A brief look at Shintoism

Having recently come back from Japan, during New Year’s I wanted to talk a little bit about the other religion in Japan: Shintoism. Shinto and Buddhism have more or less co-existed for many centuries, and at times have melded somewhat, but otherwise, they are pretty different religions, so it helps to explain what exactly Shinto is, and then try to help differentiate it from Buddhism. My interest in Shinto began this last trip when I visited a few shrines here and there to pay respects to whatever kami or spirit was there. It’s not I really believe in it, but I felt that it was worth taking the time to delve into the culture and do things the Japanese way. If a spirit does exist there at the shrine, then there’s no reason not to wish it well in any case.

While at the Narita Airport going home, I picked up a book on Shinto called The Essence of Shinto by a Shinto priest, or kannushi (神主) named Motohisa Yamakage, who belongs to a very old Shinto lineage. He talks a lot about classic Shinto, or koshinto (古神道), of which his lineage belongs to. So, much of what I write here is based on his book and his lineage’s perspective.

Basic Shinto Beliefs

Shintō (神道) is basically just the “Way of the Kami”. Shinto beliefs revolves around the various “spirits” or Kami (神), which usually gets translated into English as “gods”, but is more like spirits. Spirits come in all shapes and sizes, and embody many aspects of nature, plus heavenly kami as well. The variety is nearly endless, but in Shinto one learns to understand and make peace with these Kami, cultivate one’s self and to keep one’s life pure.

According to Yamakage, Shinto has no founder, no doctrines, and no real central authority. Variations exist throughout different parts of Japan, and in his words, each kannushi (priest) will have slightly different view of it. In the end, they’re all trying to commune with the Kami, to revere nature, and much emphasis is placed upon experiential wisdom.

Communing with Kami

For Shinto priests and even lay people, it’s important to setup a good dwelling spot so that a Kami can descend and make their presence felt. Originally, there were no Shinto shrines, or jinja (神社), instead the ancient priests would sanctify a suitable spot and call out to the Kami to descend to that spot. That sacred place is called kannabi (神奈備). Later, formalized structures were built around holy places and these became the major shrines (jinja) seen today, which branched out into sub-shrines and so on. In people’s homes, devout Shinto followers will also create a small sacred space in hopes that a Kami will descend there as well. Kami don’t live in these sacred spaces, according to Yamakage, instead it’s more like an antenna allowing the Kami to descend for a time. The actual term for this “antenna” is yorishiro (依り代), and can be something like a rock, a mirror, a special charm someone got from a Shinto shrine, and so on.

Since Kami will only descend in places that are clean, pure and bright, if this “antenna” or the sacred space around it gets run-down, dusty, and such, then the Kami will not descend, and if they do not descend, they won’t be able to help you, or worse, some evil spirit will take up residence.

Another belief is the idea that a being is made up of four souls, which deal with different levels of the body, from the gross and mundane, to the higher aspects of a person. So, when one dies, the souls separate. The base souls stay on this earth for a time at least and later leave, while the higher souls ascend to do more spiritual training in the world of Kami, work off past burdens and so on. So, Shinto follows, during a funeral, try to help the higher souls reach the world of Kami, while avoiding contamination of death itself or the lower souls.

So in addition to communing with Kami, in Shinto a lot revolves around purification.

Ritual Purification

In Shinto, there is a strong relation between one’s physical and mental cleanliness and one’s well-being. Through contact with unclean things, or through negative and angry thoughts, one builds up negative energy or impurities that can cause concrete problems. Either it will attract negative spirits who will harm or harass a person, or Kami will avoid you. Or one will just manifest physical ailments or one’s emotional well-being will be unbalanced.

So, in Shinto, there are lots of purification ceremonies designed to restore balance, and to purify the impurities. According to Yamakage, the four Shinto ideals are clean, bright, right and straight and these ceremonies, rituals and such help to restore one to a state that reflects all four. Yamakage is quick to emphasize that there is no Original Sin in Shinto (obviously intended toward a Western audience), but things get off-kilter from time to time, and so one should restore the balance through these rituals.

The most important ritual, and probably the most familiar, is the misogi (禊ぎ) or purification by bathing in water. This ceremony can be practiced at a waterfall, river or even the bathroom; it’s treated as the same. To learn this and other rituals though, Yamakage recommended learning it from a qualified teacher, especially for beginners.

He did mention the basic ritual of temizu (手水), which is something people often do at Shinto shrines, and even Buddhist temples. This is a kind of “purification-lite” ceremony, involving washing your hands. If you’ve visited a major temple or shrine in Japan, you will see a little water area with ladles and people washing their hands. The basic ceremony is the following steps:

• Wash your left hand with the water from the ladle.
• Now wash your right hand with the water from the ladle.
• Now, holding some water in your left hand, pour it into your mouth.

That purifies the person, so they can enter the sacred space of a shrine. Of course, if you forget to do this, it’s not a disaster, it just won’t help you in any way commune with the Kami there.

Relation to Buddhism

The relation to Buddhism here is a tricky one. Medieval Buddhism, that of the Nara and Heian Periods, tended to have a strong blending of native Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. According to Onmark Productions, the dominant sect at the time, Tendai, promoted a theory that Shinto Kami were manifestations of Buddhist figures. This is a theory called honji suijaku (本地垂迹), where honji means “original form”, and the kami were suijaku or “manifestations”. Shingon Buddhism, the other major sect, did not dispute this either. Elsewhere I’ve read that the primary goddess in Shinto, Amaterasu, being a goddess of the sun, was assumed to be a manifestation of Vairocana Buddha.

In the Tales of the Heike, which took place near the end of this period, you see lots of references to this as well. It was a very dominant idea at that time in Japanese Buddhism.

However, later Buddhist sects attempted to eschew some of this blending, while Shintoists wanted to reassert themselves as a separate religion. Jodo Shinshu Buddhism is a primary example of this, in that it has no Shinto elements whatsoever.

Also, some Shinto ideas strongly differ from Buddhist ones such as the concept of souls, and no belief in rebirth. Also, Buddhism does not emphasize the notion of contamination and ritual purification the way Shinto does, especially revolving around death. So, Shinto shrines never hold funerals, but Buddhist temples routinely do. Their differences in focus however have allowed both to co-exist in Japanese culture for quite a long time without clashing very much. Where Shinto is concerned with nature and the spirits, Buddhism is concerned with mental training. Both advocate a life well-lived, and both respect life in all forms.

So that’s a brief look at Shinto religion. I hope this helped.

Namu Amida Butsu
Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu