Shinto permeates the religious landscape of Japan and is a major key to the understanding of Japanese culture and society. But what is it? If ideological shortcuts are avoided there is no simple answer. Yet this book will guide students and general readers through many aspects of Shinto both today and in its history. It contains much information about sacred Shinto shrines and the divinities (the kami) which are the focus of devotion there. These numerous divinities have been viewed in different ways in the course of time, and contributions by specialists shed much light on the role played by Buddhism in this regard. Moreover, several fascinating religious movements or “sects” which share in the wider pattern of Shinto are also introduced and discussed. Oversimplified views may be challenged here, but the result is a volume in which “Shinto” is explored in a wide and illuminating perspective by an international team of scholars. It provides a refreshing and much-needed resource for all who are interested in the subject.

This paper explores ways in which the term “Shinto” has been used, and contested, both in Japan, within the world of Shinto itself, and in international discussion. While cognizant of the difficulties, the argument proposes a broad working characterization of Shinto as it is today, giving essential introductory information. It is then suggested that the question “What is a shrine?” could be seen as a more focused way of asking “What is Shinto?” This question is pursued both generically and with detailed reference to a specific shrine, Himukae Daijingū, in an outlying area of Kyoto. The paper then concludes with a discursive statement which is intended as a tentative answer to the question “What is Shinto?” from an observer’s point of view.

In earlier years Western ideas on Shinto were strongly influenced by “nativist” (kokugaku) ideas on the subject emanating from Japan and hence tended to showcase a very “essentialist” view of Shintō. This paper critiques various Western writers whose writings were typical of this approach. However the paper also explores how this attitude had a reverse influence on pre-war Japanese thinkers. This was especially the case with Hiraizumi Kiyoshi, a scholar who became a major figure in the production of the extreme imperialist ideology of the early Shōwa period. He was also a major source for discourses comparing the Japanese spirit to Nazi ideals, which were created mostly by contemporary German scholars. The origins of this process can be seen in Hiraizumi’s sojourns in Europe, especially in France, Germany and England, from 1930 to 1931.

This essay surveys recent approaches to writing “Shinto history,” and reflects on the problems that are inherent in this genre. Does the very notion of a Shinto history force writers to adopt a particular perspective on the past, due to the semantic and discursive structure of the concept of Shinto itself? Is it possible to write a Shinto history without constructing, once again and in new words, that same ideological concept – even while one is determined not to fall into this trap? Can the genre of Shinto history be reinvented and saved from this conundrum? The second part of the essay seeks to gain a new perspective on Shinto historiography by comparative means. Shinto is part of a family of national-religious categories that gained prominence in the nineteenth century, and Shinto history is a modern genre that arose to supply that category with a venerable past. It may be enlightening to analyse the dynamics of Shinto’s modern conceptualization through the lens of another such category from another cultural and political context. The attempt is therefore made here to view Shinto through the lens of its distant cousin Hinduism.

This study examines the medieval Tendai Buddhist views on kami, worked out by scholar monks seeking to accommodate the indigenous religious culture of Japan, to incorporate its divinities into Buddhist pantheon, and thereby to reinforce the authority and dominance of their own Tendai tradition. Particular attention is given to Tendai’s elaborate discussions in the voluminous Hiei-Tendai compilation work, Keiran shūyōshū (ca. 1318-48), specifically about the ability of kami to benefit all sentient beings by guiding them to enlightenment. The rationale for the discussions of the role and ability of the kami is explored in relation to the honji suijaku structure and the mechanism of the Tendai concept of original enlightenment. These discussions in Keiran help us to envision what Tendai thinkers discovered and/or invented as ethical ideals in kami worship, which ultimately served medieval Tendai’s own esoteric soteriological view.

The historic and poetic writings of the Tendai monk Jien (1155–1255) express complex philosophical and religious concepts, among them Jien’s views on deities or kami. Jien shared his contemporaries’ doctrine of honji suijaku (‘original nature and provisional manifestation’) and built the complicated hierarchy of kami with Amaterasu at the top of it. Thus what Jien said about Japan as a country can be understood in terms of the concept of “the divine land”.

Suwa Shrine in central Japan is famous for its Great Pillar Festival (Onbashira-sai 御柱祭) held every six years. Some 20,000 active participants are joined by more than a million viewer-participants in the celebration of the festival. Sixteen specially selected fir trees are cut down in the mountains and their gigantic trunks are dragged over miles of rough terrain to the villages around Lake Suwa, where they are erected in the courtyards of the four shrines that constitute the Suwa Shrine. Some scholars interpret this unique Onbashira festival as symbolizing the ancient nature worship characteristic of native Shinto thought. A historical analysis, however, shows that the meaning of the kami (divinities) enshrined there was transformed in various modes, especially under the strong influence of esoteric Buddhism in medieval times. This essay examines such multiple faces of the kami of Suwa that were uniquely developed through the interaction of Buddhist and Shinto traditions in the medieval period.

The Ise Shrines (Ise Jingū 伊勢神宮), which venerate the tutelary deities of the imperial lineage, are today presented as sites of an enduring and immutable native tradition. However, the image of Ise as the homeland of an indigenous religion untouched by Buddhism is one created by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Nativists, promulgated by the Japanese government until the end of the Pacific War, and promoted by the Ise Shrines until today. The Separation Edicts of 1868, which segregated religious deities, clergy, institutions, and images, into the mutually exclusive categories of Buddhist or Shinto, was one of the most radical events in the history of Japanese religion and one that forever changed the status, structure, and administration of Ise. But for the previous thousand years, Buddhist practices, texts, deities, and beliefs were an integral part of Ise’s religious and institutional culture. Yet the relationship between the gods and the buddhas at Ise is neither simple nor self-evident. This article seeks to excavate one piece of that complex history.

Drawing on religious, ritual, and literary origins, the Noh theatre developed as a unique performance art and literary genre, incorporating Shintō-related mythology and Buddhist spirituality. In this paper two Noh plays, Yamamba and Nonomiya, are analyzed as case studies for how performative, literary, geographical, and ritual space overlap in mutual re-inscriptions of Buddhist and Shintō cosmologies. These two plays are particularly useful for such inquiry as they exemplify, respectively, two most prominent ways in which Shintō space is materialized: a distinguished shrine and its surroundings, and an open natural space (a mountain) understood to be residence of kami, while their shite (the leading protagonists) are an extension and embodiment of this space, eventually themselves becoming sites for the religious interplay taking place.

Circulatory pilgrimage to multiple sites (o-meguri お巡り) was first developed in Japan in the context of Buddhist devotions, notably at 33 sites in western Japan dedicated to the Bodhisattva Kannon. In Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage (Pye 2015) it was shown how the idea of o-meguri was transferred to the context of Shintō, partly due to the popularity of the intermediate Seven Gods of Good Fortune. In this paper two leading cases of circulatory pilgrimage within the Shinto world are explored: one around 25 places where reverence is paid to the god of learning, Sugawara Michizane, concluding with Kitano Tenmangū in Kyoto, and the other which includes no less than 125 sites at Ise. Neither of these pilgrimages bears any Buddhist meaning. The Michizane shrines provide a religious focusing of scholastic or academic ambition. At Ise the main point lies in the purification of the individual’s heart or mind, and in the strengthening of one’s identity in a shared national orientation. The older idea of o-Ise-mairi remains relevant in so far as visits to these many sites are all regarded as referring to one single goal, the Jingū.

It is well known that most Japanese people possess multiple religious identities, stereotypically praying at Shinto shrines on New Year’s Day, getting married at a Christian church and holding funerals at Buddhist temples. Several Japanese religions however, notably Shin Buddhism, have rejected this pluralistic stance. Here the reasons for Shin Buddhism’s formal rejection of kami worship, a position known in as jingi fuhai 神祇不拝, are considered. Second a more conciliatory position towards the Japanese kami is considered, which arose under the influence of Zonkaku存覺 (1290-1373) and Rennyo 蓮如 (1415-1499). Third, two stories in Gōzei’s仰誓 (1721-1794) Myōkōnin-den 妙好人伝 (Biographies of the Myōkōnin) from the late Edo period are explored to see how he sought to promote the normative Shin Buddhist position towards the kami, even while presenting evidence that it was not always strictly observed in practice.

In this paper, the author discusses the connection between Shintō and Shin Buddhism by examining the development of the Shin Buddhist head temple Kinshokuji. Through an analysis of different sources (tales and precinct-layouts), the author seeks to reconsider two views on Buddhism. First, he shows that while the sectarian boundaries of a temple are significant for understanding its structure, the individual local conditions (history or customs) are to no small extent crucial factors in the formation of a temple’s identity. Kinshokuji’s local conditions led to the appearance of a Shintō shrine within the precincts. The author proposes an approach that can elucidate this unique example of a Shin Buddhist head temple. He shows, secondly, that the contacts between Buddhism and Shintō were not only based on a unidirectional Buddhist interest. On the other hand, it enabled Shintō itself to benefit from a many Buddhist strengths.

This paper is a response to all eight contributions in part II of the present volume (Exploring Shinto) which is headed “Exploring Borderlands of Shinto.” The focus is on how the complex relations between Buddhism and Shinto manifest themselves both in intellectual conceptualisations and in the shaping of religious sites.

If, as we sometimes hear, Shinto is “the ethnic religion of the Japanese people” it might seem difficult to understand how there can be Shinto “sects.” And yet there are several distinctive groups which claim both to pertain to Shinto and to be somehow special in their orientation and activity. This paper provides a reflective introduction to the paradoxical subject of Sect Shinto, with various examples. In particular it presents the case of Izumo Ooyashiro-kyō, which has branches all over Japan but has previously been little studied.

This paper is authored by the administrative head, sixth in line since the first generation, of the Shinto sect known as Shintō Fusōkyō神道扶桑教.This was recognized as a specially established separate sect in 1882 by decree of the Office for Shinto Affairs of the Japanese government. The main devotional focus for Shintō Fusōkyō is nothing less than Mount Fuji. An explanation is given as to why and how it was that sectarian developments could arise at all within Shinto, that is, in the context of a religion regarded as being national in its range. The reasons for this are sought in the rapidly changing policies of the Meiji government at a time when Japan was facing the challenges of the Western powers.

This paper introduces the faith of Shinshūkyō 神習教, a Shinto sect of which the writer, Yoshimura Masanori, is the current head. It was founded by the writer’s grandfather, Yoshimura Masamochi, who sought to promote a pure form of Shinto based on the most ancient records (Kojiki and Nihon shoki). At the same time Masamochi emphasized the importance of a personal relationship to the kami, even to the extent of kamigakari (spiritual possession), for which special training is now required. The development of the religion is traced from the 19th century onwards, and aspects of its current life are described. Followers are found all over Japan.

In Japanese religious studies, the Ōmoto and Tenrikyō groups are considered to be archetypical minshū shūkyō, “mass religions.” While they were once thought to be the result of unmediated mystical experiences on the part of their founders that resisted state authority, it is now recognized that both Tenrikyō and Ōmoto developed their teachings and practices through cooperation and communication with Japanese social and legal institutions. Most notably, in prewar Japan, Tenrikyō worked hard to be accepted as a full-fledged Sect Shinto group, while Ōmoto eventually rejected Sect Shinto. However, in postwar Japan, Tenrikyō left the Sect Shinto organization, and Ōmoto voluntarily joined it. A close analysis of the history of these two groups reveals their tangled relationship with the concept of Shinto, which itself underwent major changes during the 20th century.

The wide range of subject-matter in Exploring Shinto suggests that this religion is more complex than is sometimes suggested. As several contributions to the book show, it has been deeply embedded in the rich tapestry of Japanese religions and culture. Moreover, the differentiation of “Sect Shinto” in modern times shows that there is also great variety within the family of Shinto. As is firmly explained in the Postscript, it is this internal diversity, rather than any artificial uniformity, that continues to give social resilience to Shinto among the populace of Japan.

Shinto permeates the religious landscape of Japan and is a major key to the understanding of Japanese culture and society. But what is it? If ideological shortcuts are avoided there is no simple answer. Yet this book will guide students and general readers through many aspects of Shinto both today and in its history. It contains much information about sacred Shinto shrines and the divinities (the kami) which are the focus of devotion there. These numerous divinities have been viewed in different ways in the course of time, and contributions by specialists shed much light on the role played by Buddhism in this regard. Moreover, several fascinating religious movements or “sects” which share in the wider pattern of Shinto are also introduced and discussed. Oversimplified views may be challenged here, but the result is a volume in which “Shinto” is explored in a wide and illuminating perspective by an international team of scholars. It provides a refreshing and much-needed resource for all who are interested in the subject.