Soul of Japan: An Introduction to Shinto and Ise Jingu (2013) [pdf]
media.longnow.org
media.longnow.org
The saying in Japan is that you are born Shinto, married Christian, and die Buddhist.
I am not a historian, but here is my understanding of the current "history" of Japan. Shinto had an artificial resurgence during the meiji restoration as money was pumped into it. Shinto was seen as a way to push society back toward an emperor-centric governance model. Shinto at the time was closely aligned with the powers that believed propping up the emperor was important.
If you travel around Japan you'll see many jinja (shinto shrine). Within a few minutes walk from my house there are three large shrines and maybe six small shrines. Most of these were built during and immediately after the meiji restoration.
The modern view of the 'history of Japan' was actually heavily influenced and curated by the powers that shaped Japan in the second half of the 19th century. Many things that people believe are part of 'ancient Japan' are mostly handpicked tools used by the political elites of the time.
It's very doubtful Shinto could be called the 'Soul of Japan'
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12096 https://librivox.org/bushido-the-soul-of-japan-by-inazo-nito...
"Japan: An attempt at interpretation" (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5979) and
"Tales of Old Japan" (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13015)
Especially "Japan: An attempt at interpretation" I found remarkable, It really struck a cord and goes in-depth on cultural expectations and habits in Kami (villages). "Tales of Old Japan" is a great collection of mythological tales.
... as did his countryman, Tadeusz Kościuszko, #4 on that same list.
It would be blasphemous and offensive to Japanese people to suggest these sites aren’t sacred. Yes, Japan is developed and people might not need to believe in the supernatural, but, to Asian people, Confucianism and respect for ancestors is borderline religion. The very word religion has different meaning in Asia, so to map it back into Western’s archetype of religion is weird. The word religion in the sinosphere could be translated as “way of living”, and tea practitioners consider their practice as such. Shinto, whether it’s actually belief in the Kami or reverence of the imperial family, is culturally the same. When American politicians float the word God, are they really speaking in actual terms or figures of speech?
Regarding the idea that Shinto is mostly a modern invention by the ruling class. The imperial shrines look this different. They have different motifs such as horses. Datapoint : I’ve been to thousands if not tens of thousands of shrines. The naming system of shrines is also a cue. It also doesn’t explain why there are thousand year old shrines, not in one region, but every region of Japan. Datapoint: I’ve been to all 47 prefectures.
Also, go to a rural remote fishing village. The shinto shrines there have a different level of spirituality. They aren’t tourist spots. They don’t have money. But the locals worship and pray for safe passage in the seas. When I went through Mie prefecture, the Ama, freediver women, have all had friends who died. The people in harsher economically deprived regions are much closer to reality, and if that’s not religion, I’m not sure what it is.
The kids can keep my pinky bone if they insist on following silly ancient rituals.
Anyway, the point is that I have not and probably will never have the good fortune of traveling into into space in my lifetime. At least let me do so in death. I promise you you’ll still get your inheritance.
But I want to take a message to the future. It would have to be made of wood or similar so it too fossilizes, something like an abacus or an astrolabe, so the future excavators know that we had a technological civilization.
It is said that modern Japanese see Shinto as one of the factors that drove into the Asia Pacific War and World War II. Aum Shinrikio [2], a sect that did terrorist attacks also contributed to giving religions a bad name. Christianity is practiced only by a very small minority and modern Shinto has been reduced to consist almost exclusively of ritual, with little belief for gods, souls, or the afterlife.
I'd be interested in hearing more perspectives on this from anyone with first hand experience, or that just knows better.
[1]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJmWVWCdTYo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr0hxKznLTA
You don't need to think very hard about the fact that these rituals come from different traditions and follow different and contradictory "theory" behind the scenes; it's just a curiosity if it comes up, but mostly it doesn't. As long as the rituals seem to work and life goes on, it doesn't really matter.
This comment chain seems to increasingly be full of people who haven’t been to Japan talking about it, and it shows.
I really don't think this is true, or rather: it is a view shaped by biased expectations of how a "real" religion should look like, namely like the Abrahamic ones.
Shinto always was a religion of rituals that aim to gain some measure of control over a chaotic world.
>with little belief for gods,
That is definitely untrue - Shinto is all about gods. Just not omnipotent big-G Gods. Shinto Kami are approachable spirits of nature and places, who might grant you a boon if you do the right things and it is in their realm of responsibility.
>souls, or the afterlife.
Yes, Shinto does not have a concept of "soul" and doesn't concern itself much with an afterlife (that's why Japanese people get Buddhist funerals) - but why would it absolutely have to?
Ise Jingu is my favorite place anywhere; it is a place to stop thinking, become humble before nature and appreciate things as they are.
Sounds a bit like Carlos Castaneda and shamanism in general, no?
But while Shinto priests' roles in the religion can be compared to that of shamans, Shinto doesn't actually place that much emphasis on them - individual and group practice also play a big role.
As far as I have seen "Shinto as a religion" plays a relatively small role in Japanese society. I am American and Japanese shinto looks almost nothing at all like American Christianity.
Many if not most Japanese people visit shrines (especially on set dates throughout the year), at which time they give a small donation and prayer, but from my perspective this is indeed mostly ritual. Routine you might say.
You could also say Japanese culture has high inertia. People tend to do things because (a) that's what other people do or (b) that's what's always been done. Of course things do change, but without a strong impetus they tend strongly to coast along the same road.
Shinto from a broader perspective, or simply Japanese culture as I am tempted to call it as it's difficult to draw a line, has many other influences other than simply visiting shrines. Festivals, rituals, and so on. But here also I don't see what I would call a "religion" based on a "strong belief" in "higher power(s)."
An example is when a new house or building is to be built, Shinto "priests" are called to perform a ceremony at the building site. Another is the little salt dishes they put around houses and buildings to keep "demons/bad luck" out. Seems to me it's closer to superstition!
Occasionally I come across something like this PDF and it confuses me. It portrays Shinto as very mystic, but that doesn't match well with the reality on the ground of everyday life in Japan, at least through my lens.
Note: my experience is in the last decade and a half. I haven't asked or heard much about the past. It's not a stretch to imagine that "shinto" used to look more like a "belief based religion" some decades or centuries ago.
I've spent a few years in Japan and religion really does have a bad rap here. My experience is that if you talk about large religious organizations, people will assume "cult" until proven otherwise. I wouldn't be surprised if Aum Shinrikyo and other extreme (but not representative) groups is one of the driving factors behind that common skepticism.
Basically Nitobe (the guy on the 5000 yen note) tried to explain Japanese society to foreigners.
https://historyofjapan.libsyn.com/episode-22-the-way-of-the-...
The linked episode is all about bushido.
1) https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/
2) https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201020-bushido-the-boo...
3) https://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol18/iss3/etzrodt....
A better book is Legends of the Samurai by Hiroaki Sato.
Review at https://www.tofugu.com/reviews/hiroaki-sato-legends-of-the-s...
The "Legends of the Samurai" book sounds interesting and worth a read too.
My take: Just read, make up your own mind, disregard labels like controversial, westernized, etc. Those come off as trying to tell me what one should read and what one should not read, which should raise alarm-bells.
When the "West" discovered the "alien East", partial knowledge, romanticization, Social/Cultural Darwinism were the coloured lenses through which they interpreted everything. Thus all accounts were necessarily incomplete and distorted but once they were written down became "gospel". This is why "Historical Revisionism" (in the positive sense) is so important nowadays.