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Japan 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
(see Ancient Cultures
, ch. 1). 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
(see Intellectual Trends
, ch. 1).
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
(see The Status of the Emperor
, ch. 6). 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.
Data as of January 1994
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