Akademik

   or sukeisha-kai. 'Worshippers Associations'. In present usage, committees formed since 1945 to support local shrines following the dissolution by SCAP of the official ujiko sodai (ujiko representatives) system which relied on local government administrative units such as ward associations. Before the war sukeisha appears to have meant only worshippers outside the ujiko area. In modern urban Japan where people move around and areas are rebuilt it is seldom clear where the boundaries of a Shinto 'parish' lie and in any case the parish boundaries have no official status. Consequently the shrine of which parishioners are technically ujiko may not be the shrine which they actually attend and support. The ujiko sodai system masked this fact but after the war sukei-kai 'worshippers associations' were set up to mobilise support for a shrine from people who may or may not live in the immediate vicinity of the shrine. The sukei-kai or sodai-kai is formed of volunteers who are responsible for collecting contributions from local residents and managing the affairs of the shrine and thus function more or less as ujiko-sodai.