Shintō

Japanese Religiosity  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

What are kami?  Deities, or gods, with a small “g”  Manifestations of natural phenomena –The kamikaze  Manifestations of clan patriarchs or revered figures –Newborn visit to shrine marks addition to household –The case of Tenjin  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  Emperor as decendant of the sun deity –Amaterasu, enshrined at Ise shrine  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

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  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)