Recently, I was reading Nishino Jinja‘s blog about Shinto fasting, or “saikai (斎戒)” in Japanese. It is also sometimes called “tsutsushimi”. Generally, this is only done by Shinto priests before festivals. Back in the day, this state of fasting lasted a month or more before a large festival, but in modern times priests are only required to do so for the day of and the day before a major festival. So what does this fasting consist of? I’m glad you asked. The Jinja Honcho guidelines are pretty vague:
“During fasting (saikai), purify and clean the body, change clothing, dwell in a separate room, be modest in food and drink, correct your thoughts, words, and conduct, and avoid unclean things.”
Furthermore, it allows that each shrine has its own traditions and that priests should follow them. So this guideline leaves a lot of room for interpretation. However, this is characteristic of Japanese culture. But the blog post gave some more concrete examples of what Shinto fasting consists of. So let’s look at the details from the above guideline.
“Clean the body”
Take a bath morning and evening. Use a pure white towel, preferably new. While bathing, soap is not used, neither should one speak or soak in the tub. Apparently, it is alright to use hot water, although it should be heated from a separate fire than normal.
“Change clothing”
Fresh clothes, all white and preferably new, should be donned. It should be washed by hand, using separate water and place than normal washing is done.
“Dwell in a separate room”
The priest can live and sleep at the shrine in a specially designated room. He shouldn’t leave the shrine or make phone calls if possible. The bed should be white and a different one than that used normally.
“Food and drink”
Do not eat too much. Do not eat meat, but white fish and fowl are allowed. Do not eat pungent foods like onions and chives. Also avoid whale, alcohol, smoking, and foreign foods. Generally, you can eat the same sorts of foods that are traditionally offered to the kami-sama. Drink hot water rather than tea. Furthermore, the food should be prepared using separate fire (kindled with flint and steel) and water than that used everyday. It also shared a bit of wisdom that eating a little mochi before a long ceremony prevents having to go shishi. At some shrines, they apparently drink salt water three times a day to purify the stomach as well.
“Thoughts, words, and conduct”
Basically avoid saying and thinking things related to unclean things. Unclean things especially refers to death, so maybe things like avoiding the word 4 (read “shi” which can also mean death), in addition to of course avoiding actually talking about death. This is more about being correct, but generally entertainment should be refrained from. For example, one shouldn’t read the newspaper, magazines et cetera or play games like go or mahjong. However, writing poetry, penmanship, and reading the Japanese classics is allowed. At one shrine, the priest always uses the time to recopy anew the shrine’s records.
“Avoid unclean things”
As mentioned above, unclean things generally refers to death, but also sickness and excrement and that sort of thing. This means no visiting sick in the hospital and after the restroom purifying yourself, I think.
But the blog post talks about how it is pretty difficult to follow a strict method of fasting, so people just do they best they can in this modern day. What can I say, Shinto is anything but fundamentalist. But especially he refers to priests who also hold a day job to make ends meet. A person is such a position can not lock himself away at the shrine to observe strict purification, but he can at least drink water instead of tea, and mind his conduct and so on.
Shinto fasting is quite an interesting concept. You can see there is a general over all pattern to it as well: a separation for daily life and a focus of cleanliness. I wonder, how does this compare to fasting traditions in other cultures and traditions?
[…] “fasting period of shintoism” I have written a post about fasting in Shinto, but this sort of fasting is only done by priests, so I am surprise there is so much interest in it […]
Although there may be a religion that does not practice some form of fasting/abstinence, I don’t know about it. All religions that I know of either have things that are not permitted wholesale (Judaism and Islam in the West; Buddhism, Sikhi, and at least some sects of Hinduism in the East), or practice fasting as a matter of course throughout the week/day/month (Islam, Orthodox and Evangelical Christianity, and cloistered communities). I came to your blog wondering about Shinto, as with its focus on purification, I would have expected fasting to be more common. It’s interesting to see that it is not, at least among lay people.
As far as it being difficult to fast for more than 24 hours as the initial blog stated, I have not found it difficult at all. Try it!