Shinto: The Old Japanese Religion

Up until the 1945 Shinto was the state religion of Japan. That tells you a lot about how widely practiced Shinto is, especially in Japan, where it began. The start of the religion cannot be pin-pointed as many sources say its roots date back to prehistoric times. Today there are three million people around the world that practice it. The name Shinto came about when Buddhism became more widely practiced in Japan as a way to distinguish the old Japanese traditions from Buddhism. It is written with the two Chinese characters “shen”- which means “kami”, or spirit- and “tao”- which means way; the religion means “Way of the Gods (or Spirits). Spirts, or kami, are a big part of Shintoism. Kami are, in the most basic terms, the sacred powers of

While yaoyorozu no kami literally means eight million gods they are most commonly referred to as myriad gods as there is actually an uncountable number of gods in reality. In Shintoism, a polytheistic religion, Amaterasu, the sun goddess, is the supreme kami. It is said that she is the daughter Izanami and Izanagi, the creators of the world; the imperial line of Japan is believed to be descended from her. They are worshipped in shrines, or jinja. Torri, or the sacred gateways that separate the sacred jinja from the ordinary world, can be used to distinguish jinjas from the Buddhist temples, otera. The regular jinja is a series of buildings which are usually located in the outdoors. The shrine shows the change in Japanese technology and history. Shinto’s belief system is very local orientated and its adherents care more about the local shrine then the relgion as a whole. Shintoism is currently being practiced in mostly Japan. The reason it hasn’t grown more widely is because it’s an ethnic religion as it mostly deals with its origin country, Japan. In Japan there is the Grand Shrines at Ise; home to Japanese pilgrims for over a thousand years and is devoted to two major divinities. In this lies