 Japanese
Shinto
Shinto (Way of the
Gods) is the term used to refer to an assortment of
beliefs and practices indigenous to Japan that predate
the arrival of Buddhism but that have in turn been
influenced by it. The Shinto worldview is of a
pantheistic universe of kami, spirits or gods
with varying degrees of power.
Although each person
is expected to continue existence as a kami
after death, Shinto is concerned with this world rather
than with the afterlife. This world contains defiling
substances, and Shinto ritual often involves mental and
physical purification of a person who has come into
contact with a pollutant, such as death. Water or salt
commonly serve as purifying agents. Some kami
are guardian deities for villages, and thus they
symbolize the unity of the human community as well as
mediating in its relationship with the natural and
supernatural worlds.
Japanese legends
describe the activities and personalities of the kami.
The most well-known legends describe the creation of the
human world and trace the origins of the Japanese
imperial family to the gods. The latter legend formed
the basis of the wide acceptance of the concept of the
emperor's divine descent in pre-1940s Japan.
In the fifth and
sixth centuries, Shinto came under the influence of
Chinese Confucianism and Buddhism. From the former, it
borrowed the veneration of ancestors, and from the
latter it adopted philosophical ideas and religious
rites. Because of the popularity of things Chinese and
the ethical and philosophical attraction of Buddhism for
the court and the imperial family, Shinto became
somewhat less influential than Buddhism for more than a
millennium. Many people, however, were adherents to both
systems of belief. By the seventeenth century, Shinto
began to emerge from Buddhism's shadow through the
influence of neo-Confucian rationalism.
The emerging
nationalism of the late Tokugawa period combined with
the political needs of the Meiji Restoration (1868)
oligarchs to reform Shinto into a state religion, and it
flourished as such until 1945 under government
patronage. Japan's defeat in World War II and the
emperor's denial of his divinity brought an end to State
Shinto. Sometimes considered synonymous with State
Shinto before 1945 was Shrine Shinto (Jinja Shinto), but
after the war most Shinto traditions were observed in
the home rather than in shrines. Most shrines, which had
previously benefited from state sponsorship, were
organized into the Association of Shinto Shrines after
1946. Sect Shinto (Kyoha Shinto) consists of more than
eighty private religious sects, which conduct services
in houses of worship or lecture halls rather than in
shrines.
In 1991 there were
nearly 80,000 Shinto shrines and 93,000 clergy in Japan.
After World War II, the requirement of membership in a
shrine parish was revoked, but local shrines still serve
as focal points for community identity for many
Japanese, and occasional informal or ritual visits are
common. Nearly 95 million Japanese citizens profess
adherence to some form of Shinto. Some of the Sect
Shinto groups are considered new religions.
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