Paper short abstract:

This study aims to describe how the Covid 19 pandemic affected the lives of ritual organisers of a Shinto shrine in Japan. The shrine is the core of its community activities. What kind of crisis and uncertainty it could have faced and what strategies it has been making to deal with them?

Paper long abstract:

This paper elucidates how the Covid 19 pandemic affected the lives of ritual organisers of a Shinto shrine in Japan. Bestor (1989) notes, shrines were the core of its community activities. The ujiko (parishioners) support a shrine financially and labour-wise (Shimazono, 1988). Most of the shrines conduct festivals with help of groups of people from their local community such as chonaikai (neighbourhood association), ujikososiki (parishioners association), or seinenkai (youth group associations) (Bestor, 1989; Robertson, 1987; Littleton, 1986; Hardacre, 2017). However, in Japan, urbanisation and modernisation have weakened the old concept of the local community. This is also the reason for numerous shrines falling out of favour (Ishii 1998). However, the HKN shrine which is situated in Ibaraki prefecture’s rural periphery is still prosperous and putting in efforts to attract worshippers and tourists. This Shrine has replaced the role of the local community by creating a substitute network, through kinship and relatedness (Janet Carsten, 1995), with people sharing common economic interests. Since 809 this shrine is venerated by numerous people who visit it whenever they have uncertainties in life. Nevertheless, due to the covid 19 pandemic, it is not the worshippers alone who are facing the crisis and uncertainty but also the shrine that has been comforting the worshippers facing the uncertainty of sustaining itself. Because the shrine’s network has been partially disconnected by the pandemic. This paper sheds light on what kind of uncertainties the shrine is facing and what strategies it has been making to deal with them.