Of the two books I read, Rev. Motohisa seems to have some pro-Japanese, controversial views toward certain other Western religions, while Rev. Yamamoto seems to take the opposite approach and tries to promote Shinto’s nature-oriented, peaceful side. I guess, within Shinto, there’s various sects and views, and different ones gain prominence at different times in history.

Anyways, the point of this whole post wasn’t to delve into politics, but to give a neutral overview of basic Shinto beliefs. Notice that in the post itself I never mentioned the Emperor, knowing the controversy of the late 19th and early 20th century.

In 1333, the Emperor Go-Daigo once again attempted to regain control and did so for three years. But he too was also defeated by the new Ashikaga shoguns in 1336.

Up through the 1860, according to several books at least, the emperor had many followers who considered him divine. Now, I am not saying that the other leaders in Japan such as the shogun, actually believed in the emperors divinity. But I beleive that many did and this prevented the shoguns from eliminating the emperor. Otherwise, I think the last Tokugawa shoguns would have done just that.

It’s true that early myths in texts the Nihon Shoki and others claim Imperial descent form Amaterasu, but scholars think this was more done as as ploy to set the Japanese emperor on part with the Chinese Emperor. That divine status did not necessarily mean much in day to day affairs, though the Emperor’s kept up a number of heavenly ceremonies even after they lost power, simply because that was the role that Confucian thought felt was proper (same was done under Chinese emperors).

In short, the role of the Emperor in Japan, or elsewhere is more complex and not because people really thought he was a god. Only in State Shinto, did they re-write the myths to claim actual divinity of the Imperial family.