Shintoism: Beyond the Japanese Traditional Religion

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Believed to have evolved in Japan in 500 BCE or earlier, Shintoism is known as Japan’s traditional religion. Shinto was believed to have been derived from the Chinese words “shin tao” meaning “The Way of the Gods” in the 8th Century CE.¹ This traditional Japanese religion is unique because it is closely tied to nature and the unseen world. Believers of Shintoism hold true self-conscious religious traditions but rather an overarching label applied to ways of honoring the spirits in nature that have evolved since ancient times in Japan. These ways have at times been combined with imperial myths supporting the worldly rulers.

Although it had long existed, the term Shinto is notoriously vague and difficult to define. A brief look at the term’s history confuses more than it enlightens. Its first occurrence is in the Nihon shoki (720 CE), which writes of Emperor Yōmei that he “had faith in the Buddhist Dharma and revered Shinto”.² Only during the medieval and early modern periods that ‘Shinto’ was applied to specific theological and ritual systems. In modern scholarship, the term is often used with reference to kami worship and related theologies, rituals and practices. In these contexts, ‘Shinto’ takes on the meaning of ‘Japan’s traditional religion’, as opposed to foreign religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and so forth.

On the other side, Buddhism is officially introduced to Japan by Korea in the mid-sixth century, and in the eighth century, it was adopted as the national religion. Buddhism has a strong influence in Japan’s fine arts, social institutions and philosophy, and most Japanese consider themselves members of one of the major Buddhist sects. As inclusive religions, both Buddhist and Shinto rituals are observed by most Japanese who use the former for funerals and the latter for births, marriages and other occasions.³

Shaped by the amalgamation of beliefs, modern Japanese who are religious combine practices from several religions, for each offers something different. Confucianism informs organizations and ethics, Buddhism and Christianity offer ways of understanding suffering and the afterlife, traditional veneration of ancestors links the living to their family history, and the way called “Shinto” harmonizes people with the natural world.

Essentially, the spiritual heart of Shinto has no founder, no orthodox canon of sacred literature, and no explicit code of ethical requirements. It is so deep-seated and ancient that the symbolic meanings of many of its elaborate rituals have been forgotten by those who practice them. It seems to have begun as the local religion of agricultural communities and had no name until Buddhism was imported in the sixth century. To distinguish the indigenous Japanese way from the foreign one, the former was labeled shin (divine being) do (way). During one period it was used by the central government to inspire nationalism, but since the forced separation of church and state after World War II Shinto has quietly returned to its roots. They can be described through three central aspects of the path: affinity with natural beauty, harmony with the spirits, and purification rituals.⁴

In the field of religious studies, Shinto is usually described as an ‘indigenous religion’ — this term is meant a religion that emerged naturally within the historical development of an indigenous culture, in contrast to ‘founded religions’, which are based on the teachings of historical founders. These ‘founded religions’ are often described as ‘world religions’, because they spread across national boundaries to assume a global role. In contrast, Shinto as an ‘indigenous religion’ is inextricably linked with a single nation, which is Japan. Shinto encompasses such a wide range of beliefs and practices that it is debatable whether it can be strictly classified as a religion at all. But whether or not it is a religion as such, Shintoism is not showing any indication of growth outside Japan and may be declining in Japan itself in the face of growing religious diversity.⁵

Furthermore, it is deemed that Shinto displays many features of what we may call ‘folk religion’. This term is here used as a generic term for popular beliefs and practices that are not directly controlled by a shrine, temple or church, or led by a religious professional such as a priest, a monk or a minister. As such beliefs and practices in Japan, we may mention the worship of various deity tablets (ofuda), the tabooing of certain dates or directions, belief in different kinds of spirits (such as spirits of the dead, or ‘revengeful spirits’, onryō), worship of natural objects such as trees and mountains, and worship of the kami of fields and mountains (ta no kami and yama no kami). Most of what is commonly called religious folklore, local customs, or superstition belongs in this category. Surrounded by nature’s beauty and power, the Japanese people found the divine all around them. In Shinto, the sacred is both immanent and transcendent. In Japanese mythology, the divine originated as one essence:

In primeval ages, before the earth was formed, amorphous matter ﬂoated freely about like oil upon water. In time there arose in its midst a thing like a sprouting reedshoot, and from this a deity came forth of its own.⁶

Recognizing the presence of kami, humans have built shrines to honor them. There are even now more than 100,000 Shinto shrines in Japan. Yamamoto (1987) explained that shrines may be as small as bee-hives or elaborate temple complexes covering thousands of acres. Some honor kami protecting the area; some honor kami with special responsibilities, such as healing or protecting crops from insects. The shrines are situated on sites thought to have been chosen by the kami for their sacred atmosphere. At one time, every community had its own guardian kami. It is thought that the earliest Shinto places of worship were sacred trees or groves, perhaps with some enclosure to demarcate the sacred area.⁷ Shrine complexes that developed later also have some way of indicating where sacred space begins: tall gate-frames, known as torii, walls, or streams with bridges, which must be crossed to enter the holy precinct of the kami. Water is a purifying inﬂuence, and basins of water are also provided for washing one’s mouth and hands before passing through the torii. Statues of guardian lions further protect the kami from evil intrusions, as do ropes with pendants hanging down.⁸

Nelson (1995) narrated that in temple compounds, one first comes to a public hall of worship, behind which is an offering hall where priests conduct rites. Beyond that is the sacred sanctuary of the kami, which is entered only by the high priest. Here the spirit of the kami is invited to come down to dwell within a special natural object or perhaps a mirror, which reﬂects the revered light of brightness and purity, considered the natural order of the universe.⁹

To properly encourage the spirit of the kami to dwell in the holy sanctuary, long and complex ceremonies are needed. In some temples, it takes ten years for the priests to learn them. The priesthood was traditionally hereditary. One temple has drawn its priests from the same four families for over a hundred generations. Also, followers of the way of the kami may also make daily offerings to the kami in their home. Their place of worship usually consists of a high shelf on which rests a miniature shrine, with only a mirror inside. The daily home ritual may begin with greeting the sun in the east with clapping and a prayer for protection for the household. Then offerings are placed before the shrine: rice for health, water for cleansing and preservation of life, and salt for the harmonious seasoning of life. When a new house is to be built, the blessings of the kami are ceremonially requested. To acknowledge and follow the kami is to bring our life into harmony with nature, Shintoists feel. The word used for this concept is kannagara, which is the same word used for the movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets.¹⁰

In addition to elaborate regular ceremonies, Shintoism is associated with numerous special festivals throughout the year and throughout a person’s life. They begin four months before the birth of a baby, when the soul is thought to enter the fetus. Then, thirty-two or thirty-three days after the infant’s birth, its parents take it to the family’s temple for initiation by the deity. In a traditional family, many milestones—such as coming of age at thirteen, or first arranging one’s hair as a woman at age sixteen, marriage, turning sixty-one, seventy-seven, or eighty eight—are also celebrated with a certain spiritual awareness and ritualism. The seasonal festivals are reminders to the people that they are descendants of the kami. This means remembering to live in gratitude for all that they have received. Festivals became exuberant affairs in which the people and the kami join in celebrating life. Many have an agricultural basis, ensuring good crops and then giving thanks for them. Often the local kami is carried about the streets in a portable shrine.

Over time, the ways of the kami that has been labeled “Shinto” blended with other religions imported into Japan. The two religions with which Shinto has been most blended are Buddhism, first introduced into Japan in the sixth century, and Confucianism, which has been an intimate part of Japanese culture since its earliest contact with Chinese influences.

Outside Japan, Shinto beliefs and practices are common only in Hawaii and Brazil, because many Japanese have settled there. Shintoism has not been a proselytizing religion (that is, it does not seek to convert others). Most Japanese people who visit shrines and pray to the kami during festivals do not even think of themselves as “Shintoist.” This label is applied mostly by the priestly establishment.

Modern life, instead of distancing Japanese from their ancient traditions, has ultimately encouraged renewed interest in Shinto beliefs. Rapid and extreme urbanization and industrialization in twentieth-century Japan brought extremes of pollution and disease. For example, the Minamata disease inflicted paralysis and painful suffering in an area of southern Japan where a chemical factory had been dumping mercury into the bay, contaminating the fish eaten by the residents. In another area of southern Japan, iron and steel factories had so polluted the air that children developed severe respiratory diseases and the sky was never blue. This is why there are new attempts to teach children the thousand-year-old rice cultivation ceremony, and with it, Shinto values such as co-existence and “co-prosperity” with the natural environment and with each other.

Living close to nature, modern people like us should experienced life as a continual process of change and renewal because everything around us is the sacred embodiment of the divine creativity that had thrust the land up from the sea. Living in consonance with Nature is basic with the teachings of Shintoism and it is quite a relief that Japanese still hold so dear on these ancient beliefs. Shintoism sprung from expressions of the sacred purity, brightness, and awesome power at the heart of life. It is beyond religious tradition; it is a way of living a healthy and productive life.

Footnotes

B.A. Robinson. 1995. “Shinto”. Ontario Consultants of Religious Tolerance. Web.
Ito Satoshi, Endo Jun and Mori Mizue. Shinto, a Short History (New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 1.
Son Gun Kim. The Shinto Shrine Issue in Korean Christianity under Japanese Colonialism. Journal of Church and State, 39.3 (1997), 503.
Yukitaka Yamamoto. Way of the Kami (Stockton, California: Tsubaki America Publications, 1987), 75.
K.R. Dark. Religion and International Relations. (New York: Palgrave Publishers, 2000), 199.
Stuart D.B. Picken. Shinto: Japan’s Spiritual Roots, (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1980), 10.
Yamamoto 1987, 81.
John K. Nelson. A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), 43.
Ibid., 44.
Ibid., 51-53.

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Shintoism: Beyond the Japanese Traditional Religion

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