Transcript Japanese Religion III: Shinto

Shintō
Japanese Religiosity
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Customary Shintō observances include
– New Year’s shrine visit
– Blessing of infants at shrine
– Coming-of-age visit
What is Shintō?
No scriptures, explicit doctrines, or
regular assemblies
 It concerns practices and implied beliefs
involving deities called kami
 No distinction made between Buddhas and
kami (Japanese deities)
 Features a strong concern with purification
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What are kami?

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Deities, or gods, with a small “g”
Manifestations of natural phenomena
– The kamikaze
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Manifestations of clan patriarchs or revered
figures
– Newborn visit to shrine marks addition to household
– The case of Tenjin
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The boundary between people and kami is low and
permeable
Modern Shintō—State Shintō

Kami worship on a national level
– Focused on the emperor rather than local deities
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Emperor as decendant of the sun deity
– Amaterasu, enshrined
at Ise shrine
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National system of
shrines
– Clan deities subject to
the emperor
State Shintō
Buddhist temples severed from Shintō
shrines
 Repression of Buddhism (1870s)
 Origins of State Shintō

– “National Learning” (mid 1700s)
Abolished after WWII
 Yasukuni Shrine—a remnant of State
Shintō
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Shintō before the Modern Era
Before the 1700s, Shintō did not exist
as an explicit system
 There has never been an expression of
Shintō independent of Buddhism
 The word rarely appears in historical
records; sometimes meant

– Simply kami
– Spirits, in a Daoist sense
Summary
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Shrines, like temples are places people go to
have needs met
Shrines are visited on special occasions and
are sites of annual festivals
State Shintō in the modern era gave rise to
modern Shintō organizations
Shintō as a distinct, clearly defined entity did
not exist before the modern era
– Jingi sūhai (paying respects at the shrine)