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Education and qualifications of Shinto priests.

According to the Head Office of Shrines there are 79,172 shrines affiliated to it, and as of December 1983 19,810 qualified priests. Among these it is estimated that 25% are full-time priests, and the rest part-timers who have jobs in the secular world. Since Shinto priests were for a long time under government control they had no religious freedom and thus their consciousness and motivation towards religious activities was very poor. The most important task for Shinto today is to train its priesthood and re-organize itself.

The first step in becoming a Shinto priest.

At present in order to become a Shinto priest of a shrine one has to pass an examination set by the Head Office of Shrines, and to belong to a shrine. In order to produce priests of the required high level the study courses are that much higher, especially when compared with former times. Of course there are differences in the courses, depending on the rank that you wish to attain. The ranks are "jokai", "myokai", "sekai", "kenseikai" and "chokkai". As an example, for the rank of myokai trainees take a total of twenty-six compulsory subjects, including twelve realated to Shinto, six related to general religion and eight subjects on general education. There are two professional institutions which have Shinto Departments, for the training of Shinto priests, Kokugakuin University in Tokyo and Kogakkan University in Ise. Some of the larger shrines have their own training facilities, and the Prefectural Shrine Office of Osaka is unique in that it has a correspondence course.

Shrines and shrine employees.

The head of a shrine is called a "guji", under him are such titles as "gonguji", "negi", "gonnegi" and so on. It is necessary for the "guji" to attain the qualification of at least "kenseikai", and in some shrines that of "myokai". Priests cooperate with each other in the preservation of the beliefs and traditions of the shrines, by doing ceremonial work and the office work of the shrine. In some shrines most of the work is left to the "guji" and his family and their activities are strictly restricted. Six ranks are given as recognition of activity accomplishment, Special class, first class, upper second class, second class, third and fourth class.