Japan people, islands and surrounding seas result of union of male and female Kami.

kami are deities/spirits. Their mi-tama live in shrines. Kami and people not rigidly separated; great men/women become/are kami.

Amaterasu-Amikami (Sun Goddess) was responsible for bringingorder to Japan. The first Emperor, Jimmu, ruled as her son/agent and high priest. Subsequent Emperors revered as divine/High Priests.

SHINTO = way of the essence/gods; the Japanese way (name used after Buddhist entry to Japan to DISTINGUISH from Buddhism.) Kami are revered at shrines/often places of great natural beauty; some 110,000 dot the landscape.

Domestic shrines are called Kami-Dana.

• Amaterasu-Amikami (Sun Goddess) was responsible for bringingorder to Japan and appointed the first Emperor to rule as her agent and high priest. Trationally, he ascended 11 Feb. 660 BCE

• SHINTO = way of the essence/gods; the Japanese way (name used

after Buddhist entry to Japan to DISTINGUISH from Buddhism.)

• Kami are revered at shrines/often places of great natural beauty. Served by priests, assisted by daughterts (Miko). Perform rituals to honor kami, maintain cosmic harmony. Norito (power of spoken prayer); building, initiatives are launched by honoring the kami.

Torri (gateway of honor) - symbol of Shinto.

No formal/official set of beliefs but the following aspects of the tradition can be identified as important worldview concepts:

Role of individual is to serve the many/the nation.

• World/society is ever in state of progress from chaos towards order aided by cooperation.

• Humanity is GOOD. Evil intrudes from "outside/evil spirits.

The Kami help us to resist evil and to do what is right.

• Shinto AFFIRMS

1. Tradition and family

2. Love of nature

3. Physical cleanliness/purity

4. Matsuri: festivals honoring the kami.

• Samurai’s BUSHIDO code drew on Shinto devotion to Emperor and nation, Confucian ethics and Zen discipline. Samurai were the tradition warrior class, who served overlords. Great concern for personal honor/loyalty to Lord; loss of honor could be atoned by ritual suicide (hari-kiri). Serving your Lord more important than life (= suicide missions in the Second World War).

• Buddhism enters Japan 520. Co-existed with Shinto. Temples often side-by-side with shrines. . More "future life" emphasis compliments Shinto’s concern with order and progress of life in here and now.

• Buddhism’s universalism appealed to Emperor; area chiefs could claim support of local kami but the Emperor claimed support of Buddha. Nichiren Buddhism emerged as a nationalistic, exclusive sect from the thirteenth century.

• Between 1638 and end of Shogunate period (1867) Buddhism enjoyed official state privileges. During the various Shogunates a hereditary Military Leader exercised temporal power, while the Emperor was kept in mysterious isolation. When Westerners first reached Japan, they thought that the Emperor was only the Mikado, High Priest.

• From restoration of direct Imperial rule, 1867 to end World War Two, State Shinto was the established religion. Buddhists were forbidden from saying that kami were Bodhisattvas. World War Two: Japanese, led by divine Emperor, all children of the Kami, deserved a breathing space into which their great nation could expand. State Shinto/divine Emperor repudiated in post-war constitution. Religion is now separate from State.

• Some Shintoists now de-emphasize nationalistic aspects and stress Shinto’s respect for all life/ offer Shinto as a ecologically sound, care for whole planet, philosophy with much in common with other Native Religions

• Shinto and Buddhism generally regarded as complimentary.

• Confucianism entered Japan 5th century CE adding its ethical teaching/informed constitution of Prince Shotoko, 573 - 621 CE.

• Ethics: j[r]en (love of humanity), li (propriety), chi (wisdom), yung (courage), yi (righteousness).

• PURE LAND introduced 1175

• Zen introduced 1191. Samurai class especially attracted by Zen Discipline/link with Martial Arts.

• Nichiren (1228 - 82) claimed to be a Bodhisattva. Lotus Sutra = Buddhism. Japan should only support Nichiren Buddhism. Repudiated pluralism.

• Popular level, SHUGENDO evolved mix of yin-yang magic, Esoteric Buddhism and folk Shinto.

• Christianity arrived 1549; missionaries expelled 1614) and Christianity banned 1638 (but continued underground).

• From 1614 to 1853, Japan shut herself off from all foreign contacts.

• Japanese religious movements characterized by need to develop Japanese bone fides, usually through a dynasty of masters.

• Shinto does not seek non-Japanese converts. Teaches respect for nature/harmony with all.

• Japan has produced an extraordinarily large number of New Religious Movements/Alternative Religious Traditions may be the better term, since most are rooted in Buddhism or Shinto although some are eclectic.

Tenrikyo. Shinto roots. Founded by MIKI MA KAYAMA (1798 - 1887). Kami of Divine Reason. Healed. Those who live in tune with Divine Reason live happily. Own City, hospital, university.

Rissho Koseikai (1938) founded by a man and a woman. Buddhist. Lay. Committed to world peace. Refugee work. Sponsors development projects. Active in defending religious freedom and in inter-religious dialogue. Branches worldwide.

SOKA GAKKEI International (1937) (break away from Nichiren). Accepts pluralism/ political wing/ described as Buddhist socialism, half way between communism and capitalism. Also Lay. Popular outside Japan. Chant: NAMU MYOHO RENGE KYO (adoration be to the Scripture of the perfect Lotus Sutra). Contemplation of the gohonzon. Prosperity in THIS LIFE as well as nirvana later! LOTUS SUTRA: Recitation will lead to attainment of all goals, material and spiritual.

© 2000 Clinton Bennett