Tokyo Shrines

The Jinja Honcho was established in 1946 as a religious corporation independent of the national government under the Shinto Directive issued by GHQ.

Including annexes and outlying regent shrines, Ise Jingu is the largest shrine in Japan in terms of area.

The prefecture with the fewest number of shrines is Okinawa Prefecture with 13 shrines.

About 90% of the site area of Ise Jingu Shrine is forest, which accounts for about one-sixth of the total area of Ise City.

The highest shrine in Tokyo's 23 wards is the Tower Grand Shrine on the 2nd floor of the Tokyo Tower Grand Observatory.

Okinawa Prefecture also has the fewest number of shrines per 100,000 people, with 0.9 shrines per 100,000 people; Osaka (8.22) and Tokyo (10.68) are in second and third place, respectively.

Meiji Jingu Shrine usually attracts the largest number of visitors for Hatsumode (New Year's visit) in Japan. The number of visitors is approximately 3.2 million on the first three days of the year.

The Tokyo Gosha are Meiji Shrine, Yasukuni Shrine, Hie Shrine, Okunitama Shrine, and Tokyo Daijingu Shrine, which are considered historically prestigious among the approximately 1,800 shrines in Tokyo.

The torii is the boundary between the secular world of human habitation and the Shinto realm, and serves as a gateway to the Shinto realm.

The ema (votive tablet) of the Weather Shrine, which also appears in the movie "Weather Child," is in the shape of a geta (wooden clogs). The omikuji is in the shape of a teru teru bozu. The red seal is stamped with the day's weather.

Shrines have a rank that expresses their prestige, called "Shakkaku.

Atago Shrine in Minato Ward, Tokyo, is located on Mt. Atago, the highest mountain in the 23 wards as a natural terrain mountain.

The shrine grounds generally consist of a torii gate as the entrance to the shrine, a hand-watering basin, guardian dogs, a hall of worship, a main hall of worship, and regent shrines.

The professional staff who serve at shrines are called "priests. The term "priest" is also used to refer to the Shinto priesthood in general.

The deity of Hiyoshi Shrine, Hie Shrine, and Sanno Shrine, which have about 3,800 shrines throughout Japan, is Oyakui, also known as "Hiyoshi God" or "Sanno Gongen. The deity is also the head deity of the Matsuo faith, which has Matsuo Taisha Shrine in Kyoto as its head shrine.

The ranking of shrines in terms of the number of Hatsumode worshippers is Fushimi Inari Taisha in second place, Sumiyoshi Taisha in third place, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in fourth place, and Atsuta Jingu in fifth place.

Of all the Shinto shrines in Japan, about 20,000 are manned, and one priest often serves several shrines at the same time.

The custom of worship at Izumo-taisha is "Ni-hai (two worships, four claps, one bow, and one bow). In addition, during the annual festival in May, the worshippers bow with eight beats of the hand.

Komainu are the guardian animals of shrines. They are placed in pairs on the left and right, with the mouths of each pair representing the "A" and "Un" forms.

The gojintai, the central object of a shrine, is also called "yoriyoshiro," and the place or object where the deity dwells varies from shrine to shrine.

The entire 233-meter-high Mount Inari is the object of worship at Fushimi Inari Taisha, and Sei Shonagon wrote about his pilgrimage to the mountain in his "Pillow Book.

Ise Jingu was considered a separate entity and was placed outside the classification of the modern shrine ranking system and imperial shrines.

Ise Jingu is the collective name for 125 shrines, centering on the Inner and Outer Shrines, and consisting of 14 annexes of the two shrines, as well as regent shrines, subordinate shrines, and shrines under jurisdiction.

The most famous of these is the "three sacred objects" that Ninigi no Mikoto is said to have received from Amaterasu at the time of his descent from heaven in the "Chronicles of Japan.

The northernmost shrine in Japan is Cape Soya Shrine in Hokkaido.

The basic architectural style of shrine pavilions is the gabled gabled roof, which can be broadly divided into the "Shinmei-zukuri" style, which has its roots in the Ise Jingu Shrine, and the "Taisha-zukuri" style, which has its roots in the Izumo-Taisha Shrine.

The 16 shrines that are designated as "imperial shrines" are Kamo Betsurai-jinja Shrine, Kamo Goso-jinja Shrine, Ishimizu Hachimangu Shrine, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Atsuta Shrine, Izumo Taisha Shrine, Hikawa Shrine, Kashima Shrine, Katori Shrine, Kashihara Shrine, Omi-jingu Shrine, Heian Shrine, Meiji Shrine, Yasukuni Shrine, Usa Shrine, and Kashinomiya Shrine.

More than 1,500 rituals are held annually at Ise Jingu.