What do shinto priests wear

On 14 May , the Meiji government issued orders abolishing the hereditary system and private ownership of shrines. Theoretically, these ordinances should have eradicated the hereditary system, but in practice, priests were still able to inherit their positions by applying for and receiving the approval of authorities.

Sakamoto Kenichi, ed. Fridell, Wilbur. In order to produce priests of the required high level the study courses are that much higher, especially when compared with former times. Of course there are differences in the courses, depending on the rank you wish to attain. Some of the larger shrines have their own training facilities, and the Prefectural Shrine Office of Osaka is unique in that it has a correspondence course.

So, yes, Shinto priests wear paper hats. In the distant past, courtiers wrote notes for the ceremonies on them, but they have been nothing more than a symbol of dignity for centuries. Up to the late nineteenth century only some priests were authorised to hold them, but all male priests have them now. There are specific rules for the etiquette to follow when a priest must put his shaku down or away in order to clap when paying reverence to the kami. Click image for a larger version.

If the image to the right was of a priest of special rank, the highest, his hakama would be white, with the other colours the same. The patterns would still be on the hakama, but they would still be white, so they would be hard to see. These differences in vestments mean that you can tell a lot about what is going on in a jinja at a single glance, and also spot people who are working at a jinja but who are not qualified priests because they have hakama in different colours — white is ambiguous, however.

You mention that the shaku is no longer used for crib notes; do priests now write their notes on something else, or are they expected to have better memories these days, or are the ceremonies now shorter and simpler so notes are not necessary? Have you posted these on your blog yet? Seems fitting. Tornadoes Indeed!

Adam: Yeah, in one book on Shinto , the subject of Okinawan female shamans came up. You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of follow-up comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the Internets a better place. Thanks for reading!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Particles, particles, particles! Share this: StumbleUpon Digg Reddit. Robert says:. January 22, at am.