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Shinto

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Shinto & its Japanese Setting

Japan consists of an archipelago in which there are four main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) and many thousands of smaller islands, stretching over a thousand miles in length in the Pacific Ocean. Honshu is the most populous, and contains the majority of Japan's major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Yokohama, as well as its famed ancient capitals and cultural centres such as Nara (capital in the eighth century) and Kyoto (capital from the late eighth century until 1868).

With a population of close to 125 million people and lying on the eastern edge of the Asian mainland, with Korea and China as neighbours, Japan was the first non-Western country to industrialize. One of the few Asian countries not to have been colonized, it briefly became a colonial power in the earlier part of the twentieth century, a period in which it experienced rapid militarization as well as industrialization, and in which it sought to establish a Japanese hegemony over South-East and East Asia. In that process it invaded much of Asia, became embroiled in war with the Allies during the Second World War, and was eventually forced to surrender in August 1945, after two of its cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had had Atomic bombs dropped on them – the only cases so far in history of the use of this form of warfare.

Although defeated and occupied by the Allies for several years after 1945, Japan recovered swiftly from the destruction of war, rebuilding its economy and emerging as one of the economic giants of the modern day.

Japan is known as an advanced technological society, yet it also retains many strong underlying traditional cultural themes as well, which have helped provide a focus of identity, unity and coherence in the face of the rapid changes brought about by modernization. Japan's position as culturally and physically close to mainland Asia yet separate from it, has had a profound influence on the development of Japanese culture. Just as, in the modern age, Japan has absorbed and adapted Western influences as it has developed as a modern nation, while retaining its own ethnic and traditional cultural underpinnings, so in previous ages has it both absorbed cultural influences from the continent of Asia while retaining and reinforcing its own traditions, which have thus provided both a bulwark guarding against a loss of ethnic identity, and a framework within which to incorporate and absorb external cultural influences.

Shinto: An Indigenous Religion?

Shinto is often considered to be integral and central to that ethnic cultural tradition, and part of the indigenous cultural framework into which external influences have been assimilated. Indeed, it is often called the indigenous religion of Japan, a description that is both partially true and and partially misleading. It is true in that Shinto originated in Japan, has barely moved out of it and remains closely identified with questions of Japanese belonging and identity. This indigenous nature has been affirmed by various Japanese nationalists, scholars and Shinto priests, as well as by Shinto organizations such as Jinja Honcho, an affiliation of Shinto shrines which claims the support of around 75 per cent of all Shinto institutions in Japan.

Those who claim Shinto as the indigenous religious tradition of Japan are, in effect, affirming that it lies at the very heart of Japanese religiosity, providing the inspirational, spiritual core of Japan that remains at the heart of modern society and gives it its underlying stability and sense of continuity. This line of thinking, therefore, considers that there is a core of religious teachings and meanings that pre-date any cultural influences that entered Japan from the Asian mainland, and that remain basic to the Japanese spirit, unaffected by later influences from Buddhism.

This viewpoint is closely linked to nationalist sentiments which emerged in Japan particularly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as Japanese intellectuals sought to identify what was native and what was imported in their culture, and tried to assert an indigenous cultural tradition as a form of national unity in the face of external cultural pressures and influences. This intellectual tradition came to the fore in the mid-nineteenth century as Japan was forced to end the cultural isolation it had imposed on itself from the early seventeenth century onwards, and to open its doors to the outside (Western) world, a process that produced Japan's rapid modernization in the late nineteenth century under Emperor Meiji, and that led to the promotion of Shinto as a national religious tradition of unity.

Shinto: A Modern Phenomenon?

Countering those who affirm Shinto as an indigenous religion that has existed in Japan from time immemorial, are those who argue that Shinto in effect is a modern phenomenon that developed – indeed, was created – as a separate religious tradition in the nineteenth century during this period of rapid modernization. Scholars who support this view argue that, prior to this period, Shinto as a religious tradition was largely subsumed within, and subservient to, Buddhism, which has been the dominant religious force and primary shaper of the Japanese religious world ever since its entry into Japan in the sixth century CE.

This perspective holds much validity: Buddhism has become assimilated into Japan and taken on features particular to its Japanese setting, and in so doing has become a central feature of the country's religious culture, assuming responsibility for many of the most critical areas of religious activity in Japan. It has, for example, become the primary religious tradition through which deaths are handled and through which funerals and the rituals associated with death are conducted. Buddhism also brought with it promises of salvation and has been until modern times the primary religious vehicle through which the Japanese have sought the possibilities of spiritual transcendence.

Until the modern period (which in effect means until 1868 and the Meiji Restoration) Shinto shrines and deities were often placed in a subservient position within the courtyards of Buddhist temples, and Buddhist priests and the figures of worship they served frequently took precedence over Shinto ones. Certainly, too, much of what we see today, and that has been associated with Shinto in the modern era, has emerged from the nineteenth century process of the development of a separate and identifiable tradition in which Shinto was associated with the state and its political structures, and in which it took on, virtually for the first time, a position not of subservience to, but for a period until 1945, of precedence over Buddhism.

However, both positions – asserting that Shinto is little more than a modern invention of tradition, or that it has existed as an independent entity since time immemorial – are misleading. Shinto shrines, along with various ritual practices associated with them, existed as independent entities prior to the nineteenth century; a religious culture centred around native deities with powers and attributes associated with Japan, has existed in Japan from early times, and much of that native culture has been incorporated into and continued through the Shinto tradition; and Shinto myths and legends have functioned in religious terms for many centuries prior to the modern period. Moreover, especially from the Middle Ages (approximately fourteenth century onwards), various Shinto theological traditions have developed in Japan to assert Shinto's independence of Buddhism.

Yet to see Shinto solely as indigenous overlooks the influence of the religious traditions that entered Japan from the sixth century CE onwards, an era in which Japan received enormous cultural infusions from the Asian mainland, including the Chinese writing system, but most notably the cultural and religious traditions of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.

While only the first of these has become established in Japan as a separate and defined religious entity, both Taoism and Confucianism have also added their influences to the evolving Japanese religious tradition. Taoism in particular gave the Japanese access to practices of geomancy, divination, and forseeing the future – all of which became absorbed into the general patterns of Japanese religious activity, and are found widely in the divination and fortune-telling practices found at Shinto shrines.

Confucianism has provided a strong impetus to Japanese systems of morality, particularly in its injunctions to venerate one's ancestors and elders, and while many of its teachings on such matters have primarily been absorbed into and expressed through Buddhism in Japan, its affirmations of the importance of hierarchy and of venerating one's rulers, have been utilized in the construction of the Shinto-oriented cult of veneration of the Emperor.

Early Japanese Religion and Entry of Buddhism

It was Buddhism, however, that really developed and took root in Japan, eventually growing into a dominant Japanese religious tradition there. It was not only its teachings on morality, on ways of spiritual transcendence and enlightenment, and on the possibilities of salvation, that enhanced its appeal to the Japanese and became embedded in Japanese religious culture, but also its figures of worship, known as buddhas and bodhisattvas. These are widely believed to be able to provide worshippers with practical help and support in their lives, and it was the appeal of these figures, and the magical powers they were believed to have, that were central to Buddhism's entry to Japan.

When, in the mid-sixth century CE, the King of Paekche in Korea sought the alliance and support of the Emperor of Japan, he sent him a Buddhist statue as a present, and he accompanied it with a letter stating that this image represented a powerful new religious tradition that could provide spiritual support for the Emperor's realms and provide him with practical benefits and riches in material and spiritual terms.

At the time, Japanese religion centred around the veneration of native deities and particularly of clan deities, who were believed to be the spirits of clan ancestors, who guarded over the clan to assure its continuity and prosperity. The most prominent of such clan ancestors were those associated with the emergent Imperial dynasty, which at this time was in the process of establishing its dominance over other clan groups and thus transforming itself into the ruling power in the country.

Other native deities, especially identified with natural features such as mountains and other elements in the natural environment, were also venerated and prayed to for their protection and assistance in supporting human life. Amongst these were deities associated with such primary economic means of sustenance as agriculture and fishing. Besides being considered to be the source of good and beneficial events, such as good harvests and abundant fishing catches, the native deities were also seen as potentially dangerous, for it was believed they could cause illness and spread pestilence if offended or improperly treated.

What we would regard as natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods were regarded, in early Japanese thought, as events caused by the gods because they were angry or in response to some slight or neglect of them from the human realms. Hence one prime focus of early religious activity consisted of ritual performances and offerings designed to honour the gods and to make sure they would look kindly on the human world. Maintaining equilibrium and harmony with the gods so that they would in turn look after and assist human life endeavours, and not be wrathful and bring retribution, was therefore a primary element in early religious life.

Threat of New Gods and Triumph of Buddhism

The entry of the new and apparently powerful religion of Buddhism with its deities and figures of worship threatened, according to some, to challenge and upset that equilibrium, and it raised problems at the Japanese court. A major dispute arose – primarily dividing the court into two factions, ranged around prominent clans who themselves were struggling to become the prime allies of the Imperial clan – over whether the incoming gods should be worshipped, and whether so doing would offend the local gods and cause them to bring retribution on the land.

One of these two clans, the Mononobe clan, objected to the new figures of worship and championed the local gods: the other, the Soga clan, wished to venerate the new ones and argued that they and the religion, Buddhism, they represented offered a means of augmenting and developing Japan's religious and political culture.

This dispute between the two clans over the reception of Buddhism was effectively a struggle for power that was eventually won by the Soga clan after a battle for Imperial succession in 587 CE. Since both sides had invoked the deities of the religious traditions they supported, to their cause, the Soga victory appeared to show that the imported gods had triumped over the native ones, and affirmed the Soga as the dominant clan in the land, enabling them to go forward with the promotion of Buddhism and continental culture.

The Soga Prince Shotoku (573–621), son of Emperor Yomei, is regarded as the 'father of Buddhism' in Japan, and in his period of influence he built many important Buddhist temples and promoted Buddhism as the primary religion of the Japanese state – a position it held for much of the following 1,200 years.

However, the apparent victory of the new, imported religion did not overwhelm and sweep aside the native one, which proved remarkably resilient and capable of adaptation to the new circumstances. Shotoku recognized this when he paid homage to the native tradition and affirmed, in a proclamation in 607, the importance of venerating the native gods of Japan.

Development and Meaning of Word 'Shinto'

The concept of Shinto itself, in many respects, came about as a result of the entry of Buddhism into Japan, for the loosely structured native religious tradition had no specific name, nor any coordinated elements, until well after the arrival of Buddhism, when it became necessary to identify the local tradition in the context of the foreign, so as to define what was local, thereby giving both a name and form to the native tradition.

The term 'Shinto', therefore, was developed in order to identify the native tradition centred on the local deities, or kami, and it stands in contrast to Bukkyo, the Japanese word for Buddhism. Bukkyo means 'the teaching of the Buddha', and like other religious traditions whose names have been translated into Japanese, there is an emphasis here on the concept of 'teachings' (kyo).

By contrast, the term 'Shinto' indicates not a 'teaching' (i.e. a religion with a formulated doctrinal system) but a 'way' or course of action. The two Chinese ideograms that make up the term Shinto can, like most Sino-Japanese ideograms, be read in more than one way in Japanese, depending on the context. The ideogram shin means a deity, and may also be read as kami (the standard term for a Shinto deity), while the second ideogram can also be read as michi, and means a way or path. Thus the word Shinto means the 'way of the gods', with the primary emphasis being on the first of the two ideograms, for Shinto is a religious tradition that is intimately associated with, and centred on, the gods, or kami.

The term Shinto was first used in an eighth century text, the Nihon Shoki (known also as the Nihongi, 'the chronicles of Japan'), a semi-mythical history of Japan and its Emperors produced in 720 CE. This text and a further text, the Kojiki ('Records of Ancient Matters'), produced in 712 CE, were closely associated with the production of a sense of Japanese identity and cultural independence, and narrated myths and mythical histories relating to the origins of Japan and to the activities of the kami in such respects.

Kami, Myths & Meanings

The Japanese ideogram which is read as shin in the term Shinto, is more commonly known in its alternative reading of kami. The term itself is often translated as 'god' or 'deity', but in English language commentaries, is often left in the Japanese, since terms like god and deity do not wholly convey the meanings associated with kami. Japanese does not differentiate between singulars and plurals, so the term kami may refer to either a specific kami, or to pluralities. In general terms, however, the term and concept of kami is a plural one, for there are enormous, potentially infinite, numbers of kami associated with Japan and the Shinto tradition.

A popular phrase speaks of Japan as the country of yao yorozu no kami, a term which literally means 8 million kami, but in reality implies infinite numbers, for all and any manifestation of nature, natural object or expression of life may be considered to express or manifest the nature of kami. In such terms, kami indicates or refers to a natural force or manifestation of energy or life-force within given objects or places, and to spirits and signs of spiritual energy within the world. It can also refer to, and includes, the divinities which, according to Shinto myths, gave life to the earth and which also produce fields of spiritual energy that can influence aspects of human life, as well as to the spirits of humans who have been influential or gifted in life and whose spirits may be transformed into kami afterwards so that their gifts may continue to benefit the world.

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Excerpted from Shinto by Ian Reader. Copyright © 2007 Bravo Ltd. Excerpted by permission of Bravo Ltd.
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