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Shinto (神道, Shintō), also kami-no-michi, [a] is the indigenous religion of Japan and of most of the people of Japan. [14] George Williams classifies Shinto as an action-centered religion; [15] it focuses on ritual practices to be carried out diligently in order to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient roots. [16]
A torii gateway to the Yobito Shrine (Yobito-jinja) in Abashiri City, HokkaidoThere is no universally agreed definition of Shinto. [2] According to Joseph Cali and John Dougill, if there was "one single, broad definition of Shinto" that could be put forward, it would be that "Shinto is a belief in kami", the supernatural entities at the centre of the religion. [3]
The "State Shinto" ideology presented Shinto as something beyond religion, "a unity of government and teaching ... not a religion." [6]: 66 Rather than a religious practice, Shinto was understood as a form of education, which "consists of the traditions of the imperial house, beginning in the age of gods and continuing through history."
In the 1960s it adopted Portuguese, rather than Japanese, as its language of instruction and communication. It also began to advertise itself as philosophy rather than religion in order to avoid conflict with the Roman Catholic Church and other socially conservative elements in society. By 1988 it had more than 2.4 million members in Brazil, 85 ...
A common description of Japan's religious syncretism says: "Born Shinto, married Christian, die Buddhist." [93] In practice, however, elements of all three major traditions tend to be practiced side by side. Japanese weddings usually begin with a Shinto or Western Christian-style ceremony for family members and very close friends before a ...
Shrine Shinto is a form of the Shinto religion. [1] It has two main varieties: State Shinto, a pre-World War II variant, and another centered on Shinto shrines after World War II, in which ritual rites are the center of belief, conducted by an organization of clergy. [2] [1] Today, the term Shinto usually refers to Shrine Shinto.
Buddhist doctrines were gradually applied to indigenous Shinto rituals and gave a more sophisticated understanding of native concepts, such as the kami, through a Buddhist lens. Although Buddhism and Shinto were gradually intermixed, there remained some Shinto shrines such as Izumo-taisha which had kept the two separate since early times. [19]
A Shinto rite carried out at a jinja in San Marino, Southern Europe. Overseas Shinto designates the practice of the Japanese religion of Shinto outside Japan itself. Shinto has spread abroad by various methods, including the imperial expansion of the Empire of Japan during the Meiji period, the migration of Japanese to other countries, and the embrace of Shinto by various non-Japanese individuals.