Shinto: An Ethical Religion

Human search for meaning in Shinto is based off of their beliefs, rituals, origins and culture. There are four components that make up the Shinto human search of meaning, Simplicity, one with the world, peace within the world and the individual journey to self-discovery and potential. Simplicity refers to the lack of scripture, rules and expectations the individual to interpret hoe they are to live their lives. Peace with the world is to be what the individual interprets to be the best person they can have an optimistic approach to the world encouraging world peace and peace within themselves. One with the world refers to the immanent nature of the religion, the way the world is viewed individually contributing to their connection with the

Firstly, the traditions within Shintoism were important to help the Japanese people to connect with their ancestors and the nature around them. The word ‘Shinto’ itself means way of the gods. It is as old as the Japanese culture and was the only religion in Japan until the 6th century. According to the Shinto religion, there exists a basic life force called kami. Kami are close to human beings and respond to human prayers. They can influence the course of natural forces, and human events. Shinto tradition says that there are eight million kami in Japan. Due to their deep respect and love for nature and Japan itself, many shrines were set up in places of natural beauty. Followers went to pray here to receive good fortune and samurai would often go to the shrines to pray for victory before and after battle. Shinto’s traditions involved having a clean lifestyle. They washed and bathed everyday which made most of japan a fresh

The supernatural powers and deities of Shinto are Kami. Kami are not Gods but spirits that intervene with humans that do not live in a separate dimension but in the same dimension as humans. Kami can take form of elements of nature such as rivers, mountains, storms and earthquakes but they were also the deities that created the universe as stated in their holy text. They can also be spirits that take the form of the living and the souls of humans that have demonstrated outstanding achievement (such as soldiers that gave up their lives for war, emperors and leaders) becoming Kami after their death. Kami are also the ancestors and protectors of human beings. Kami can also influence the course of nature and events of humans. They like the human

• The historical significance of the phrase Shinto is that it is a type of religion that was based on respect for the forces of nature and on the worship of ancestors. Also, worshippers believed in kami which are divine spirits that lived in nature. Shinto religion was also influenced by the Koreans because they introduced Buddhism to them. Some Buddhist rituals became Shinto rituals. This made the Japanese take an interest in the Chinese writing system, art, and the Chinese styles of simple arts of everyday life.

Shintoism has four affirmations that should be followed in everyday life. The first affirmation is tradition and family must be honored above all. This is a great example of how Shintoism places a great importance on the community and not on one single person. It is also the reason why Japanese

Shintoism is an ancient religion that predominates modern japan but it has undergone many changes to compete with many foreign religions such as Christianity. Does Shintoism need to conform to compete with Christianity better yet does it really need to compete with other religions anyway? The main sentiment that comes with foreign religions is to explain the creation of the universe usually depicting a divine being or god while Shintoism mainly tries to empower the mysteries of the universe rather than to explain them. Shintoism also through the most part lacks a holy book since most of the practices and ideas where spread through story tellers this causes an issue since foreign countries have to explain Shintoism on their own which make it look barbaric in comparison. The early history of Shintoism may shed some light on this argument to understand some of the reason for the Shinto conformation.

Buddhism monks who had privilege of clergy in Tokugawa ear face unprecedented hardship with starting Meiji by the new government's policy of the Ordinance Distinguishing Shinto and Buddhism to deprive their privileges and properties, to be destroyed temples in opposition to preferential Shinto; however, Buddhist did not accept without resistance that some monks, such as Utida Udo, made resistance to new government at the risk of their life.

Amaterasu, also known as Ōkami Amaterasu, is a fictional character from Capcom’s video game Ōkami. Amaterasu is a white wolf that appears in the Marvel vs. Capcom series (Wikipedia). Her backstory claims that she is from the Celestial Plains, the domain of the spirits, and rules over the Celestials and the mortal world as a “proctor deity” (Wikipedia). Ōkami Amaterasu is based off the Shinto goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami , meaning “shining in heaven,” who is seen as the goddess of the sun and the universe (Wikipedia). She is deemed to be the most important deity of the Shinto religion, she like Ōkami Amaterasu is the ruler of the Celestial Plains (Cartwright).

Shinto is based on a spiritual connection with the land and nature as their is no god but they have an ancestral connection to the natural world. We see this connection through rituals and ceremonies such as purification were they symbolically purify oneself or an object before interacting with the Kami (Shinto Gods). This is usually done with water by rinsing, washing or bathing yourself, or with the priest's wand. Other Shinto rituals include formal readings of prayers from ancient collections and making food and drink offerings to the kami which is shared in a communal meal which is again done by a priest. Shinto teaches us to be grateful of what we know and have right now and to treat our land like its apart of our ancestors and how we

Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan. It can best be described as a structured system of animism. The word Shinto comes from Chinese characters (shen and tao), meaning “divine being” and “the way” respectively. Therefore the total meaning of Shinto is “The Way of the Divine Beings/Spirits.” (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2011) It is unclear when the Shinto belief came about, but it most likely has its earliest roots in animism. These animistic beliefs were expressed in the form of spirits called kami. The kami are beings that are present in all aspects of nature and consist of major deities, ancestor spirits, and minor spirits who have significance in a specific community. (Wilkinson, 2012, p. 263) Several of these kami have had extreme importance in Japanese creation mythology and Shinto belief.

They make sacrifices and offerings to any form of what they believe to be a higher being in an attempt to bring greater fortune among themselves. Those who follow this religion do this since they are taught that there is more to the world than just what they understand. The invisible world is what the Shinto religion calls this other realm. Here is where both gods and spirits take action towards those seeking guidance. For some cases, those who have prayed to their ancestors and gods receive what they were looking for, while others have their prayers unheard. While some may perceive this as an act that there prayers were answered others find misfortune. Both find reason to believe that spirits and higher beings caused these actions but according to Feuerbach, people only comprehend it this way in order to have greater reasoning for events in their lives other than natural

The 2 scriptures that I think most represent Shinto belief are Why Japan is Special and Festival of the Gates. The scripture, Why Japan is Special, shows that in Shintoism Japan is the center of creation and is the most important place in the world. Traditionally they thought that the Japanese were descendant from the sun goddess, therefore they are part divine “Sun Goddess left her descendants to reign over it forever and ever” (Why Japan is Special). In the scripture, Festival of the Gates, we can better understand the Shinto belief that Kami are all around us and that they affect things. People would pray to the good Kami to protect the palace from bad Kami as well as temporal beings. This belief that Kami play a direct role in a human's

As an ancient religion of Japan, Shinto was originally a combination of nature worship, divination techniques, and shamanism. Meaning "the way of the Gods", the origins of Shinto are not apparent in comparison to other religions, especially other Asian religions and beliefs. With no obvious founder, as well as original written scriptures and authentic laws, a number of theories exist about the origination of Shinto as a religion and its development across the Japanese lands. However, the significance of the religion has shifted the importance of discovering its origins to the religious influences that Shinto has embarked upon Japanese

Shinto is the religion of Japan. Historically, it was first used in the 6th century C.E., although the roots of the religion go back to the 6th century B.C.E. It is incredibly difficult to trace back Shintoism because most of the beliefs were passed down orally. Shinto has no founder, no official sacred texts, and no formalized system of doctrine. Shinto is seldom practiced outside of its origin country, Japan. Because of this, followers have no need for mission work. In Japan, 83.9% of the population practices Shintoism. There are over 110,000 Shinto shrines and temples in Japan. The name Shinto comes from the Chinese characters introduced in Japan that translate to Shen meaning “divine being”, and Tao meaning “way”, together meaning “Way of the Spirits”. The main belief of Shinto is in the “kami” or spirits who preside in nature. The kami are not gods, they are simply concerned with humans, resulting in a symbiotic relationship between humans and kami. If you treat the spirits well, they will treat you well in return.

One of the key aspects of Shinto, and an aspect that made it somewhat difficult for me to study in a more isolated context, is the flexibility of it. Unlike the Abrahamic religions, there is no strict religious doctrine or meticulous set of rules that governs the practitioners. Instead, it's much more a conceptual idea that carries with it various commonalities, specifically in terms of practices and a very nature-based system of deities (Religions of the World). Although, despite Japan's more isolated society, they did share certain ideas with other Eastern religions, such as a focus on the cosmos and harmony with nature and others (Return of the Gods).