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Shiro Tanaka's avatar

This worship ritual is specific to the Shinto shrine and not applicable to the Buddhism temples where we don't clap our hands. I wonder when and how it was originally established to be this way. Is it written somewhere? If I deviate from this pattern, will I be offending and punished by a Shinto god? These are some of my naive questions.

SHIMIZU Akira's avatar

It's very interesting to think about when and how shrine worship etiquette was established and how it became commonplace. According to Wikipedia, it seems that it was surprisingly recent that this etiquette became widespread.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%8C%E7%A4%BC%E4%BA%8C%E6%8B%8D%E6%89%8B%E4%B8%80%E7%A4%BC

Shiro Tanaka's avatar

Thank you for your research and information. My impression then is that there have been many types of worship etiquette which were followed rather arbitrarily. It seems that as long as the worshipper expresses his/her due respect, even a simple bowing seems acceptable.