Takahara Yoshitada (高原美忠)
Yoshitada TAKAHARA (March 1892 - June 12, 1989) was a Shinto priest in Japan. He was the chief priest of Yasaka-jinja Shrine and the president of Kogakkan University.
Brief personal history
He was born in Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture in March 1892, to parents Kisanji and Tatsuno. He graduated from Okayama Prefectural Okayama Junior High School (present Okayama Prefectural Okayama Asahi High School) in 1911 and graduated from the regular course of Kogakkan University in 1916. After being a teacher at Wakayama Prefectural Agriculture School (present Wakayama Prefectural Nanbu High School) and at Kobe City Shinko Commercial High School (present Kobe municipal SHINKO senior high school), he became Negi (Shinto priest) of Nikko Toshogu Shrine in 1923. He became the chief priest of Shirayamahime-jinja Shrine in 1924, Hakodate Hachiman-gu Shrine in 1933, and Yahiko-jinja Shrine in 1936. After becoming the chief priest of Yasaka-jinja Shrine in 1938, he kept the post until 1976 (but resigned from February to June 1946 due to abolition of Kankoku Heisha posts) and became honorary chief priest after retirement.
He served as the director of Jinja-Honcho (Association of Shinto Shrines) and the head of Jinja-cho (shrine agency) in Kyoto Prefecture, and received a title of patriarch from Jinja-Honcho in 1967.
He served as a Shinto priest and also contributed to learning as a scholar of Shinto studies, he published "Shirayamahime-jinja Shrine Sosho," compilation of seven volumes, when he served at Shirayamahime-jinja Shrine, published "Battle of Hakodate Records" when he served at Hakodate Hachiman-gu Shrine, published the first collection of "Yahiko Sosho," when he served at Yahiko-jinja Shrine, and published "Yasaka-jinja Shrine Records" and "Yasaka-jinja Document" right after he started to serve in Yasaka-jinja Shrine. Before the war, he was a teacher in the general course at Shingu Kogakkan in 1931, and an instructor at Kokugakuin University in 1938, and after the war, he played a leading role as a founder and a representative of Geirinkai and to establish the society of Shinto historical studies.
In 1961, he became a chairman of the Establishment Preparation Committee for reestablishment of Kogakkan University, he was a director of the University and in charge of 'composition of Shinto prayers' as an instructor after the reestablishment. In 1966, he was appointed to the President of Kogakkan University. He kept the post until 1973.
He had five children, and his second son, Shigeishi, succeeded the post of Shinto priest, and the third son, Kitao TAKAHARA, Ph.D. (in engineering), is a leading expert in Aerospace Studies, and was a teacher at Nagoya University and a manager of the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan.
Authored works
"Religious Services at Home," Zoshindo Publishing Co., Ltd, 1944
"Road of God," Society of Shinto Religion, 1969
"Yasaka-jinja Shrine," Gakuseisha
"Home Festival," Jinja Shimposha, 1974