Shintoism (“the way of the gods”) is the indigenous faith of the Japanese people and as old as Japan itself. It remains the most important religion in Japan alongside Buddhism.
Shintoism has no founder and no sacred scriptures such as sutras or the Bible. Propaganda and preaching are also uncommon, because Shintoism is deeply rooted in the Japanese people and traditions.
Sintoist “gods” are called kami. They are sacred spirits that take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers, and fertility. The kami of extraordinary people are even enshrined in some shrines. The Sun Goddess Amaterasu is considered the most important kami in Shintoism.
1. Concept
Shintoism, indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Japan. The word Shintoism, which literally means “the way of the kami” (generally sacred or divine power, specifically the various gods or deities), came into use to distinguish indigenous Japanese beliefs from Buddhism, which was introduced to Japan in the sixth century CE. Sintoism has no founders, no official sacred scriptures in the strict sense, and no fixed dogmas, but it has preserved its guiding beliefs throughout the centuries.
2. What is Shintoism?
Since loyalty to a religion consists of seeing oneself as a member of God’s creation, one could say that being a Shintoist consists of feeling that one is a member of the Japanese community.
Only very rarely are philosophical or religious movements so closely and exclusively linked to a people as Shintoism is.
Shinto is, above all, the profound expression of the ancient culture of the Japanese people. In this respect, it can be compared to many of the animistic religions of black Africa that are practiced by certain specific ethnic groups.
Of course, the strength of Shintoism lies in the fact that it is the religion of a highly developed nation of over 100 million people, but from a philosophical or religious point of view, Shintoism is puzzling.
3. Origin
The origins of Shintoism date back to the earliest times and are more closely related to the animistic religions of the ancient Siberian peoples.
Shintoism grants divine status equally to the forces of nature, animals, and famous people. These deities are called “kamis” in Japanese and their equivalent in Chinese is “shin.” “To” or “to do” means “way” or “method” in Chinese-Japanese. So Shintoism is literally “the way of the gods.”
The most important god is the sun, which, among other virtues, serves as protection against invasions. We can therefore say that the Japanese flag is a Shinto symbol. The name of the country, Nippon, is written with two Chinese characters: “ni,” meaning “sun,” and “pan,” meaning “root,” hence the translation “Empire of the Rising Sun.”
Japan comes from the Chinese pronunciation of the same characters, Je-ben. However, the sun does not have a hierarchical role among Shinto gods: each one has its place. The kami almost always inspire respectful fear. Among these we find mountains, animals such as the tiger, the snake, and the wolf, and the emperor himself.
A 9th-century imperial minister is the kami of calligraphy. There are supposedly 800 million kamis, and Japan’s nickname is Shinkoku, “land of the gods.” A 9th-century imperial minister is the kami of calligraphy. There are supposedly 800 million kamis, and Japan’s nickname is Shinkoku, “land of the gods.” A 9th-century imperial minister is the kami of calligraphy. There are supposedly 800 million kamis, and Japan’s nickname is Shinkoku, “land of the gods.”
Shintoism does not have a supreme God or heaven, and unlike Chinese beliefs, it is not a deity, but the place where the kamis live. The kamis are believed to be inherently good, but there are many exceptions. Prayers are offered to the kamis on various occasions for rain, good harvests, the coronation of the Emperor, etc.
In fact, Shintoism has no established doctrine, but is composed of a combination of practices that originally varied considerably from village to village.
4. Rocks Worshiped as Kami
In contrast to many monotheistic religions, there are no absolutes in Shintoism. There is no absolute good or evil, and no one is perfect. Shintoism is an optimistic faith, as human beings are thought to be fundamentally good, and evil is believed to be caused by evil spirits.
Shinto shrines are the places of worship and homes of the kami. Most shrines hold regular festivals (matsuri) to show the kami the outside world. Shinto priests perform Shinto rituals and often live on the shrine grounds.
Men and women can be priests, and they are allowed to marry and have children. Priests are assisted by younger women (miko) during rituals and shrine duties. Miko wear white kimono, must be unmarried, and are often the daughters of priests.
Important features of Shinto art are the architecture of the shrines and the cultivation and preservation of ancient art forms such as Noh theater, calligraphy, and court music (gagaku), an ancient dance music that originated in the courts of Tang China (618–907).
5. History of Shinto
The introduction of Buddhism in the 6th century was followed by some initial conflicts, but the two religions were soon able to coexist and even complement each other. Many Buddhists saw the kami as manifestations of Buddha.
In the Meiji period, Shinto became the state religion of Japan. Shinto priests became state officials, important shrines received government funding, Japanese creation myths were used to foster a national identity with the Emperor at its center, and efforts were made to separate and emancipate Shinto from Buddhism.
After World War II, Shinto and the state were separated.
6. History to 1900
Much is unknown about religion in Japan during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. However, it is unlikely that the religion of these ages had any direct connection to Shintoism. The Yayoi culture, which originated in the northern part of the island of Kyushu around the 3rd or 2nd century BC, is directly related to later Japanese culture and, therefore, to Shintoism. Among the main religious phenomena of Yayoi were agricultural rites and shamanism.
7. Shintoism today
People seek support from Shinto by praying at their home altars or visiting shrines. A wide range of talismans are available at shrines for traffic safety, good health, success in business, safe childbirth, good performance on exams, and much more.
A large number of wedding ceremonies are held in the Shinto style.
8. Historical evolution of Shintoism
Until Japan’s first contact with Chinese civilization around the 5th century AD, Shinto consisted only of this combination of beliefs, myths, and practices. It was a kind of polytheistic animism reminiscent, in its mixture of deities, of certain ancient religions as well as the animism of Black Africa.
When China introduced Buddhism to Japan in 552, it had a dual effect. On the one hand, certain Shinto and Buddhist practices merged, and on the other, a defensive reaction, of a rather nationalistic nature, emerged in favor of Shintoism. The latter took shape around the eighth century. Myths were unified and the kamis of different clans or peoples were given national status.
This movement, designed to strengthen the imperial government, went hand in hand with an attempt to write down these ancient traditions and establish an official mythology, priesthood, and “rituals.” Another result was the proliferation of temples.
The entire religious history of Japan from then on was a succession of contradictory movements, now in favor of Buddhism, now of Shintoism.
Then, despite the constant tendency to mix these two religions into a poorly defined syncretism, there were notable defensive reactions on the part of Shintoism around the 13th and 18th centuries.
During this latter period, Buddhism was the state religion and Shintoism appeared in some way as a kind of resistance against the central authority. In the Meiji period, in 1868, when Japan opened up to Western civilization, the government forced Shintoism and Buddhism to separate. Bonfires could no longer be held in Shinto temples, and Buddhist texts could no longer be read there.
9. Shintoism now took four different forms
Imperial House Shinto, which includes a ritual of worship of the sun goddess, Amerterasu or Mikami. This religious cult was once public, but today it is strictly private.
Temple Shinto. These are the rituals practiced in thousands of Japanese temples, united in an association, Jinja Honcho. Together, these two rites constitute what is known as State Shinto, created at the beginning of the Meiji era and which lasted until the end of World War II. In fact, it was an institution designed to strengthen Japanese identity and devotion to the Emperor.
Sectarian Shintoism is the totality of the different movements that arose in the 19th century. The best known of these was founded by a woman in 1838 and today has more than three million members. More will be said about this later.
Popular Shintoism. This is a nebulous form of religiosity but sometimes involves magical practices. These four forms of Shintoism blend together according to the cultural universe of each Japanese person and form the basis of the country’s value system. For this reason, Shintoism has become the privileged domain of Japanese particularism and, therefore, of nationalism.
Only Shintoism could confer on the Emperor the divine character that favored the designs of Japanese imperialism. The defeat of 1945 meant reducing the influence of this Shintoist mechanism developed since Meiji. Emperor Hirohito agreed to limit Shintoism to the role of a religious organization among others. He himself explained that his attachment to his people did not depend on his subjects’ belief in his divinity and stopped government subsidies to Shinto shrines.
The fervor of Shintoists for the emperor remained unaffected, and shrines are just as popular today.
10. The practice of Shintoism
Shintoism is much more deeply rooted in the social life of the Japanese than in their personal lives. Their religion of communion with nature, in which everything is sacred—the stars, rivers, ancestors, famous people—is present in all Japanese traditions.
In Sumo, a fight in which two very large, half-naked men try to push each other out of a circle, the notion of sport is almost secondary to the rituals. The wrestlers throw a handful of salt to purify the sand; they kick each other to crush the forces of evil. As for the referee, he comes from a family specialized in this role and is dressed like a Shinto priest.
Noh theater, codified in the 15th century, is simply the recitation of epic legends inspired by Shintoism. Even ikebana, a form of flower arrangement, is interpreted in terms of Shintoism: the flowers must indicate the three planes of heaven, man, and earth by the way they are arranged. Ikebana can also be interpreted in terms of Buddhist meditation.
Until 1945, when the American occupation opposed it, O-Furo, the mixed communal bath, was seen as a ritual of communion with nature. Today, the practice of Shintoism does not imply any particular belief. The Japanese retain very little superstitious belief in the Kamis and do not seek any rational justification for Shintoism.
However, for them, it is an expression of their belonging to the national community, and participation in Shinto ceremonies in their village or district shrine demonstrates their willingness to maintain harmony in the life of the nation.
The Japanese celebrate according to Shinto ritual to mark special events in the life of individuals, the community, or the nation. These celebrations, called Matsuri, are simply occasions to rejoice in being alive. They try to be pure in heart, to express their gratitude for all the pleasant things in the world, and hope that happiness will continue to prevail.
11. Nature and Diversity.
Shintoism consists of traditional Japanese religious practices, as well as the beliefs and attitudes toward life that are in accordance with these practices. Shintoism is more easily observed in the social life of the Japanese and in their personal motivations than in a formal belief pattern or philosophy.
Shintoism can be roughly classified into the following three main types: Shrine Shintoism, Sect Shintoism, and Folk Shintoism. Shrine Shintoism (Jinja Shintoism), which has existed from the beginning of Japanese history to the present day, constitutes a mainstream of the Shinto tradition. Shrine Shintoism includes within its structure the now defunct
State Shinto (Kokka Shinto), based on the total identity of religion and state, and has close ties to the Japanese imperial family. Each sect was organized into a religious body by a founder or systematizer. Folk Shinto (Minzoku Shinto) is an aspect of Japanese folk belief that is closely related to the other types of Shinto.
12. Sintoism deity
From the beginning of the Kamakura period (1192–1333), theories of Buddhist-Sinto amalgamation were formulated. The most important of the syncretic schools that emerged were: Ryobu (Dual Aspect) Shintoism and Sanno (“King of the Mountain,” a common name for the guardian deity of Tendai Buddhism) Shintoism.
According to Ryobu Shintoism, also called Shingon Shintoism, the two realms of the universe in Shingon Buddhist teachings corresponded to the kami Amaterasu Omikami and Toyuke (Toyouke) Okami enshrined in the Ise-daijingu (Great Shrine of Ise, commonly called Ise-jingu, or Ise Shrine) in Mie Prefecture.
Theorists of Sann Shintoism, also called Tendai Shintoism, interpreted the Tendai belief in the central or absolute truth of the universe (i.e., the fundamental nature of Buddha) as equivalent to the Shinto concept that the sun goddess Amaterasu was the source of the universe. These two sects brought certain esoteric Buddhist rituals into Shintoism. Buddhist Shinto was popular for several centuries and was influential until its extinction in the Meiji Restoration.
13. Formation of the Shinto Sect
During the latter part of the 19th century, new religious movements arose out of social confusion and unrest among the people. What these new movements taught differed widely: some were based on mountain worship groups, which were half Buddhist and half Shinto; some emphasized purification and ascetic practices; and some combined Confucian and Shinto teachings.
14. Shinto Literature and Mythology.
Broadly speaking, Shintoism has no founder. When the Japanese and Japanese culture became aware of themselves, Shintoism was already there. Nor does it have an official scripture comparable to the Bible in Judaism and Christianity or the Koran in Islam.
The Kojiki (“Records of Ancient Matters”) and the Nihon shoki (“Chronicles of Japan”) are considered in a sense to be sacred books of Shintoism. They were written in 712 and 720 CE, respectively, and are compilations of the oral traditions of ancient Shintoism. But they are also books about the history, topography, and literature of ancient Japan.
It is possible to construct Shinto doctrines from them by interpreting the myths and religious practices they describe. Stories partially similar to those found in Japanese mythology can be found in Southeast Asian myths, and in the style of description of Japanese myths, a certain Chinese influence can be detected.
The core of the mythology, however, consists of tales about the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami, the ancestor of the Imperial House, and accounts of how her direct descendants unified the Japanese people under her authority.
In the beginning, according to Japanese mythology, a certain number of kami emerged, and a pair of kami, Izanagi and Izanami, gave birth to the Japanese islands, as well as the kami who became the ancestors of the various clans. Amaterasu, the ruler of Takama no Hara; the moon god Tsukiyomi no Mikoto; and Susanoo (Susanowo) no Mikoto, the ruler of the lower regions, were the most important among them.
