heard about that. Isn't that to do with the Japanese custom of avoiding unlucky words? Right, it is. And that comes originally from shinto. Shinto has a belief in what's called kotodama, which is the power of a word itself. So if you say something, it's likely to come true. So this is why I'm sure you've heard around people who are taking entrance exams, you're not supposed to say fall or slip. I have. That's because those are words used to describe failing, isn't it? Right. These words in shinto are called imi kotoba, and they go back a very long way. We have a list of words to avoid that goes back twelve hundred years. Yeah, another one I was taught was the number four, because in Japanese it's pronounced shi, shi as in shine, shinu, death. Exactly right. Yes. And so what I was wondering is in Japan, if they have something on the opposite side. So if you say something positive. So I know in Canada, in the US, we say positive things to ourselves in the mirror. Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me. Yes, there are definitely things like that. Kit Kats are popular in Japan, as I'm sure you know. And part of the reason for that is that Kit Kats sounds a lot like kitto katsu, which is Japanese for definitely win. So they're a popular gift for people who are struggling with something like entrance exams. There's even a space on the packet for writing an encouraging message. So Kit Kats are supposed to bring you luck, like an omamori? Yes. And actually, that's another good example. Omamori are another thing that probably comes from shinto. You can get them at jinja, you can get them at Buddhist temples, and you're supposed to carry them around with you. To bring good luck. The kami lives in the omamori and brings you luck as you go about your daily business. And what about all those cute little things people put on the sides of the bags or their kettai? Those probably aren't omamori, but they could well come from the same root. But on the other hand, some omamori have anime characters or Hello Kitty on them. So again, the line's not terribly clear. So what you're saying is that shinto has influenced a lot of Japanese culture, but people don't necessarily think of it as shinto now? Exactly. So when I asked David to help teach me about shinto you find in everyday Japanese life, he wrote back to me with a lot of historical detail, which was great, but I thought it was a bit too much for the video. But I know there are some of you that would love that type of detail. If that's you, then please look at the description, as I've included a link to David's Patreon page, where he writes essays about shinto. Once again, thanks, David, for explaining shinto to us. Thanks for having me back. Did I do my tie right this time? From the top, it looks okay. I don't know about from the bottom, though. We'll leave it there. All right. Thanks for watching. See you next time. Peace. Are there religious things in your country that you find in everyday life?