Shintoism

   The island of Japan essentially functioned in isolation for centuries before American naval expansion forced trade issues on the Japanese people. Despite the centuries of isolation and strict process of executing shipwrecked sailors that landed on their island, the Japanese proved remarkably successful in adapting the modernized industrial practices of nineteenth century Europe, and within fifty years, Japan, though still torn between the Samurai and farm dominated traditional lifestyle and new found industrial power, had successfully converted to a mechanized labor force and become the local East Asian power that successfully defeated Russia in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War.
     The European infiltration of the East was not the first attempt at ideological conscription the Japanese faced through history. Confucianism and Taoism both entered Japan from China; Buddhism spread into Japan over time as well. These religions never gained full strength within Japan and remained philosophical
or sociological theories and practices.
     The actual Japanese-based religion did not get named until other religions began to enter the islands. Shintoism is an unusual religion around the world because there is no historical founder that introduced the belief structure. This sets it apart from other Eastern religions that gained followers in Japan as well as the major world religions of Christianity's Jesus and Islam's Muhammad. Also peciliar to Shintoism is that the religion does not offer universal claims of acceptance or involvement for all people. Shintoism is the religion of and intended only for the people and culture of Japan.
     The religion is based on kami ("what is worshiped") which can be objects, people, events, or ideas with shrines dedicated for such things as mountains, war memorials, and successful harvests. Kami is used in specific contexts when referring to shrine dedications. Ancient documents declare that there are "eight million kami," but the large number merely indicates that kami are too numerous to count and that many things can be worshiped.
     The Japanese people attend shrines for various occasions to seek help, offer praise, or give celebration - of which the largest and most popular is the annual new year festival that many of the Japanese participate in.

     Despite the thousands of years of Shintoism in Japan, the reestablishment of the Japanese Emperor and the establishment of a more organized Shinto religion distressed Americans during the occupancy of Japan post-WWII. Although the emperor never explicitly called for a state-sponsored state religion, Americans unfamiliar with the Japanese saw the mass-involvement as evidence of state sponsored religion. By December 1945, Emperor Showa announced himself not eligible to be an object of worship and "denounced" the state sponsorship of Shintoism. As a result of the privatization of shrines, Shintoism has become a type of religious corporation in modern Japan.
     Regardless of modern influences, economic pressures, political renouncements, or cultural changes, Shintoism is what the Japanese believe as it has always been. Through two and a half millenia, the Shinto arches have stood in Japan as a symbol of the strength of the Japanese people and have outlasted emperors, wars, invasions, and natural destruction. Shintoism is not just the religion of Japan or the beliefs of its island people. Shintoism is Japan.

  __    
Agatha Tyche