| Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America |
GOAA |
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| Group Investigating God |
GIG |
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| Group Resources And Christian Encouragement |
GRACE |
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| Groups Investigating God |
GIG |
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| Growing In God |
GIG |
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| Growth Recovery Advocacy And Support For Partners |
GRASP |
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| Guiding Light |
GL |
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| Guji |
Chief priest of a shrine. The highest grade of Shinto priest apart from the at Ise. After the restoration the hereditary role of guji was abolished at a number of major shrines including the Ise jingu, Hie taisha, Kasuga taisha, Suwa taisha, Kamo-wake-ikazuchi-jinja and others, and the guji were thenceforth appointed by the government. However in many shrines the role of guji remains in practice hereditary. A guji may be responsible for a single shrine or several (even as many as thirty) small shrines. Guji enjoyed relatively high social status from the restoration to 1945. In most shrines, except for the very large ones, the role of guji or is a part-time occupation. See |
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| Gyoretsu |
A procession or parade at a Shinto festival, made up of various elements (often in pairs) such as priests, warriors or guardian deity figures (zuijin) torches (taimatsu) lanterns (chochin) floats (yatai) one or more children or "virgins" (chigo, otome) and other features particular to the festival |
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| Hachimaki |
Head-band. Hachimaki refers to any headband or sweatband worn round the forehead, often with a slogan inscribed. It is used in Shinto rituals of purification including where it is often worn with a coat. It has come to symbolise commitment, exertion, determination or sincerity (makoto) in a communal enterprise |
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| Hachiman (Daibosatsu) |
One of the most popular Japanese deities, traditionally regarded as the god of archery and war, in which context he is referred to as yumiya Hachiman or "bow and arrow Hachiman' and symbolised by bow and arrows, yumidai. Hachiman is worshipped at tens of thousands of of the Kyoto Iwa-shimizu Hachiman-gu and of the original Usa Hachimangu in Kyushu, which enshrines the legendary fifteenth Emperor and culture hero Ojin (Ojin Tenno) Ojin's wife Himegami and his mother, the warlike empress Jingu. Jingu is credited with invading Korea at the end of the second century. These three together constitute Hachiman, but he is generally thought of simply as the emperor Ojin. The name Hachiman means 'eight flags', or possibly 'eight fields'; the figure eight occurs repeatedly in the myths associated with Hachiman and he is sometimes symbolised by eight flags. One etymology identifies "hachi-man" as the Sino-Japanese reading of "ya-wata" or "ya-hata", the name of a kami who in the sixth century revealed himself in the form of a three year old child to be the soul of Ojin, though the identification of Hachiman with Ojin probably occurred as late as the ninth century. More certainly Usa Hachiman was the first kami to be given the Buddhist title of dai-bosatsu (great bodhisattva) sometime between 765 and 781, and he is also regarded as an incarnation (gongen) of Amida Buddha. It was an oracle allegedly from the Usa Hachiman which suggested in the late 8th century that the Rasputin-like Buddhist monk should become emperor in place of the descendants of Amaterasu, but when checked by a court official sent to Kyushu (see Go'o jinja) the oracle was reported to be false, and Dokyo fell from grace. Early in the period the Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu was established to the south-west of Kyoto as a bunsha of Usa for the imperial family to revere its ancestral kami. The Minamoto clan regarded Hachiman as their clan deity and the first shogun Minamoto, Yoritomo, founded the Tsurugaoka Hachiman shrine when he moved the capital to Hachiman is linked with and Amaterasu in the takusen oracles. Hachiman can be found iconographically represented both as a male deity of war and as a Buddhist priest |
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| Hachiman shrines |
Shrines dedicated to Hachiman account for about half the registered shrines in Japan. About 30,000 are bunsha of the Iwa-shimizu-Hachiman-gu and 15,000 of the Usa-Hachiman-gu |
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| Hachiman-zukuri |
A widely-used style of shrine construction (- zukuri) represented by the Usa Hachimangu in Kyushu constructed in the mid-eighth century and by its shrines dedicated to Hachiman ; the Iwashimizu in Kyoto and the Tsurugaoka in Kamakura. It has a separate and with sweeping roofs that meet between the two buildings, so that the roofs form an inverted "w" shape viewed from the side |
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| Hachioji |
The 'eight [great] princes'. A term used to describe five male and three female children who according to different and versions of the myth were produced by Amaterasu and Susa-no-o crunching, chewing or biting on swords and jewels |
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| Hadaka-matsuri |
'Naked festivals'. A general term for popular festivals, mostly held at New Year in the coldest season, which these days feature near-naked young men usually dressed only in a or mawashi (loincloth) Hadaka matsuri are often an opportunity for youths to show off their strength and manliness by jostling (see Dorokake matsuri) climbing or fighting over a trophy of some kind such as a wooden or straw ball, being sprayed with water or immersing themselves in a river. Similar hadaka matsuri are held at both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. A celebrated hadaka-matsuri is held for example at Enzo-ji Buddhist temple, Fukushima on January 7th. When the temple bell sounds at 8pm semi-naked youths and men swarm up a rope to the roof to attract good fortune for the coming year. At the -jinja, Aomori, youths wearing mawashi make offerings of at the shrine on new year's day. At the jinja, Akita, participants dressed only in a koshi-mino, grass underskirt, immerse themselves in the river for purification before offering candles and other gifts to the shrine, while at the Chokoku-ji temple in Nagano the procession includes modelled in the form of sacred horses, bales of rice or barrels, and the participants jump into the river |
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| Haga, Yaichi |
Born into an academic Shinto family in Fukui he was President of Kokugakuin University from 1919 until his death in 1927. He studied German language and literature and promoted Shinto and Japanese Studies at Kokugakuin |
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| Hagiwara, Kaneyori (or Kanetsugu) |
An early Tokugawa period practitioner of Shinto Based in Kyoto, he was the teacher of Yoshikawa, Koretari and in 1656 initiated him into the secret "himorogi iwasaka" initiation, appointing him successor in the Yoshida Shinto line |
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| Haibutsu kishaku |
'Destroy the Buddha, kill Shakyamuni'. A slogan for hooligans engaged in the anti-Buddhist movement of the early Meiji bunri movement |
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| Haiden |
Hall of worship. A shrine building or equivalent space, part of the which is available to worshippers for their prayers and offerings. Distinguish from |
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| Hairei |
The form of individual worship used at Shinto shrines. It varies in degree of elaborateness and formality, but typically comprises approaching the kami, making a small offering (saimotsu) by throwing a few coins into the offertory box (saisen -bako) bowing one or two times, clapping the hands (kashiwade) twice or more, and bowing again |
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