Drawing on the Japanese pre-war postcards collection from the Library’s East Asian Collection, Rare Books & Special Collections student intern Jiawen (Chloe) Li (Master of Museum and Heritage Studies) introduces the practice of Shintō and explores its place in the Japanese culture today.

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Shintō (神道) has been at the heart of Japanese culture since the country has named itself Nihon (日本), “the sun’s origin”. It originated in the relationship between ancient Japanese and the power they found in nature . Through centuries of recorded history, Shintō continues to take part in the framing of Japan both to the outside world and to the Japanese themselves. Shintō is a way of life and a way of thinking. Drawing on the Japanese postcard collection from the University Library’s East Asian Collection, this online exhibition is about to walk you through the spiritual Shintō world.

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Shintō

Many scholars find it difficult to define Shintō as a religion, while Shintō priests describe it simply as an integral part of Japanese culture. Shintō does not neatly fit into the Western perceptions of traditional religions, as it has no dogma, doctrine, founder or an explicit moral code. Rather than a closed system of beliefs, Shintō is a Japanese way of looking at the world.

Let the pre-World War II Japanese postcard images from the East Asian Collection take you on a journey to some of the Shintō shrines around the country, giving you a glimpse of the world seen through the lens of Shintō.

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The main halls (hōnden, 本殿) are considered the hearts of Shintō shrines. Their architectural styles vary, depending on the shrine’s divine lineage. The main hall of Yoshida shrine shown in the postcard above is in kasuga-zukuri (春日造) style, a traditional architectural style for Shintō shrines dating back to the early 8th century. One of the style’s distinctive features is the Chinese-style roofs that are gabled and decorated with ornamental poles, as appearing on the four joined kasuga-zukuri buildings above.

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Visiting a shrine

For the Japanese, visiting a shrine (jinja mairi, 神社参り) is a simple act of faith performed without much soul-searching or contemplation. People pay a visit to a shrine out of faith, respect, social purpose, or even obligation. Visiting a shrine is an integrated part of their personal, family, and communal lives, even where strong belief is lacking. For many, jinja mairi is simply an aspect of Japanese life. There are not any set, particular day of the week to visit a shrine. People visit the shrines anytime they feel like, including during festival times.

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Shrines are preferably surrounded by expansive woods and are usually located in places with a serene and solemn atmosphere. Worshippers view shrines as restful and sacred places, where they can always feel in harmony with nature. The colour postcard above of Katori shrine depicts a giant, sacred tree (shinboku, 神木) on the shrine grounds next to a dance stage. The photograph provides a perfect example of a natural being within a built environment, or rather, humans building around the pre-existing nature. The very fact that the postcard features the tree as centrally as it features the dance stage highlights the importance of nature in the Shintō world.

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Torii (鳥居) is a two-post gateway, with one or two crossbeams at the top. Torii stands in front of shrines and marks the area as a sacred site where the gods (kami, 神) dwell. It is the clearest physical indication of the presence of a Shintō shrine and hence became a representative image of Shintō. The two postcards above and below feature the iconic “floating” torii at Itsukushima shrine.

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A water font and basin (temizuya 手水舎) are usually placed somewhere to the front of the shrine. Worshippers are expected to wash their hands and rinse their mouths as ritual ablution before entering the shrine. The postcard above provides a distant view of a temizuya.

In Shintō, the distinction between purity and impurity is clearly marked. The “outside” is often considered impure, while the “inside” is pure. Such a distinction is embedded in the everyday practice, from taking off one’s shoes before entering the house to gargling and washing one’s hands as soon as returning home.

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Kami is translated as “god”, “deity” or “spirit”. Shintō is often regarded animistic as Shintō kami are in the forces and manifestations of nature. Kami can be in the form of natural phenomena, legendary beings, human ancestors, and even ideas. The rocks in Futami have been deified and served as kami. Their sacredness is marked by the shimenawa (しめ縄) here.

A shimenawa is a thick or thin braided rope made of straw to signify sacredness, from which shide (紙垂) – white paper streamers – hang. Shide are folded in a zig-zag pattern and attached to the shimenawa at intervals. Shimenawa firstly appeared in Shintō mythology, where people used it to block the entrance to a cave, so the sun goddess (Amaterasu, 天照) could not enter and thrust the world into darkness. It is now used to distinguish and separate a sacred site from the rest of the world.

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Some kami reside in a particular site or manifest in that site voluntarily or when called upon. The site is usually remarkable in some way, such as a waterfall, a large rock, or a volcano. The peculiar rock on Mt. Hakusan acts as a shrine since it is deemed special to kami.

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Festivals

Shintō festivals are an integral part of Japanese culture, having grown beyond their early religious roots. The spiritual aspect of Shintō festivals have become less important than that of fun and spectacle. Omatsuri (お祭り) nowadays is a significant tourist attraction as it draws numerous visitors from all around the globe. Today, Shintō festivals are a major source of economic activity and a key force for community solidarity.

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A portable shrine (mikoshi, 神輿) is used during festivals to carry the kami from the shrine to a temporary resting place (otabisho, 御旅所) and back. Portable shrines are often made to approximate shape of the main shrine architecture, and they are also called miniature shrines. The portable shrine above from Niutsuhime shrine exemplifies the proper size of a miniature shrine.

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Some festivals involve water, such as the grand festival depicted above at Miho shrine. Water-related festivals usually include rituals of purification and exorcism as well as celebration of masculinity.

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Many festivals focus on music and dance. Performances involving the ancient court music (gagaku, 雅楽) create a solemn and mysterious atmosphere for the festival. This postcard features a photograph of a seven-seat ritual (shichiza shinji, 七座神事) performed in Sada shrine in Matsue during such a musical festival. Many photographic records such as this postcard contain images of musical performance, alluding to the place of music in Shintō and its festivals.

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Priesthood

Shintō priests are not cloistered and are free to marry. The lack of licensed priests causes two-thirds of shrines to be unstaffed on a full-time basis. Instead, community members perform certain traditional rites, cleaning and making daily offerings at unstaffed shrines.

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Many women serve the shrines as shrine maidens (miko, 巫女). Miko wear a white kimono top and red skirt-like pants (hakama 袴) or pleated skirt at the shrine. White is the colour of Shintō as it stands for purification, while the colour red is believed to have the power to expel demons and illness.

Miko help the priest with rituals, cleaning, preparing food, selling amulets, and sometimes performing sacred dances (kagura, 神楽) as portrayed in the postcard above.

Women were generally not allowed to be shrine priests due to early forms of religious emphasis on female shamanism. They were instead relegated to a minor position in the shrine. The shamanistic aspect has since been removed, and the miko today are usually daughters of the shrine priests or temporary or part-time workers. Although women could become Shintō priests after the second World War, the number of female priests remains much smaller than that of male priests in Japan.

Even today, women’s menstruation is considered impure; on such a ground, women have often been excluded from certain activities in Japan. For instance, women are still barred from entering dohyō (土俵) in sumō (相撲), and some mountain shrines including the one at Mt. Ishizuchi still forbid women from attending the mountain-opening ceremony every July.

Shintō still sustains meaning and is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Its gender view continues affecting the contemporary Japanese society, which poses a conundrum. Nakagawa Tomoko, the Takarazuka City Mayor, spoke out in 2018 in favour of equal treatment of men and women in sumō:

“Tradition is important, but it is also important to have courage and make a change. I don’t care whichever side of the ring we stand, but I do want both men and women to be treated equally.”

A similar statement can certainly be made about the practices of Shintō.

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Jiawen (Chloe) Li is a graduate student in Master of Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Sydney. Recipient of the 2016 James Murdoch Prize, Jiawen went on exchange to the Kyoto University in Japan in 2017 and graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Japanese Studies in 2018. Prior to her internship at Rare Books & Special Collections this year, she worked as an intern at the Australian Society of Anaesthetists in 2019, focusing on collection management.

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