|
Shinto, the most distinctive of the Japanese religions,
has also slipped into a background role in modern urbanized Japan. Early
Shinto focused around the animistic worship of natural phenomenon--the sun,
mountains, trees, water, rocks, and the whole process of fertility.
Totemistic ancestors were also included among the kami, or deities,
worshipped, and no line was drawn between man and nature. Deities were
worshipped through offerings, prayers, and light-hearted festivals at the
many shrines. The shrines were dedicated to the imperial ancestors, the
deity of rice, or the spirit of some outstanding phenomena, such as a great
mountain, a beautiful waterfall, or simply an unusual tree or rock. There
was no theology or even a concept of ethics, beyond an abhorrence of death
and emphasis on ritual purity.
 The Japanese never developed the idea that a person had
to adhere to one specific religion. Premodern Japanese were usually both
Buddhists and Shintoists at the same time and often Confucians as well. Traditional Shinto seems alive today at shrine
festivals held annually on specific dates by all shrines of any importance.
At these times, the shrine deity is carried around in a portable shrine by
local youths.
In these various ways Shinto continues to be part of Japanese life, and
folklore remains full of Shinto elements. The Japanese love of nature and
sense of closeness to it also derive strongly from Shinto concepts. But very
few modern Japanese find in traditional Shinto any real focus for their
lives or even for their social activities or diversions.
|
