Japanese shrine maidens: what do they do?

September 28, 2024

If you've been to a 神社じんじゃ (shrine) before, then you've probably seen people dressed like this:

These people are called 巫女みこ, or shrine maidens.

In my experience, if the shrine is big enough to sell お守まもり (protective charms), you're quite likely to see 巫女みこ there as well.

While the specifics seem to vary per 神社, it seems that some of the main jobs of 巫女 are to help the 神職しんしょく (Shinto priest) with their various tasks while doing whatever needs to be done around the shrine.

Stuff like being an 受付うけつけ (receptionist) for お守まもり and 御朱印ごしゅいん (an inscription that is unique to individual shrines, more info here), doing 祈祷きとう (prayer), and also お掃除そうじ (cleaning) around the shrine.

You also might see them performing various dances such as 神楽 (kagura).

神楽 is a really neat thing to witness. It's a type of traditional Shinto dance accompanied by music that is meant to entertain the 神様かみさま of the shrine. This is a huge topic so I'm planning on writing a different newsletter all about that at some point in the future ^^

Anyway, the above is just the job of 巫女みこs now.

In the past, they had very different roles which might be a bit surprising to learn about 👀

The above has a lot of Japanese. I wouldn't worry too much about trying to memorize it all immediately.

I'd recommend focusing on whatever shows up when you press this button first:

Start your journey for free if you haven't yet!:

That said, words like 神社じんじゃ, 受付うけつけ, お守まもり, and 御朱印ごしゅいん might be good to know if you like shrines as much as I do ^^

I might check out a few lessons involving shrines in NativShark as well:

and...

Anyway, we're about to get into some less common (but fun to learn) Japanese, so I'd focus on keeping the above Japanese in mind before worrying about what comes next!

The 巫女s job in the past was quite different compared to today.

Here's a quote pulled from 1日1ページ、読むだけで身につく日本の教養365 that describes what they did in the past:

…本来ほんらいは神かみを憑依ひょういさせて託宣たくせんを行おこなう女性じょせい宗教者しゅうきょうしゃのこと…
Originally, [Miko] were female religious figures that were oracles, being possessed by kamis [gods] and speaking the kami's will.

Again, while 巫女みこ can be seen in basically every major shrine nowadays, this doesn't seem to have been the case in the past.

Instead, 巫女みこ were oracles who got possessed by a 神かみ and spoke the 神かみ's word.

Naturally, this role gave them a lot of political power, and many 高貴こうき (noble) women also played roles as 巫女みこ.

神功じんぐう皇后こうごう (Empress Consort Jinguu) is one such figure. She was the 皇后こうごう (empress consort) of the 14th emperor in Japan, and lived from 169 CE to 269 CE:

(Image from the 神功皇后 Wikipedia page)

One story about her involves a 神かみ possessing her and telling the 天皇てんのう (emperor) to invade 新羅しんら (Silla; an ancient Korean kingdom) instead of 熊襲くまそ, which was a rebellious region in Kyushu at the time they were on the way to attack.

Apparently, the 天皇てんのう then stood atop a hill and looked to the sea. He couldn't see 新羅しんら, so he thought that the 神かみ was a 偽物にせもの (fake).

The 天皇てんのう then attacked 熊襲くまそ anyway, lost, and then suddenly died shortly after. The cause of death was determined to be a 祟たたり (curse) from the 神 that he didn't believe.

All of this happened in what is now Fukuoka as well, by the way. Apparently, this possession was done in 香椎宮かしいぐう (Kashii-guu) which is easily accessible by train if you're in Fukuoka City. And the 天皇てんのう (仲哀ちゅうあい天皇てんのう) is buried in 下関しものせき (Shimonoseki), also in Fukuoka.

The roles of 巫女みこ started to change into what they are today when the 大和やまと朝廷ちょうてい (Yamato court) came into power during the 3rd~4th century. It seems that this was further cemented once the 明治めいじ時代じだい (Meiji period, 1868-1912) came around, which caused Japan to become more Westernized.

Man, I did not expect to learn about all of this when I started writing this newsletter. So cool to learn about stuff that has happened in places I've been to. I really wanna revisit 香椎宮かしいぐう and go to 下関しものせき with this new information in mind.

And all this makes me really glad I'm learning Japanese. I had to read all of the above info in Japanese because it was way easier to find in-depth info in Japanese vs English.

Go check out the Wikipedia pages under those pictures in both languages if you want to see for yourself! I didn't see anything about 神功じんぐう皇后こうごう's role as an oracle in the English entry, for example.

I notice this when I visit museums as well. Often there are multiple paragraphs in Japanese compared to just a few sentences in English. So much information is lost.

Yet another reason to keep on hitting this button~

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one. It was fun to write ^^

弥生やよい時代じだい

If you enjoyed reading the above, then you might want to find out more about the period in which it happened, which is the 弥生やよい時代じだい.

Be sure to check out the lesson for the full details!

If the above Japanese is difficult for you, all you need to do is keep hitting the Study Now button and you'll understand it when you get there. When using a comprehensive study resource like NativShark, it's just a matter of time and consistency. The above is from a lesson in Phase Three, Unit 35.

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NativShark Units

4 new Units have been added to Phase Three ^^

As always, these Units are filled with vocab with their own unique contexts that help you understand Japanese at a deeper level, any relevant new kanji, and natural conversations called Dialogues at the end. They also have the following lessons:

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

Happy studies,
Ty & the NativShark team