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arashitranslation
What is the Chief Priest of Shrine and The Association of Shinto Shrines?
What is the “world of shrine” which became the stage of the incident.
The incident occurred in a distinguished shrine in the country with a history of 390 years.
The victim was a lady “Chief Priest of Shrine” which can be said to be the top of Tomioka Hachimangu shrine.
Shrine is a place to enshrine God.
While shrines were under state management before and during war,
when Japan lost the Pacific War, the GHQ led by MacArthur separated the shrines from the state.
In response to this, the shrines in the country established a religious corporation named “The Association of Shinto Shrines”.
The organisation respects the Grand Shrine of Ise as the most prominent shrine, in short the top shrine,
and has the Association of Shinto Shrines and then sets up regional offices of Shinto shrines in each prefecture.
The Association of Shinto Shrines manages and instructs around 79,000 shrines in the country,
and has the authority to approve the Chief Priests.
The organisation Association of Shinto Shrines is said to be “the largest religious corporation”.
On the other hand, shrines such as The Imperial Shrine of Yasukuni, Nikko Toshogu, and Fushimi Inari Taisha
are independent shrines which do not belong to the Association of Shinto Shrines.
The Tomioka Hachimangu shrine was formerly under the umbrella of the Association of Shinto Shrines
in 2017, it separated from the Association of Shinto Shrines.
According to the experts, when shrines belong to the Association of Shinto Shrines
they learn the know-how of practices,
some shrines may receive subsidies, on the other hand,
there is also another side that it is said that they are restricted in terms of personnel management and operation.
As for the Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, it is believed that the victim of the incident Tomioka Nagako decided to separate from the Association of Shinto Shrines because she was not appointed by the Association of Shinto Shrines as the Chief Priest.
Therefore, what is “Chief Priest” who became the cause of the trouble in the incident this time?
In the shrine, there are several Shinto priests who dress in white
among them, the top priest is “Chief Priest”.
Taking charge of rituals, deciding the policy of the shrine,
Chief Priest is like the “President” of a company.
Depending on the shrines, it is said that in some shrines, only the Chief Priests can transfer the God to the portable shrine during the rituals, in other words, only the Chief Priests can touch the God.
In addition, in some shrines the task of cleansing the main shrine building is also performed by the Chief Priest only,
in other words, it is a position that is allowed to be at the closest position to the God.
Then, how is the appointment of Chief Priest be decided?
According to the Association of Shinto Shrines
whether a priest will be appointed as the Chief Priest is judged by the Personnel Committee,
“does the candidate reach certain rank”
such as “whether his/her number of training days reached the standard number”
it is said that the judgment is made based on objective criteria.
Tomioka Nagako did not meet the standard number of training days,
in addition, she had conflicts and quarrels with her siblings about the Chief Priest issue
so she was not approved to be the Chief Priest,
“It is not true that she does not get appointed because she is a woman”
The Association of Shinto Shrines explains.
Because of the incident the related persons of the Association of Shinto Shrines said that “we must turn the shrine back to a place where people can come with peace of mind”.
Source: News Zeroイチメン (http://www.ntv.co.jp/zero/ichimen/2017/12/post-353.html)
no subject
Date: 2018-01-06 10:46 am (UTC)It's really sad ne~
To think the people close to GOD become Greedy.
It's Scary.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-06 02:16 pm (UTC)