Word: shinto
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...name alone evokes modernity: dials, lights and numbers. The ancient civilization, with its Shinto priests and fragile poems, is more closely associated with all that is new in our times than any place on earth. Even the New World, now graying at the temples, regularly peers east to assess the future, to note where today's advances are going for finishing touches. For its part, the zealous student-nation, famous for raiding others' inspirations, has all but run out of models. The model is itself. Looking outward, Japan sees what it has become since Hiroshima: a source...
Hirohito now seems to relish his restricted but ritualized duties. Each year, he symbolically plants seedlings of rice on the 284-acre palace grounds; at least 20 times annually he dons flowing traditional costume as the nation's highest-ranking Shinto priest. In addition, each weekday he diligently repairs to his office to rubber-stamp government appointments, welcome foreign envoys and brushstroke his signature on an annual flood of 2,000 state papers. In return, the state devotes $41.1 million a year to the upkeep of palace property, including a taxable stipend of $936,000 for the Emperor...
...Emperor's five daughters, Princess Teru died in 1961 at the age of 35, and Princess Hisa died within six months of her birth in 1927. Kazuko Takatsukasa, 54, became a Shinto priestess after her husband died; Atsuko Ikeda, 52, is a businessman's wife; and Takako Shimazu, 44, is married to a banker...
Night has come to Ise, 80 miles east of Osaka and the site of the holiest Japanese Shinto shrines. The chilly (33°F), placid waters of the Isuzu River can be seen clearly in the moonlight by the 80 or so people on the bank who await the command of their instructor. He barks angrily, and they wade into the stream, chanting, shouting and grunting in unison, praying for spiritual renewal and purification. Then they run quietly through the streets of the village, dressed only in loincloths, their heads banded in white cloth on which the characters for "love...
...typical programmed celebration was the recent wedding of Koji Takahashi, 26, an architect, to Kazuko Hasegawa, 23, at Meiji Memorial Hall, Tokyo's most prestigious marriage parlor. After the simple Shinto ceremony, capped by a sip of ritual sake, the groom, in cutaway coat and silk tie, and the bride, in a dazzling kimono, sat down with their 125 guests to consume a banquet, including lobster salad and ice cream. The master of ceremonies introduced important people from the couple's life-parents, teachers, bosses and friends. The guests offered presents. The current favored gift in Japan...