On August 4, 2025, Higashi Honganji Temple (Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto City), the head temple of the Otani branch of Shinshu Buddhism, held a ceremony to ordain monks. Children from across Japan gathered for the ceremony during their summer vacation, sporting shaved heads and traditional robes.
In the Otani branch of Shinshu Buddhism, children are ordained at the age of nine, a reference to the age at which the sect's founder, Shinran, was ordained. The ceremony is held approximately once a month. Men are required to shave their heads beforehand. With many elementary school students attending in August during the summer vacation, the gathering of "little monks" with full heads has become a summer tradition at Higashi Honganji.
This year, 96 people attended, including 40 nine-year-olds (34 boys and 6 girls). They entered the Goei-do Hall around 8:30 a.m. and underwent the "teito no gi" (ritual of the razor), in which the head priest, Monk Otani Nobuhiro, applied a razor to their heads.
The ceremony then continued with the conferral of Buddhist names and religious services. During the service, he chanted the "Shoshinge" (the verse of righteous faith) written by Shinran and the Nembutsu (the Buddhist prayer) with a dignified expression, marking his first step as a monk. A 9-year-old boy from Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture, commented through the temple, "I want to become a monk who is good at chanting sutras like my father."
