Shinto

A Shinto priest. The ancient Japanese Shinto religion combines ancestor worship with animism, the belief that all natural objects possess a soul or spirit.

The indigenous religion of Japan. It combines an empathetic oneness with natural forces and loyalty to the reigning dynasty as descendants of the Sun goddess, Amaterasu-Omikami. An aggressive nationalistic form of Shinto, known as State Shinto, was developed under the Emperor Meiji (1868–1912) and remained official until 1945, when it was discarded.

Shinto is the Chinese transliteration of the Japanese Kami-no-Michi. Shinto ceremonies appeal to the kami, the mysterious forces of nature manifest in topographical features such as mountains, trees, stones, springs, and caves. Shinto focuses on purity, devotion, and sincerity; aberrations can be cleansed through purification rituals. In addition, purification procedures make the worshipper presentable and acceptable when making requests before the kami.

Shinto's holiest shrine is at Ise, on Ise Bay, southeastern Honshu, where in the temple of the Sun goddess is preserved the mirror that she is supposed to have given to Jimmu, the legendary first emperor, in the 7th century BC. The oldest-established shrine (perhaps 4th century) and second in importance is Izumo Taisha Jinja near Izumo in western Honshu. All the kami are said to gather there each year in October.

There is no Shinto philosophical literature, though there are texts on mythologies, ceremonial and administrative procedures, religious laws, and chronicles of ruling families and temple construction. Shinto has no doctrine and no fixed system of ethics. Believers made no images of gods until the introduction of Buddhism, with which Shinto has coexisted syncretically since the 8th century; see Ryōbu Shinto and Japanese religions. There have also been attempts to synthesize it with Confucian ethics.

Sectarian Shinto consists of 130 sects; the sects are officially recognized but not state-supported (as was State Shinto until its disestablishment after World War II and Emperor Hirohito's disavowal of his divinity 1946). The priesthood became hereditary in the 6th–8th centuries; before this, religious functions were performed by the clan chiefs, of whom the emperor was the most important. In the Tokugawa era (1603–1867) Shinto was dominated by Buddhism to the point where even Shinto priests and their families were expected to belong to a Buddhist temple and be buried by a Buddhist priest. As a reaction to this, various purist Shinto schools arose, forming part of a national revival in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Festivals include Seijin-no-hi (‘adults' day’), 15 January, when young people who have turned 20 during the past year visit a shrine, and Shichi-go-san (‘seven five three’), 15 November, when boys of five and girls of three and seven are taken to a shrine to be blessed. Most Japanese weddings include a vow before the kami, and most building projects include one or two purification rites.

Shrines are characterized by a freestanding red gate (torii) shaped like an H with another crossbar over the top. Traditional shrine buildings are relatively simple, steep-roofed wooden structures related to the old style of farm houses.