What are harae and misogi in Shinto?

Harae is the Shinto rite of purification and misogi is cleansing the body in pure water. Both remove kegare, the ritual pollution that comes through contact with death, sickness, or wrongdoing, so that a person may approach the kami clean. The Kojiki traces misogi to the god Izanagi, who bathed after visiting the land of the dead.

How is the Christian idea of cleansing different?

Christians share the longing to be made clean before God, but hear Jesus locate the deepest impurity in the heart rather than on the body (Mark 7:15). No outward washing reaches it; God himself creates a clean heart (Psalm 51:10) and cleanses us in Christ (1 John 1:7). Washing the body to approach the kami, or the cleansing of the heart by God, is the difference.

Christianity & Shinto

Purity and Cleansing: Harae and the Clean Heart

Few religions feel purity as deeply as Shinto. To draw near to the kami one must be clean, so Shinto surrounds life with purification: harae, the rite of cleansing, and misogi, washing the body in pure water, to remove kegare, the pollution that clings to us through death, sickness, and wrongdoing. In the Kojiki the god Izanagi bathes to purify himself after visiting the land of the dead. Christians share this instinct that we must be made clean to come before God, and locate the deepest impurity not on the body but in the heart, cleansed by God himself. Washing the body to approach the kami, or the cleansing of the heart by God in Christ, is where the two meet and part.

What Shinto teaches

In Shinto, contact with death, sickness, or wrongdoing brings kegare, a ritual pollution that must be washed away before one approaches the kami. The remedy is harae (purification) and above all misogi, cleansing the body in pure water. The Kojiki traces the rite to the god Izanagi, who bathes to cleanse himself after journeying to the land of the dead:

“I have come to a hideous and polluted land. So I will perform the purification of my august person.”

Kojiki, Section 10 (trans. Chamberlain)

From that washing, the Kojiki says, further kami are born. Purity before the sacred is one of the deepest instincts of Shinto, kept through rinsing the hands and mouth at the shrine and through the priest’s rites of harae.

What Christians believe

Christians share the sense that we must be clean to come before God, and hear Jesus locate the real impurity in the heart, not on the skin, and God himself as the one who washes it.

“Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin... Create in me a clean heart, O God.”

Psalm 51:2,10 (KJV)

“There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.”

Mark 7:15 (KJV)

Where they meet

Both take purity with deep seriousness and refuse to approach the sacred carelessly; both know the human longing to be washed and made fit to draw near; and both surround that longing with reverence rather than shrugging it off.

Where they differ

Shinto cleanses primarily the body and the ritual state, washing away kegare with water so that one may approach the kami. Christianity hears Jesus teach that the deepest defilement rises from within, from the heart, and that no outward washing reaches it; only God can create a clean heart (Psalm 51:10), and he does it through Christ, whose blood cleanses us within (1 John 1:7). Washing the body to approach the kami, or the cleansing of the heart by God, is the honest difference.

Shinto sources: the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters, trans. Basil Hall Chamberlain, 1882, public domain) and Motoori Norinaga’s classic definition of kami; renderings of Japanese terms follow widely published scholarship, which varies, compare others. Bible: King James Version. Every reference on this page was checked against its source.

The word itself

Harae / Misogi (harae, misogi) → purification, water cleansing → ritual cleansing

Harae is the Shinto rite of purification, and misogi is cleansing the body in pure water, both meant to wash away kegare (pollution from death, sickness, or wrongdoing) so that one may approach the kami. Christians share the longing to be made clean before God, and confess that the deepest cleansing is of the heart, given by God in Christ (Psalm 51:10; 1 John 1:7).

Frequently asked questions

What are harae and misogi in Shinto?: Harae is the Shinto rite of purification and misogi is cleansing the body in pure water. Both remove kegare, the ritual pollution that comes through contact with death, sickness, or wrongdoing, so that a person may approach the kami clean. The Kojiki traces misogi to the god Izanagi, who bathed after visiting the land of the dead.
How is the Christian idea of cleansing different?: Christians share the longing to be made clean before God, but hear Jesus locate the deepest impurity in the heart rather than on the body (Mark 7:15). No outward washing reaches it; God himself creates a clean heart (Psalm 51:10) and cleanses us in Christ (1 John 1:7). Washing the body to approach the kami, or the cleansing of the heart by God, is the difference.

Come and see

Shinto surrounds life with gratitude and a longing to be clean before the sacred. The Gospel tells of the God who makes the heart clean and welcomes us home. The most direct way to know Jesus is to read his words for yourself. There is no pressure here.

Read the Gospel of John Why Jesus?Ask for prayer

Explore furtherKami and the one God Purity and cleansing Nature and the Creator Gratitude and worship Ancestors and the saints