Shinto (Way of the Gods)
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. For 1,300 years Shinto (The Way of the Gods) was challenged and eclipsed by Buddhism as the imperial dynasty was eclipsed by the shogunate. In 1868 it became Japan's state religion, a cult of the dead based on ancestor worship, and resumed its interrupted task of molding the Japanese people for their divine mission of conquest.
Inasmuch as the Meiji Restoration had sought to return the emperor to a preeminent position, efforts were made to establish a Shinto-oriented state much like the state of 1,000 years earlier. An Office of Shinto Worship was established, ranking even above the Council of State in importance. The kokutai ideas of the Mito school were embraced, and the divine ancestry of the imperial house was emphasized. The government supported Shinto teachers, a small but important move. Although the Office of Shinto Worship was demoted in 1872, by 1877 the Home Ministry controlled all Shinto shrines and certain Shinto sects were given state recognition. Shinto was at last released from Buddhist administration and its properties restored. Although Buddhism suffered from state sponsorship of Shinto, it had its own resurgence. Christianity was also legalized, and Confucianism remained an important ethical doctrine.
Some Buddhists did not simply comply reluctantly with State Shinto. Rather, some enthusiastically promoted a movement called "Imperial Way Buddhism" (Kodo Bukkyo). Imperial-way Buddhism taught that Japanese Buddhism was superior to all other forms and then identified Buddhism with the state and the state with the emperor. To worship and serve the emperor was the same as worshiping and serving the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Takasa Nichiko, the administrative head of the Nichiren Shu, and other leading Nichiren Shu clergy formed "The Association for the Practice of Imperial-Way Buddhism" (Kodo Bukkyo Gyodo Kai) in 1938. This association even identified the Gohonzon as the Japanese emperor: "...the principle image of adoration in imperial-way Buddhism is not Buddha Shakyamuni who appeared in India, but his majesty, the emperor..."
It was Shinto that fostered Japan's feverish nationalism. It was Shinto that inspired Article I of Japan's constitution, which said: "The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal," and Article III, which said: "The Emperor is sacred and inviolable." It was Shinto that taught Japanese law students: "Subjects have no mind apart from the will of the Emperor." Shinto taught Japanese Army privates: "Those who, with the words 'Tenno Heika Banzai!' (May the Emperor live forever!) on their lips, have consummated a tragic death in battle, whether they are good or whether they are bad, are thereby sanctified."
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.
Today Shintoism plays a more peripheral role in the life of the Japanese people. The numerous shrines are visited regularly by a few believers and, if they are historically famous or known for natural beauty, by many sightseers. Many marriages are held in the shrines, and children are brought there after birth and on certain anniversary dates; special shrine days are celebrated for certain occasions, and numerous festivals are held throughout the year. Many homes have "god shelves" where offerings can be made to Shinto deities.
