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Title |
Text |
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| 1 |
Oshirasama |
A tutelary of the home ( ie no kami ) found throughout Japan's northeastern region; also referred to as Oshirabotoke ("the Oshira Buddha"). Although Oshirasama is commonly viewed as a tutelary of agriculture and silkworm production, little agreement has been reac... |
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| 2 |
Osukuni |
A compound of "to possess" plus "land." Generally means the land ruled by the kami and the emperor. "Osu" is made up of the continuative form verb "to be" plus the honorific particle "su." As an honorific, it originally denote... |
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| 3 |
Otabisho |
Also called okariya or angū , a facility serving as the temporary destination or midway resting point during a kami 's ritual procession ( miyuki ). On the occasion of such processions, the kami 's symbol is taken from its usual "seat" ( shinza ) in the shrine and is t... |
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| 4 |
Otariya matsuri |
Kami procession festivals held at Futarayama Shrine in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture. The word " otariya " is said to refer to procession festivals ( togyo matsuri ) and can be written with characters meaning "passage festival." The festival is held tw... |
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| 5 |
Otobami shinji |
"Bird feeding rite." A major shrine association ( kō ) festival held May 15 at Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima Township, Saeki District, Hiroshima Prefecture. There is a ceremonial visitation to the seven Ebisu deities at the seven inlets around the island. Priests ( shi... |
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| 6 |
Oumanagashi shinji |
"Rite of setting horses adrift." A rite observed at Honmoku Shrine, Naka Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It takes place on Honmoku Beach at high tide on either the first or second Sunday of August. It is also known as the juuniten no oumanagashi ("setting a... |
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| 7 |
Oyagami |
"Parent deity," an extension of the image of parenthood to kami , expressing the belief that kami care for human beings in the same way that human parents care for their children. The term is believed to describe the close relationship between kami and humans, one embodyin... |
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| 8 |
Oyama sankei |
"Shrine visit on the mountain." A festival held the twenty-eighth day of the seventh lunar month to the first day of the eighth lunar month at Iwakiyama Shrine in Iwaki Township, Tsugaru District, Aomori Prefecture. Groups from around Tsugaru carrying large banners and ... |
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| 9 |
Para-scientific, Psychical or Occult Research on Shinto |
An area of Shintō research which is not recognized as a scientific approach based on empiricism or rationality. There are numerous branches of this form of investigation, but they can be grouped in two representative categories. The first category (1) of these is associated with re... |
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| 10 |
Paying Respects at a Shinto Shrine |
Of course nobody goes around scolding others for not abiding by it, but there is a provisional "standard" manner of paying respects at Shinto shrines. As such, it is advisable for shrine-goers to familiarize themselves with the protocol as well as the significance of eac... |
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| 11 |
Perfect Liberty Kyōdan (PL Kyōdan) |
Church of Perfect Liberty . A new religion of Shinto origin. The name is frequently abbreviated as merely "PL." Its roots go back to the group Hitonomichi Kyōdan and its founder Miki Tokuharu (1871-1938). Miki had practiced as a Zen monk since he was young. He quit the Buddh... |
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| 12 |
Problems of religion and government |
In Article Twenty-eight of the Meiji Constitution, religious freedom was recognized after a fashion, but the argument was that shrines were not religious institutions and shrines therefore held a special position. It was because of this that GHQ issued the Shinto Directive ( Shin... |
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| 13 |
Raihōshin |
"Visiting kami ," a being which periodically visits a community from the other world to bring blessings. Beliefs in this type of kami are based on the ancient view of kami as transient beings that do not dwell permanently in a single place. With the establishment of permane... |
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| 14 |
Raijin |
"Thunder kami ." In ancient times, thunder and lightning were considered atmospheric expressions of the violent behavior of a thunder kami , and lightening striking earth was interpreted as the kami 's temporal manifestation. The term for thunder, kaminari can be ... |
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| 15 |
Raishi |
A rite held February 13 at Okafuto Shrine in Imadate Township, Imadate District, Fukui Prefecture. Raishi is a term for fire festival ( sagichō ). The name is said to derive from the fact that raishi can also be written as hōraishi , and fire festivals were also once known as the hōrai fes... |
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| 16 |
Rates of Women in the Shinto Clergy |
In the 1993 edition of the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs' Shūkyō Nenkan (Year in Religion), the number of Shrine Shinto clergy ( shinshoku ) registered with the Association of Shinto Shrines ( Jinja honchō ) who were male was 18,714, nearly ten times the 1,825 registered females. C... |
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| 17 |
Reiha no Hikari Kyōkai |
A Shinto-derived new religious movement whose founder was Hase Yoshio (1915-84). Born in Tokyo, Hase was sent to China at the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, but he was repatriated after falling ill. Although he received medical treatment his condition failed to improve, and he ... |
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| 18 |
Reiheishi |
An envoy who was sent from the imperial court to the Grand Shrines of Ise (Ise Jingū) to present offerings ( hōbei ) on the occasion of the Kannamesai. Also referred as Ise reiheishi . A reiheishi was one type of imperial "messenger" ( hōbeishi ) who brought offerings to shrin... |
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| 19 |
Reikai |
A term that expresses such things as the world of spirits, the afterworld, or the otherworld. The term is often used in contrast to the physical world or the world of reality. Since it has been used by some of the new religions, the term has entered common usage. Older terms for this other... |
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| 20 |
Reikiki |
One of the masterpieces of Ryōbu Shintō, this work contains fourteen volumes of text, and four volumes of figures and diagrams. Kūkai (the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism) is commonly believed to be the author, but it is also said that the text was conveyed by the dragon kami of S... |
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