Are ladies allowed to enter shrines

Is girls/ladies allow to enter the shrine IF they were having menses ?

What if they have to enter if they have menses ?

As tourists? Why not, no problem.
Although ladies can't enter the ring of sumo.

More than 40 years until now, I was not aware of that.
However, it seems some people are keeping it even now.
Women of that time is was not able to pray seems was also meaning caring the body.
It seems not only means that the body, because they unclean.
The maiden(miko) of the shrine, there seems to also be the time, the work of the main shrine is not possible.

I have read that women who are in their menstrual cycle are considered unclean and should refrain from entering the shrine. Also if someone is sick or sports an open wound. I don't know how accurate that is or how many actually follow this if it is true.

As suggested, being a women, having her periods, being injured or sick is no problem when visiting a shrine. At least, that's how most Japanese think of it, and having lived in Japan as a female Japanese for almost 50 years, I was never stopped from entering a shrine, nor was I ever asked questions there about sickness or menstrations. It never even occured to me that that would be a problem.

I've also had special prayers arranged and know others who have, and I've never heard of anyone being questioned about that either. And of course, people go there for shichigosan and weddings and what not. They don't even question your religion, so you can be a baptised Christian or a Muslim and still be allowed entrance by the shrines.

So long story short, at least today, ladies are allowed to enter shrines at any time men are allowed to, as far as I know. But of course, there are certain parts of the shrine that even males aren't usually allowed entrance.

Uco, I cannot take every entry in Wikipedia as written in stone. And it's not where I actually read about this, but they do have articles about this in their pages. This passage is about "Culture and Menstruation" and states,

"In Japan, the religion of Shinto did and still does play a part in their society. The Kami, the spirits they worshiped, would not grant wishes if you had traces of blood, dirt, or death on you. While menstruation is not entirely blood, the ancient Japanese did not know that. As a result, women who were menstruating were not allowed to visit any of the Kami shrines for the duration of their menstrual period. Even today, women are not allowed to enter Shinto shrines and temples during menstruation, and in some instances, women are completely banned from climbing the tops of sacred mountains due to their 'impurity'. Furthermore, the tradition is kept somewhat alive in the belief that the shedding of the endometrial lining is a kind of death. It is theorized that the Kami are the reason Japan is kept so clean and, in many houses, minimalistic."

I am a male and not Japanese, so I'll say I don't know very much about Japan and its intricacies. All I can do is read and inform myself. :)

anyone knows any shrine personnel, so that we can have actual answer...
As tourist we would love to respect esp coming upon god/ kami, temples, shrines ...

I have remotely heard of it, but never observed it, or heard my mother make any comments about it (she being the age she is, she would have said something about it).

Apparently this is an issue that even modern-day young women "hear about" somewhere and wonder, so that on Japanese language question forums, this question is asked. In response to one such question, one "miko" (female shrine staff) answers that:

"Shinto considers blood as "unclean," so in the olden times women during their menstruation did not visit shrines. The newborn's first visit to a shrine is supposed to be around one month after birth - this of course is in consideration of the mother'a and the baby's health, but also another reason was to wait a while after the "unclean"-ness from blood (giving birth).

However, that is only about the past. Nowadays no women during their period is restricted from entering any shrine. We as female shrine staff members worked in our shrine even during that period, and did our dances. You don't have to be concerned about it."

(Rough translation by AK, from one of the answers.)
http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1023691295

I'm sorry if I was being misleading. I'm not at all saying that the theory or fact of women not being allowed doesn't exist. I only meant to write what I myself have experienced. I was only trying to say that you can live a normal life as a female in modern Japan and still visit shrines just as men would do.

I just want to add that I was not offended in any way or was upset if anything was misunderstood. I just wanted to express what I had read somewhere and make sure people knew about it and whether it was still valid nowadays. :)

While many Japanese have minimalist interiors, many of them--perhaps the majority--have cluttered homes..just like in other countries.

I have read hundreds of Japanese home magazines in the past 20 years and some of these magazines specialize in interiors that are crammed with furniture, dolls and other collections.

I have also been invited in at least a dozen Japanese houses in Japan, and minimalism was often concentrated to a small"japanese"room, with tatami flooring and a small tokonoma.

The rest of these houses were like western houses: the living room was tidy, the room used as den had a mess of electronics, books, DVD etc. Bedrooms of teenagers were a mess. ent from moderately

John, no problem.

Red Frog, are you sure you're on the right thread?