{"id":1296,"date":"2013-03-04T06:11:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T06:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2015-03-09T22:43:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T22:43:23","slug":"why-do-japanese-people-visit-shrines-and-temples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/2013\/03\/why-do-japanese-people-visit-shrines-and-temples\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do Japanese people visit shrines and temples?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jtbcorp.jp\/scripts_hd\/image_view.asp?menu=news&#038;id=00001&#038;news_no=1664\">survey by JTB travel agency<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A survey of 3,600 Japanese adults shows that 52% visited a shrine or temple in the past year. (Of those who didn&#8217;t, most simply didn&#8217;t have a reason to go; only 8% of all respondents specifically said they were totally uninterested in religious places.) The reasons shrinegoers and templegoers gave for visiting were as follows:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>22% There were things I wanted to see in the surrounding area<\/p>\n<p>21% There&#8217;s something special about that place<\/p>\n<p>18% I visit that place regularly<\/p>\n<p>11% No reason in particular<\/p>\n<p>8% I felt like I wanted to pray<\/p>\n<p>5% A relative or friend asked me to go<\/p>\n<p>4% I was taken there on a tour<\/p>\n<p>4% I saw it on TV or in a magazine<\/p>\n<p>4% I was attending a special event or service there<\/p>\n<p>3% Other<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If these reasons seem a bit unflattering, the positive reactions from visiting should be more encouraging:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>40% I felt soothed \/ my heart was calmed<\/p>\n<p>19% The buildings were very pretty<\/p>\n<p>13% I felt like I should go more often<\/p>\n<p>10% My <em>ki<\/em>\/energy was renewed<\/p>\n<p>10% The souvenirs were good<\/p>\n<p>4% I gained something from visiting<\/p>\n<p>2% I enjoyed talking with local people<\/p>\n<p>2% Other<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Furthermore 56% go to temples and shrines together with their families, while only 15% go alone. A supermajority are praying for the health and safety of family members.<\/p>\n<p>JTB found that about 18% of Japanese people would like to visit either Ise or Izumo this year if they can find the time. Other popular choices include Itsukushima, Meiji Jing\u016b, Kiyomizu-dera, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-g\u016b, Atsuda Jing\u016b, Kumano Sanzan, Fushimi Inari, Nikk\u014d, Takachiho, and Kirishima-Jing\u016b. A mixture of tourism-related, history-related, cultural heritage-related, and &#8220;power spot&#8221; reasons were given for these choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: survey by JTB travel agency A survey of 3,600 Japanese adults shows that 52% visited a shrine or temple in the past year. (Of those who didn&#8217;t, most simply didn&#8217;t have a reason to go; only 8% of all respondents specifically said they were totally uninterested in religious places.) The reasons shrinegoers and templegoers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1412,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}