Shinto Rituals

Early records and archaeology

Scholars reconstruct early Shinto ritual from written chronicles and from archaeology. An Encyclopedia of Shinto entry on ancient Shinto reports that the Kojiki and Nihonshoki describe ritual worship (matsuri) as central, and that finds from the Jōmon, Yayoi and Kofun periods include ritual implements such as mirrors, swords and curved jewels (magatama), together with ritual sites at natural locations such as rock outcrops and mountainsides. The entry also describes kamigakari, a state in which female mediums were said to receive messages from deities.

A companion essay on Shinto texts notes that Shinto has no scriptural canon comparable to the New Testament, the Koran or Buddhist sutras, although the Kojiki and Nihon shoki are treated as classics, and norito and imperial proclamations record ceremonial recitations. Jinja Honcho, the Association of Shinto Shrines, likewise describes Shinto as having no founder and no dogma.

Norito and court liturgy

The main early body of liturgy is the set of twenty-seven norito compiled in Book Eight of the Engishiki, dated in the Encyclopedia of Shinto to 927 CE. They served court ceremonies such as harvest prayers, purification rites and protection of the imperial palace, with further texts for extraordinary circumstances such as appeasing plague. The entry describes a typical norito as naming the kami, praising their virtues, presenting offerings and making entreaties.

Kagura and invocations

The same encyclopedia dates a reference to a soul-settling ritual written with the characters for kagura to 807, places a possible origin of imperial court mikagura around 1002, and reports that it became an established December ritual in 1087. Private invocations for individual benefit (kitō) are said to have emerged in the mid-Heian period from yin-yang exorcism, and were later absorbed into shrine practice. After the Meiji Restoration, kagura once performed by priests and mountain ascetics spread among commoners.

Kami, matsuri and the collective label

Jinja Honcho describes kami as including ancestors and spirits of nature, and uses matsuri for gatherings that honor them, from solemn ceremonies inside a shrine sanctuary to lively community festivities. The Basic Terms of Shinto glossary describes a matsuri as opening with solemn ritual built around food offerings and norito, followed by a shared meal (naorai) and community celebration. Shinto rituals is therefore a collective label for several linked kinds of rite, not the name of one procedure.

Purification terms

Harae is the general term for purification rites, described in the glossary as ceremonies to remove sin, pollution and misfortune and restore people to a condition worthy of approaching the gods. Misogi refers to washing the whole body, and the encyclopedia notes that misogi and harae are interconnected and sometimes combined as misogiharae, though historically distinct.

Kegare means a polluted condition, the opposite of purity. The Encyclopedia of Shinto separates it from tsumi, transgression, which is understood to arise from human behavior, whereas kegare arises from naturally occurring phenomena. The glossary lists death, childbirth, menstruation, meat consumption and illness as traditional sources, and adds that contemporary Shinto stresses mental and spiritual pollution over physical sources.

Offerings, talismans and officiants

Shinsen means food offerings to kami, called mike in ancient times. Jinja Honcho uses ofuda and omamori for talismans and amulets, and the encyclopedia lists related items as shinsatsu (larger talismans of wood, paper or metal) and mamorifuda (portable ones carried in a small cloth bag). Kannushi is generally used for a Shinto priest (shinshoku), though it originally meant a shrine's head priest or someone qualified by strict abstinence to serve as a medium for a deity. Miko means a woman who assists priests.

Purification before approaching

Jinja Honcho describes the whole precinct as sacred space, with the torii marking the border from everyday life. At the purification font (temizuya) visitors rinse the left hand, then the right, pour water into the left palm to rinse the mouth without touching the ladle to the lips, and rinse the left hand again. In formal ceremonies harae is described as involving hand and mouth rinsing, norito and the waving of a wand (haraigushi); the Great Purification (Ōharae) is held in June and December.

Offerings, prayers and the shared meal

A shrine day begins, according to Jinja Honcho, with cleaning the grounds and a ceremony offering food and drink to the kami with a purification ritual for the area and participants. The encyclopedia lists offerings such as sake, water, salt, grains, vegetables, fruit and fish, classed as raw or cooked, and notes that those preparing them sometimes observe purificatory abstinence. After the rite, the naorai meal shares the offerings; shrines may follow their own traditions in the sequence.

Music, dance and officiants

Kagura is a ritual performance offered to the kami, who are invited into the sacred space and worshiped with music, song and dance. The encyclopedia distinguishes court mikagura from popular satokagura, including miko kagura, in which female attendants dance with bells and fans, and describes a three-part structure of welcoming, entertaining and bidding farewell to the deity. Jinja Honcho says miko assist priests and perform sacred dance at most large shrines. Priests serving Association shrines must meet its qualifications, and Kokugakuin and Kōgakkan Universities are the main advanced training centers.

Visits, amulets and annual customs

Jinja Honcho describes worship as offering a coin, ringing the bell, bowing deeply twice, clapping twice, praying quietly and bowing once more. It calls omamori embodiments of the power of the kami, to be treated as sacred, and answers that more amulets do not necessarily mean more benefits. Hatsumode, the first visit of the year, has two proposed origins in the encyclopedia, and shichi-go-san on November 15 brings young children to their local shrine to pray for special protection.

Purification and protection

Sources describe harae as removing sin, pollution and misfortune from individuals and communities, and the glossary adds a belief that it can remove evil and misfortune from a whole nation. According to the encyclopedia, shrine talismans are meant to invoke protection against illness and accident, and portable amulets address purposes such as illness prevention, safe childbirth and traffic safety. These are the tradition's stated purposes; none of the sources reviewed tested them.

Healing prayers and explanations of illness

The Encyclopedia of Shinto reports that shrine priests today perform invocations for childbirth, healing, longevity and family prosperity. Another entry states that illness is understood as a kami's way of drawing a person's attention to something, and that the Nihongi credits two kami with establishing healing methods. These entries describe beliefs rather than tested effects.

An ethnography of one Fukuoka hamlet of about 850 residents, based on fieldwork in 1988-1989, found that people acknowledged germs and medical treatment while also attributing illness to spirits or offense to kami. Purification rites for offended kami were performed by mediums or Shinto priests, charms and amulets were used, and ritual treatment proceeded alongside medical care. The study describes one community and one period.

Life stages, seasons and community

Shichi-go-san marks the ages of three, five and seven with a shrine visit to pray for protection. Matsuri are tied to the farming year, with spring festivals requesting prosperous crops and autumn festivals giving thanks for harvests. The encyclopedia notes that many village kagura performances seek blessings for harvests, health and longevity.

What the searches found

PubMed searches run for this page combined Shinto, shrine, ritual, misogi, cold water, health and well-being. They returned no randomized trial, controlled study or systematic review testing a Shinto rite as an intervention, and the studies below concern places, visits and customs rather than ritual procedures. All three are self-report surveys, which cannot show that a visit or rite causes any change in health or mood.

Visitor surveys at shrines

A field survey interviewed 49 visitors at Kumano Nachi Taisha, a shrine with a waterfall that the authors describe as combining Shinto and Buddhism, and 49 at Koyasan Okunoin, a temple with graves. Nachi visitors reported less sadness and, marginally, more meaning in life, and awe was associated with meaning in life through feelings of self-liberation at both sites. Sightseeing was the most common stated purpose, there was no control group, and meaning in life was measured with one item.

A survey of 342 visitors to six shrine and temple forests in Kanazawa in 2023 found that 75 percent recognized scenic beauty, 65 percent stress reduction and 42 percent spiritual connection as benefits. Respondents reported what they perceived, and the authors list self-report and a cross-sectional design among the limitations; stress was not measured.

Shrine handwashing and hygiene habits

A four-wave national survey of 6,050 adults found that those who had washed their hands at shrines or temples in childhood, even rarely, tended to wash with soap more regularly as adults, alongside school education effects. Shrines and temples were combined, recall was self-reported, and the authors caution that no causality should be assumed. The study concerns a custom of purification at the shrine entrance, not health outcomes.

Evidence on harms

None of the sources reviewed report adverse events from attending shrine rites, receiving talismans or watching kagura, but they are descriptive or survey-based and would not be expected to detect harm. Jinja Honcho asks visitors to behave appropriately in the sacred precinct and not to disturb others' prayers, and describes small monetary offerings as a mark of respect.

Cold-water purification

Misogi involves washing the body, and some practices use cold water such as waterfalls, but the sources reviewed give no temperatures, durations or injury data for misogi. A physiology review of cold water submersion reports that it can induce a high incidence of cardiac arrhythmias in healthy volunteers and proposes that, in some vulnerable people, it may account for deaths attributed to drowning or hypothermia. That review does not study misogi, and its findings cannot be applied to it directly.

Pollution concepts and care boundaries

The glossary says traditional kegare, which included illness, required temporary social and religious withdrawal followed by purification, and one anthropologist's abstract states that women are associated with ritual pollution in the Shinto tradition in connection with AIDS stigma in Japan. Sources reviewed do not show how common such effects are today. The ethnography above found residents using medical care alongside ritual, and shrine invocations and amulets should not delay or replace necessary medical care.