In thousands of Shinto shrines across Japan last week, sober-faced girls in white robes and vermilion skirts practiced the stately postures of the ritualistic Kagura dance. Musicians wearing eboshi ...

When praying at a Shintō shrine, it is customary to bow twice, clap twice, and then bow once more at the conclusion of one’s invocation—nirei, nihakushu, ichirei in Japanese. By contrast, the accepted ...