Kyoto shrine revives Shinto-Buddhist rite after 550-year hiatus

A well-known shrine in Kyoto held a Shinto-Buddhist rite originating in the 10th century on Friday after a 550-year hiatus, as part of its efforts to revive ancient rituals.The Kitano Tenmangu shrine, founded in 947, said it had not held the Kitano Goryoe rite since 1467, when the Onin War, an 11-year-long civil war, broke out.The rite was originally to appease the anger of the spirit of Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), a scholar and politician enshrined as a god at Kitano Tenmangu, as people in ancient Japan believed that natural disasters and epidemics were caused by the curse of well-kno…READ FULL ARTICLE