Japanese Shrine Etiquette: What Locals Actually Say

Ranked by real like counts across every roundup. Each one links to the article it came from.

• They should have stopped at "please refrain" and never added the part about it becoming meaningless.

  「無意味になります」とか付けないで「ご遠慮下さい」でしめときゃ良かった

  — @クマ髭3,696 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• In this country there's a god in every grain of rice, and this priest says a one-yen coin is worthless? I've lost some respect.

  米にまで神様おるのに一円が無駄とか言っちゃう神主に失望した

  — @_jigsaw913902 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• Just write: "For the upkeep of the shrine that serves the gods, please start from ten yen." That would have done it.

  神様のための神社の維持費のために10円からお願いいたします。 で良いんでない。

  — @bikesukioyaji9661648 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• I'm a priest at a small rural shrine in Tochigi. Speaking from that side: at a country shrine we're simply grateful that anyone comes to pray and puts anything in the box at all. Shrines that get plenty of visitors do tend to get full of themselves — though it depends on the person. I think a plain "please refrain from one-yen coins" would have been enough.

  栃木のとある田舎の神職です。 神職の立場から言うと田舎などの神社からするとご参拝して頂いたりお賽銭を入れてもらうだけで有難いです。 どうしても人がよくご参拝に来てくださる神社は調子に乗るというかそういうのが多いです。でも人によります。 普通に(1円玉はご遠慮下さい)だけで良かったのではと思います。

  — @yuu1777528 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• It varies from shrine to shrine. Izumo is four claps, after all.

  神社によって違うんですよ。出雲は4拍手ですしね。

  — @スグアバラオレル461 likes

  From: How Many Times Do You Clap at a Japanese Shrine? A Priest Checked the Records — and 849 Comments Name the Shrines That Clap Four, Five, Even Seventeen Times

• The villains here are the banks that started charging for coin exchange and the government that let them 👍

  両替に手数料を必要とした銀行と其を認めた政府が悪👍

  — @しまうま-t3o269 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• Yeah, I'd never put in a one-yen coin lol

  一円は入れないなぁw

  — @悶絶卵254 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• It really helps to have this checked by an actual priest. All sorts of people come, and I figure the basics are up to them so I never say anything — but it does leave you baffled sometimes. This was a help. From someone who lives at a shrine.

  神職のかたからこのような検証がなされ、ありがたいです。 色々な方がいらっしゃり、基本はご自由かと思いましてなにもいいませんが困惑することもございまして。 たすかりました。 神社住まいのものより。

  — @imacocobear229 likes

  From: How Many Times Do You Clap at a Japanese Shrine? A Priest Checked the Records — and 849 Comments Name the Shrines That Clap Four, Five, Even Seventeen Times

• Hand those one-yen coins to the local shops that actually need them — the ones paying the bank a fee to get change. Swap with them for free.

  その1円玉が必要で、わざわざ銀行で手数料払って用意している商店に無償で両替してあげたら良い

  — @akiko51841,567 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• A priest I know says his shrine swaps its coins with a shop in the neighborhood it has an arrangement with.

  知り合いの神職さんは地元で提携してる商店と両替してるって言ってた。

  — @天堂匠297 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• "Two bows, two claps, one bow is fine as your basic; shrines with their own rule write it up properly." A friend of mine in the spiritual scene (whose family runs a temple) told me that, so that's what I've done — leave it to the specialists. When I visited Izumo Taisha, plenty of the smaller shrines around it ran on the Izumo rule too — even one enshrining Amaterasu was two bows, four claps — and they all had it up on a board. Going to a shrine means you're stepping right up to the god's house, so following the rules of that house feels natural to me. And it makes complete sense that at your own household altar you can do as you like. Thank you.

  基本二礼二拍手一拝で大丈夫、 独特なルールがある神社はちゃんと書いてくれてるよ、ということをスピ系（ご実家はお寺）の知人が教えてくれたからそうしてました。餅は餅屋。 出雲大社を参拝した時、近くも出雲ルール（？）のお社が多くて（天照大神をお祀りしているお社も二礼四拍手だった）ちゃんと札を掲げてくれてました。 神社に行くという事は、神様のお宅（神域）の目前までお邪魔してるという部分があるため、そこのルールに従うのが自然だと思うので 自宅の神棚ならオッケーと言うのにも納得しかないです。 ありがとうございます。

  — @渡辺ヴァレリアン121 likes

  From: How Many Times Do You Clap at a Japanese Shrine? A Priest Checked the Records — and 849 Comments Name the Shrines That Clap Four, Five, Even Seventeen Times

• Send them to a one-yen coin drive — the Red Cross, say. Then they aren't meaningless, and the gods are smiling too.

  日本赤十字とかの1円玉募金にでも流したら無意味にならずに神様もニッコリやろなぁ

  — @すずめ-z9m78 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• It differs from shrine to shrine — and fewer and fewer Japanese people know that 😢 On top of which, a visit isn't the place to deliver your wishes: it's where you give thanks for the everyday and ask to keep being watched over. That's the part people forget.

  神社によって違う。その事を知らない日本人が多くなってきた😢そもそも、神様への参拝は、願いを伝える場で無く、日頃の感謝をお伝えして今後も見守って頂く。その気持ちを忘れがち！

  — @薩摩ケンシ37 likes

  From: How Many Times Do You Clap at a Japanese Shrine? A Priest Checked the Records — and 849 Comments Name the Shrines That Clap Four, Five, Even Seventeen Times

• Honestly, just put a QR code next to the box.

  いっそ、横にQRコードおいとこ

  — @きなこしあん23 likes

  From: "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice

• How much money should you put in a Japanese shrine's offering box?
• Why do some Japanese shrines ask you not to offer one-yen coins?
• Is the five-yen coin really lucky?
• Can you make an offering without cash in Japan?
• How many times do you clap at a Japanese shrine?
• Is the two-bow, two-clap, one-bow rule ancient?
• Do you clap at a Buddhist temple too?
• What happens if I get the number of claps wrong?

• How Much to Put in a Japanese Shrine Offering Box3,696 likes

  A shrine asked visitors to stop offering 1-yen coins. Top 200 of 3,545 comments: Japanese say start at 10 yen (648 likes) — and why coins cost shrines.

  includes “where locals go instead”

• How Many Claps at a Japanese Shrine? What Japanese Do461 likes

  Two claps is the safe default — but in an 849-comment thread under a Shinto priest's video, Japanese visitors name shrines that clap four, five, even 17.

  includes “where locals go instead”

Where do these come from?

From the comment sections of Japanese YouTube videos — food crawls, hidden-gem tours, honest reviews. We quote real comments only, show the actual like counts at the time of collection, and link back to the source video.

How accurate are the translations?

Each quote keeps the original Japanese alongside the English. We adapt slang so it reads naturally, but we never change the meaning or invent comments.

Every number on this page comes from the public comment sections of these videos. The creators deserve the views.

• YouTube · ガグル〈話題の事 語る奴〉Jan 1, 2024→ "Start From Ten Yen": How Much Japanese People Actually Put in a Shrine Offering Box — 3,545 Comments on a No-1-Yen Notice
• YouTube · 宮崎神社の神主はるちゃんねるMar 5, 2026→ How Many Times Do You Clap at a Japanese Shrine? A Priest Checked the Records — and 849 Comments Name the Shrines That Clap Four, Five, Even Seventeen Times