1. A History of the World’s Religions Thirteenth Edition
David S. Noss
Blake R. Grangaard

2. Shinto The Native Contribution to Japanese Religion
Chapter 11
Shinto
The Native Contribution
to Japanese Religion

3. Introduction Shinto is the native religion of Japan
Not fundamentally a system of doctrines
Reverent alliance with supramundane realities of Japanese life

4. Background of Shinto
Shinto is derived from the Chinese shendao meaning “the way of higher spirits or gods
Kami-no-michi
Shinto myth holds that Japan was once peopled exclusively with kami
Early Japanese regarded the whole of nature as imbued with kami powers

5. Background of Shinto Ethnic origins
Likely a mixed people (Korean, Mongolian, Malayan)
Ancient Japan was a loose conjunction of tribes and clans
Comingling of magic, taboo, and religion common in primitive societies
Passion for personal cleanliness

6. Background of Shinto Prehistoric cultures Jomon period
Pottery dating to 6000 bce
Relics suggest ritual burial, fertility rights
Yayoi period (250 bce to 250 ce)
Cultivation of rice
Kofun period (250 ce to the 5th century)
Burial mounds
Asiatic warriors

7. Background of Shinto Three main centers of culture (1st century bce)
Island of Kyushu
Concerned with gods of the sea
Izumo
Worshiped the storm god
Yamato
Adored the sun goddess
Yamato ascendancy

8. Background of Shinto The effect of Chinese culture
Civilizing influences (5th century ce)
Metalworking, agriculture, engineering
Language
The sun goddess

9. Background of Shinto Early sacred literature Buddhist impact
Chronicle of Ancient Events (712 ce)
Chronicles of Japan (720 ce)
Gleanings from Ancient Stories (806 ce)
The Engi-shiki (10th century ce)
Manyoshu
The Tale of Genji

10. The Shinto Myth The primal progenitors
Izanagi
Izanami
Pollution and the deities of cleansing
Amaterasu and other kami
The composite nature of the myth

11. Shinto in Medieval and More Recent Times
Two orientations
The family model
The guest model
Confucian and Buddhist influence on the elite
The revival of Shinto as a separate religion

12. Shinto in Medieval and More Recent Times
Shinto classical scholars
Kamo Mabuchi
Hirata Atsutane
Motoori Norinaga
Upheld the superiority of the ancient way of Japan
No need of a moral code
Advocated for “pure Shinto”

13. Shinto in Medieval and More Recent Times
The restoration of 1868
The Constitution of 1889 and the state cult
Military placed under the emperor’s control
Incorporation of the emperor’s descent from the sun goddess into the Constitution
Buddhism disestablished
Shinto designated as the state religion

14. State Shinto to 1945 Government-fostered program of patriotic rites
Shrines were made national property
Purpose was the systematic cultivation of patriotic feeling
American occupation in 1945 led to voluntary as opposed to compulsory worship

15. State Shinto to 1945 Western ideas and agnosticism in Japan
Resurgence of Buddhism
Reentrance of Christianity
Estrangement from officially sanctioned shrines
Disbelief and agnosticism became widespread
Fueled by introduction of Western science
Census of university students in 1920 found that 65% identified as agnostic; 33% identified as atheist; and 2% identified as Christian

16. State Shinto to 1945 Efforts to revise the myth
Shinto as national ethics
State Shrines before 1945
The Grand Imperial Shrine at Isé
The O-Harai purification rite

17. Shinto and the warrior The eight attitudes of the Bushido code Loyalty
Gratitude
Courage
Justice
Truthfulness
Politeness
Reserve
Honor

18. Shinto and the Warrior The example of “The Forty-Seven Ronin”
The Bushido and the modern warrior
Harakiri and jigai
Human Bullets
Kamikaze pilots
Mishima
Pre-World War II ethnocentric rational

19. Shrine Shinto Today
In ,000 shrines were cut-off from state supervision and subsidies
Now 86,000 shrines are maintained by a nationwide Shrine Association

20. Domestic and Sectarian Shinto
The festivals
Shinto in the home
The Dolls’ Festival
Children’s Day
Sectarian Shinto
The new religions
Sects founded by women
Continuing growth of new religions