Shinto

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Overview

Shinto, the way of the kami, is the indigenous religious tradition of Japan. It centres on kami, sacred presences found in nature, ancestors, clans and extraordinary things, and on shrines, festivals and rituals that keep people in right relation with them. Purity and its opposite, pollution, play a large part. Shinto has no founder, no single scripture and little systematic doctrine; it is a practice more than a creed. Most Japanese people take part in Shinto customs, such as New Year shrine visits and local festivals, even if they do not call themselves Shinto believers.

Context

Shinto developed from local practice in prehistoric and early Japan, and the word itself came into use only after Buddhism arrived in the sixth century CE, as a way to distinguish the native tradition. For over a thousand years Shinto and Buddhism were intertwined. In 1868 the Meiji government separated them and made State Shinto a national ideology, which ended with Japan's defeat in 1945.