Temples and shrines can look very quiet when there is no funeral, memorial service, festival, or other ceremony taking place. Even Japanese people sometimes wonder, “What do monks and priests actually do on ordinary days?”
The answer is that it varies greatly depending on the place and the person’s role.
At major training temples such as Eiheiji, daily life itself can become part of religious practice. Cleaning, meals, and other ordinary activities are carried out according to strict rules. Enryakuji on Mount Hiei is also famous for demanding forms of Buddhist training. Monks who enter such environments may spend years disciplining themselves physically and mentally while trying to deepen their understanding of Buddhism.
From the viewpoint of ordinary life, this kind of training can be extremely demanding. Respect for such monks does not have to come simply from the fact that they are monks. The discipline, commitment, and years they devote to religious training can themselves be reasons for respect.
But not every Buddhist monk in Japan lives this way.
At an ordinary local temple, a monk may spend the day cleaning the main hall and grounds, maintaining buildings, arranging memorial services, answering phone calls and visitors, preparing for upcoming ceremonies, reading sutras, or studying. Once those duties are finished, there may also be completely ordinary family life—eating together, going shopping, or simply spending personal time at home.
Living at a temple does not mean spending every waking hour in religious training. Monks are also people with families, routines, and private lives, and those lives vary from person to person.
Shinto priests are different from Buddhist monks, but their work is also much broader than festivals and prayers. They may maintain the shrine grounds, assist visitors, handle administrative work, and prepare for future ceremonies. Being born into a shrine family does not automatically mean becoming a priest either; family members may work for ordinary companies or have completely different careers.
At a large temple or shrine, many of these duties can be divided among several people. At a small one, a priest, monk, or family may have to handle a wide range of tasks themselves. And when there are no ceremonies, visitors, or urgent duties, they may simply spend part of the day like anyone else.
So there is no single answer to the question, “What do they do when no ceremony is taking place?”
Some devote much of their lives to rigorous religious training. Some spend their days maintaining a temple or shrine and serving the local community. Others combine religious work with an otherwise ordinary daily life.
There is no need to romanticize every monk or priest simply because of the role they hold. But that does not mean their religious work should be dismissed either. From people who devote their lives to demanding spiritual training to those who quietly maintain local temples and shrines, there is a wide range of ways to live a religious life in Japan.
