Shinto Religion Essay

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 Orange County Buddhist Church located in Anaheim at 909 South Dale Avenue is one of the few temples that practices and teaches Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in America. Although Shinran Shonin first established these traditions about 800 years ago in Japan, it did not reach the United States until the late 19th century by Japanese immigrants. Since then, Shin Buddhism has grown and developed Americanized features that contribute to its message of acknowledging the interdependence of all aspects in the universe as a way to reach a state of self-realization and happiness. With the help of Buddhist believers, the establishment of Shin Buddhist temples continues to grow and more people are welcomed to absorb the unique beliefs about oneness and transcending duhkha.

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

Shinto tradition has been the aboriginal native tradition responsible for the Japanese tendency to locate divinity in a nature population. According to Okano Haruko, author of Women and Sexism in Shinto, the woman’s role in the Shinto religion was that she was the medium of direct contact with the deity and announced the divine will to humankind. The realization of this will on earth was entrusted to the man. Thus priesthood was embodied in this male plus female relationship. However, in time the more dependent role that “magical elements” in the religion were the more important the woman’s role became. Little is known about Japan before the advent of writing, so piercing together women’s lives and contributions to early Japanese history is difficult. The traditional Japanese woman has evolved in response to the influences of the religion that dominated Japan of the times, roles of women in ancient Japan elicits inconsistencies primary due to

There are many aspects of this world such as culture, technology, or art that have been influenced by other things. The way that things influence each other has allowed for new possibilities and ideals to be formed. Religion is no exception; there have been many instances where religions have influenced each other and blossomed due to new ideas being presented. A good example of this the relationship between the two religions: Buddhism and Shinto. Buddhism was brought into Japan during the early 6th century from Korea, and was later institutionalized as the state religion in the late 6th century by Prince Shōtoku. The Prince was a great patron of Buddhism and by having made it the state religion, it would help Buddhism spread. However, Japan was not without its own religion—Shinto—which had been there for many years prior to the arrival of Buddhism. With Buddhism gaining traction in Japan with the help of Prince Shōtoku, what then does it mean for the Shinto religion? However, Shinto was not long forgotten, which leads to the question: how did the two religions, Buddhism and Shinto, interact with each other when Buddhism arrived in Japan? In this essay, I will discuss how both Buddhism and Shinto were closely tied to each other in Japan, and how they would influence each other in different ways that allowed them to grow into new directions.

Shinto and Buddhism are two different traditions that have flourished in Japan for hundreds of years. Generally, followers from one of the traditions tend to follow the guidance of the other as well, which makes the relationship between Shinto and Buddhism very rare in world religions. At first, when these two traditions contacted each other in ancient Japan, there was a lot of confusion, but eventually they were able to coexist. However, even though Buddhism and Shinto share similarities regarding flexibility and independence, there are more differences between them proven by Buddhism’s spread to ancient Japan, their contrasting practices and beliefs and the different outlooks on the afterlife.

Kanetomo’s description of Honjaku-engi reveals that this type of Shinto was heavily influenced by the shrine traditions during that time. Based on Kanetomo’s definition of Honjaku-engi, I believe that this type of Shinto connects people with their spirituality through shrine rituals. By passing down the stories, secrets, and rituals of the Kami worshipped at the shrine, worshippers are able to connect the physical world with the spiritual world (Debary 352).

Since Japan's earliest days, Shinto has been the code of honor and action for the Japanese. It is also a polytheistic religion, they believe there is a God for everything.(brittanica)

For week 7 I decided that I would do my assignment on Shinto, since taking this class and reading about Shinto it started to interest me, especially now that I can look back and think about what I saw when I was in Japan and wondered what the religion was that they were practicing. Shinto’s meaning is “way of the gods”, this is one of the oldest religions in Japan, which began during the period of the Yayoi culture (c. 300 BCE - 300 CE). The faith has neither a founder or prophets and there is no major text which outlines its principal beliefs. Shinto's key concepts of purity, harmony, family respect, and subordination of the individual before the group have become parts of the Japanese character whether the individual claims a religious affiliation

Shinto is one of the prime religions side-by-side Christianity and Buddhism. People who have a lot of knowledge in Japanese culture are conscious of this, but how many people realize how much Shintoism has changed and evolved throughout time. In this research paper, I will reveal a bit more on what the Shinto religion is, their past beliefs with how that has affected their new beliefs and their old and new rituals.

Shintoism is known as their first and official religion. No one really knows where the origin of Shinto came from but it impacted the development of historical Japan. A tradition that involves the Shinto shrine is after the birth of a baby, it is named after three days, then after about a month old, and the baby is brought to the Shinto shrine to officially become the member of the community. Shinto was also known as the way of the gods and those who worshipped Shintoism seldom asked about existing with the nature or who the world was formed. In Shinto, there was something known as kami, or god(s); though in some cases kami can also be translated into appearance- where it can be human, nature, or an unmovable object.

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).

The national religion of Japan, Shinto, is definitely a unique religion in many ways. It is one of the few religions that someone cannot convert to. In other words, a person needs to be born into it and grow up with it. And unlike many religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism, Shinto has no known founder. With that said, Shinto also has a unique view of the problem of evil and suffering. For some religions, like Christianity, it is black and white on what they believe about evil. For Shintoism, it is not that clear. Their main desire is to reach harmony, but they do not stress evil or sin or suffering as much as other religions do. Yoshida Kanetomo, a prominent Shinto priest during the 15th century, even bypassed the problem of evil and he took a more optimistic approach. This is a theme in the Shinto religion, even mentioning Shintoism as a happy religion. So how do they address the problem of evil? Shintoism addresses the problem of evil in that they strive to drive out evil in order to reach harmony and a state of purity.

Princess Mononoke was released in 1997, and became the highest grossing film in Japan until Titanic came out later that year. It was meant to be director Hayao Miyazaki’s last film before he went into retirement, and is praised as one of his absolute masterpieces. Today, I will be critiquing two articles that discuss aspects of Princess Mononoke’s themes and influences, one that relates Shintoism to Miyazaki’s narratives by Oscar Garza, and another that focuses on the icons found throughout his filmography by Mohammad Amzad Hossain and Wei-Hsin Fu.