Greetings dear Chroniclers,
Happy autumn! (And happy spring for those in the southern hemisphere!) The changing colors always remind me of the lovely Japanese maples on my last trip to Japan. Speaking of...
How much do you know about Shintoism and visiting a Shinto shrine? And where can you learn about it?
I've followed David Chart's Patreon and blog on Shinto for years. He works as a consultant for Jinja Honchō (the organization to which most shrines in Japan belong) to help bring information on Shinto into English. Mr. Chart is a naturalized Japanese citizen and he and his Japanese wife live in Kawasaki. His insights really helped me flesh out how the characters in my books would behave and things that would be important to them.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of his blog and Patreon, Mimusubi - his personal project to help people understand Shintoism. A quote from his blog: "I would be delighted if readers of Mimusubi decided to come to Japan to visit jinja, because part of my job with Jinja Honchō is to encourage exactly that." It's not about conversion, which doesn't make sense in the context of Shinto anyway, but to share information.