To visit a shrine is to call on the kami of the place: through the torii, up the gravel path, to the offering box, the bell, two bows, two claps, one bow.
Tagged: Community Pilgrimage Prayer Shinto
How It Is Practiced
The visitor passes under the torii gate, rinses hands and mouth at the purification font (temizuya), and walks the approach — its edges, traditionally, not its center, which is the kami's path. Before the hall she offers a coin, rings the bell or shakes the rope to announce herself, bows twice deeply, claps twice, prays silently with palms together, and bows once more (nirei nihakushu ippai). Visits mark the year and the life: hatsumōde, the first visit of the New Year, draws millions in the first three days; shichi-go-san dresses children of seven, five, and three for their shrine debut; couples marry and babies are first presented (omiyamairi) before the kami.
Purpose and Meaning
Shrine visiting is devotion as address: the kami are of places, and respect is paid in person, on their ground, in the body's grammar of bow and clap. It asks and thanks more than it confesses — petitions for safety, birth, success, and rain, and gratitude when the petitions prosper. The shrine grove keeps what the visit practices: purity, presence, and the renewal of ties.
References
- Shinto shrine — Wikipedia Free / open access
- Hatsumōde — Wikipedia Free / open access
Related Practices
- The Kamidana — Household Altar — High on a wall of the home sits a miniature shrine: each morning it receives fresh water, rice, salt, and a bowed head with two claps.
- Misogi — Purification by Water — Standing under a waterfall, or in the sea or a river at dawn, the practitioner lets cold water carry away pollution: Shinto's most austere devotion.
- Yātrā — Pilgrimage — The journey to the tīrtha — the ford where heaven and earth cross: to the Ganges' sources, the twelve liṅgas, the four abodes, and above all to the Kumbh Melā.
Related Across the Site
- Family Worship Devotion — Family worship gathers the household daily or weekly to read Scripture, sing, and pray together at home.
- Pilgrimage (Catholic) Devotion — Catholic pilgrimage is a journey to a shrine undertaken as prayer, penance, thanksgiving, or petition.
- Processions Devotion — A procession is the Church at prayer on the move, carrying an image, a cross, or the Eucharist through public streets.
- Stations of the Cross Devotion — The Stations of the Cross walk the worshipper through fourteen scenes of Christ's journey to the crucifixion.
- The Akathist Devotion — An akathist is a long hymn of praise to Christ, the Mother of God, or a saint, sung standing.
- The Mourner's Kaddish Devotion — For eleven months after a death, and on every anniversary, mourners stand among the congregation to sanctify God's name in an ancient Aramaic prayer that never mentions death.
- Yātrā — Pilgrimage Devotion — The journey to the tīrtha — the ford where heaven and earth cross: to the Ganges' sources, the twelve liṅgas, the four abodes, and above all to the Kumbh Melā.
- Norito Prayer or Creed — Formal ritual prayers in classical Japanese, recited by priests to the kami at shrine festivals and rites.