Yomiuri: Hachimangu sect at odds over successor
Usa Jingu shrine, the Usa, Oita Prefecture-based parent body for more than 40,000 Shinto shrines dedicated to the Hachimanjin deity, has been at odds with the Association of Shinto Shrines (Jinja Honcho) over who should be the chief priest of the sect's principal shrine. Usa Jingu's chief priest had been a hereditary post of the Itouzu family, but the Tokyo-based Jinja Honcho appointed Nobuhisa Anai, 60, to the post in February, because the position had been vacant since August. Anai had been the head of the association's Oita prefectural chapter and chief priest at Taki Jinja shrine in Kusumachi, Oita Prefecture. But Yoshiko Itouzu, eldest daughter of the current family and deputy chief priest, the No. 2 post, of Usa Jingu, opposed the decision, saying the association was attempting to deprive her of control of the shrine. She notified the association, which had announced the appointment, of her withdrawal from the organization.
Since the Nanbokucho period (1336-1392), members of the Itouzu family or the Miyanari family had been the only ones to ascend to the post of chief priest of Usa Jingu. Since the end of World War II, only members of the Itouzu family had inherited the post. In May 2006, Kiminari Itouzu, then chief priest of Usa Jingu, fell sick, before passing away in January this year. Kimihiko Ikenaga, chief priest of Komo Jinja shrine in Nakatsu, Oita Prefecture, had close ties with Usa Jingu and temporarily assumed its chief priest post. Ikenaga took the post as a proxy for Yoshiko Itouzu, who had a relatively short career as a Shinto priest. But because Ikenaga also was in poor health, in July, the Usa Jingu board of directors petitioned Jinja-Honcho to appoint Yoshiko Itouzu as the shrine's chief priest. But according to Anai, Jinja-Honcho judged that "Ms. Yoshiko became a deputy chief priest at an unprecedentedly quick pace, and that she should gain more experience." The association assigned Anai to the Usa Jingu chief priest posting for a three-year term as a special appointment, a decision that was opposed by the Itouzu family. Usa Jingu's board of directors issued a new resolution naming Yoshiko as chief priest, and on Feb. 28 submitted a letter to Jinja-Honcho stating the shrine would leave the association.
The Religious Corporations Law stipulates that for a shrine to leave Jinja-Honcho, its board of directors including the representative of the members--the chief priest in Usa Jingu's case--need to vote in favor of such a decision. But an official of Jinja Honcho's secretariat said, "Because the letter is not from the chief priest [Anai], we don't know how to handle it."
