Shintoism Explained

this video is sponsored by curiositystream get access to nebula a video stream and service made by your favorite educational creators when you sign up for curiosity stream using the link in the description this is atari gate one of the most recognizable symbols of japan alongside the cherry blossom and this electric mouse tori are also a sacred gateway in shintoism the indigenous religious practice of japan even with an over 2000 year history shinto has never been easy to define the word shinto wasn't even used much until the 17th century but shinto has its own shrines priests gods and rituals everything you'd expect from a religion but today while over 80 percent of japanese people participate in shinto practices only three to four percent identify themselves as believers in shinto and many japanese people practice shinto alongside buddhism without any sense of contradiction so what is shinto why are sumo wrestlers so salty and what can the god of hair do for you well let's find out [Music] in the beginning there was nothing but formless chaos over eons the lighter particles of this chaos rose and became heaven and the heavier ones fell and farmed the earth which was then a muddy ocean between these realms three heavenly beings or cami formed they were followed by seven more generations of kami the seventh generation of these kami were a man and woman pair known as izanagi and izanami who descended down to give farm to the earth izanagi and izanami took a heavenly spear and stirred up the ocean below which created an island the first land izanagi and izanami decided to live on this island and fairly soon felt the need to have children so they got down to making babies the good old-fashioned way by erecting a large ceremonial pillar and performing a marriage ritual by walking around the pillar in opposite directions and when they met on the other side izanami greeted his naggy first which resulted in the birth of a boneless and limbless child who they then very quickly put on a boat and pushed off into the sea but don't worry he turns out mostly fine he grows some bones he becomes the kami of good luck and fisherman and even has his own brand of beer now they decided to give the ritual another go with izanagi speaking first and from this union the islands of japan were born along with more kami such as the kami of wind the kami of mountains and the camry of grass finally izanami gave birth to the god of fire and died because well she had just given birth to a baby made of fire izanagi in his grief killed the baby cutting it up in the pieces which then became the volcanoes of japan and some other kami like the dragon watatsumi and the storm god and first sumo wrestler take mekiruchi also at this point there was some human waste kinda lying around and from that some more cameo were born like the adorable clay cami couple hanyasuhiko and haniyasohime and obviously sad and lonely izanagi wanted to see is nami again and so he descended to yomi the gloomy polluted underworld he found izanami down there and when he shone a light on her he saw that his wife was a decaying rotten corpse isn't aggie bolted which enraged izanami who sent an army of demons after him but as he escaped the underworld he sealed the door with a giant boulder protecting the living world from the world of death the obviously furious izanami cursed him and promised to kill a thousand people a day in revenge he's a naggy promise to make sure that 1 500 people were born every day is izanagi covered in the pollution from the underworld wanted to purify himself so he found the river to perform misogyny for purification as he washed cami were born from the clothes he took off and from each part of his body that he washed finally he washed his face when he did this he created the most important kami called the tree precious children from washing his left eye came amaterasu omikami kami of the sun from washington's right eye came suyumi nomikoto kami of the moon and from washing his nose came sano nomikoto kami of storms this is a simplified version of the japanese creation story as told in the oldest surviving texts of japanese history and myth the kojiki and the nihonsuki written in the 8th century this story introduces us to some of the most important aspects of shinto such as kami and purification we don't know much about shinto's origins because shinto has no founders like the buddha no prophets like muhammad or holy books like the bible to tell us how it started but archaeological evidence suggests that practices which could be called shinto like the worship of nature spirits in sacred spaces first appear in japan in the yayoi period around 300 bc to 300 ce the word shinto comes from these two chinese characters shin which means god or spirit the native japanese word for which is kami and this character doll which means way this doll or way is the same as the one in darwism and tells us a lot about shinto it's a way of life a practice more concerned with rituals and community than with belief fate or moral codes literally shinto is the way of the gods or in japanese the way of the kami but what exactly is a kami kami to put it simply shinto is the worship of kami the typical translation of kami into english is god or deity but that's not a great translation kami can be spirits of the landscape forces of nature and the spirits of dead ancestors anything in this world that fills you with a sense of wonder or awe can be a kami it isn't difficult to see how the ancient japanese living in a wondrous world of massive life volcanoes surging rivers powerful waterfalls and vast forests felt that they lived in a world that was fully alive and aware and inhabited by kami in shinto the physical world itself is sacred worthy of respect and you can have a relationship with it so kami can be god-like such as the sun goddess and materasu but the concept also extends to other natural phenomena like mountains rains foxes and earthquakes smallpox has a cami and so does fertility and growth and rice and even hair has its own humble kami in shinto there is no one all powerful god and instead the universe is watched over by the harmonious cooperation of the kami who live in this world alongside humans and generally want them to be happy and prosperous it's a cycle of reciprocity humans respect the kami and the kami take care of the humans kami's are expressions of musubi which is the creative energy of the universe and also a kind of spam based sushi but the spiritual non-spam based musubi literally means to unite it ties everyone and everything in the universe together and so everything is interconnected the landscape nature the kami humans all of them are considered to be always growing in the process of creation kami are not all powerful or all known and are invisible and immaterial but they can live inside certain objects in shrines kami can also have personalities they can be beneficial or malevolent and you can interact with them this communication comes in the form of prayer and offer and sacrifices such as food the japanese worship of kami is a way to maintain a sacred relationship with their surroundings while sunkami like inari the kami of rice are worshiped across japan many kami are deeply local like the cameo of a specific village family or waterfall the kami of nachi falls a single individual tree might even have a kami for example when the kaioshima railway station needed to expand locals protested against the chopping down of this tree because it housed a kami and so the station had to be built around it failing to perform the correct rituals or disrespecting kami can lead to punishment called shimbatsu usually in the form of illness most kami are good but some kami like the magatsuhi nokami the kami of disaster are essentially destructive and cause misfortune but luckily naobi nokami the kami of un disaster is tasked with cleaning up after magatsuhi nokami's destruction there are also the yokai weird and wonderful mischievous monsters that pop up in japanese mythology these can range from terrifying soul devouring demons down to the tofukozu a baby with a massive head that follows you around constantly offering you tofu there are said to be 8 million kami which is just a japanese way of saying an uncountable amount certain important humans can be considered kami both before and after debt like tengen a 10th century scholar who was so smart that he became the kami of academics after dying and who worried students will pray to for look in past and exams or like the emperor of japan who from the meiji period was considered a living kami until renouncing his divinity after japan's surrender in the second world war purity if anything can be called the central ritual of shinto it is purification referred to in general as harai the purpose of purification is to remove spiritual pollution which is called sumi or kegara this pollution is anything that separates someone from the creative musubi nature of all kami kegarai polluters include things like death disease filth and blood world sumi involves actions like crime murder disrespecting your parents and not smikkety smashing the lickety-like button pollution is only temporary in shinto and humans are not considered naturally impure so it's not like sin in other religions shinto doesn't actually preach you any ethics and it has no reward based heaven or punishment based hell in shinto nature is inherently good and impurity is an abnormality that can be cleansed with a ritual impurity must be removed before interacting with a kami in rituals or prayer that's why at the entrance of almost all shinto shrines you'll see a tank of water with wooden ladles people use this to perform a form of haray called timizu you wash your left hand then your right hand and then you pour water into your hand and use that to rinse out your mouth don't drink from the ladle and for the love of amaterasu don't spit the water back into the basin spit it on the floor more extreme versions of harai are called musoyi misoyi includes baiting in the ocean or even standing under a waterfall haray can also be performed with salt in that case it's called shubatsu you can see this purification happen at the beginning of a sumo match when the salt is spread around the ring to keep out impurity one other form of purification ritual involves waving a wand or a haregushi over the thing being purified like a person or even a new car or over a plot of land before construction begins to purify and bring good fortune shrines the most recognizable aspect of shinto is the shrines there are over 100 thousand shrines in japan today from the grand shrine at ize where the sun kami amaterasu omikami is worshipped as the ancestor of the imperial family to the humble mikamijinja in kyoto the only shrine for the worship of kamikami the kami of hair at this shrine you'll hear the prayers of those wishing to be cured from baldness this hair came was actually a man once called masayugi fujiwara who was apparently such a spectacular hairdresser that he became the kami of hair after his death a shrine can meet any place where kami lives and interacts with humans so shrines can be architectural masterpieces like the grand shrine of ize or simple roadside shrines forest shrines or household shrines kami are bound to just one shrine and can be enshrined in a number of different places at the heart of a shinto shrine is the goshintai an object that akami lives in but is not the kami itself it's typically a ritual object like mirrors swords and jewels although one go shintai at a shrine in yokohama is an industrial robot they can also be trees rocks or even a mountain like mount miwa which is the goshintai for the rain kami onononushi shinto shrines are taken care of by shinto priests known as kanushi and the shrines are typically surrounded by forests parks or mountains which today provide large green spaces in modern japanese cities the most important building inside of a shrine is the hondun or main hall which contains the koshintai and is closed to the public in front of the honduran is the heiden or hall of worship where the public can worship and participate in rituals a shrine also generally has tori gates marking the entrance between the sacred area of the shrine and the secular outside world you bow before target before entering to show respect to the kami the most famous tori are the numerous tory gates at the fushikime in aritaisha the main shrine of the rice cami in arie now you only have to bail out the first target because otherwise you would just never get to the shrine a shrine may be missing any of these features though for example omi jinja at miwa has no hondon since the mountain itself is the goshintai this is the most ancient form of shrine built to worship the natural world itself at a shrine you may see a rock or tree or even the shrine itself surrounded by a ritual rope called the shimanawa the shimanawa encircles sacred space keeps it pure and wards off evil spirits ashimi nawa is worn by sumo wrestlers of the highest rank as they are considered to be a yuri shiro a vessel capable of housing a kami and becoming a gold shintai shinto shrines are all accepted and so anyone can visit when visiting the shrine you first walk through atari gate you would then proceed to the kyosubachi to do the tamizu purification of the hands and melt to worship the kami you throw a coin usually a five yen coin into the offering box then you bow twice then you clap twice then you say your prayer followed by another bell to tank the kami after your prayer you can purchase an amulet or a charm for good luck or even an omikuji a piece of paper that is kind of like a fortune lottery that contains good or bad fortunes concerning things like health business and marriage you'll see leftover ones hanging from trees at shrines as people will leave behind omikuji with bad predictions as a way to leave that fortune in the hands of the kami festivals shrines are also the center of matsuri or festivals at matsuri you might see purifications prayers and food offerings called shinzen and cheerful community activities like the makoshi where the kami is literally carried around the community sometimes even being carried into the ocean as an act of purification you might also see contests like sumo horse archery and traditional performances like the kagura dance or no theater one large matsuri is the hatsu mother the first visit to a shinto shrine or buddhist shrine on japanese new year typically between the first and third of january it is estimated that up to 80 percent of japanese people take part in this festival some people even travel through the night in order to be at the shrine as new year begins or to view the sunrise from a mountaintop shrine festival goers enjoy the trip with family friends they eat seasonal foods drink saki and return old amulets for ritual burning and buy new amulets for the new year a much smaller but equally interesting festival is the nakisumo or kryon sumo festival held in may where two enormous sumo wrestlers rock tiny babies in their arms the winner being the one whose baby cries first the babies then receive blessings for good health and fortune for most of its history japan has been an archipelago of belief with heavy influence from across east asia one of the largest impacts of chinese influence was the introduction of buddhism to japan around the 6th century ce buddhism and shindo essentially fused together over the thousand years after buddhism entered japan in a process called shimbutsu shinto shrines and buddhist temples were normally built alongside each other kami were taken up into the buddhist worldview and buddhas were considered to be kami this mixture of japanese belief and general east asian beliefs can be seen in this statement from the edo period it is each man's duty to believe in the kami the buddha and the teachings of confucius for the majority of its history shinto was not an organized religion but was instead the folk religion of japan that was practiced with great diversity across the islands alongside buddhism and other beliefs starting in the 17th century some tinkers began to want to go back to a hypothetical pure japanese culture they referred to this study of japaneseness as kokugaku or national studies the kokugaku scholars wanted to try and remove all non-japanese influence from japanese culture in the mid 19th century the emperor meiji took control of japan and meiji wanted to create a modern nation state with all the fancy things western nations were doing at the time like nationalism and colonial empires he liked the ideas of the kokugaku scholars and wanted to create a culturally united and pure japanese japan shinto would become a nationalistic tool up until this period shinto wasn't really understood as a religion the word shin though kind of just meant japanese religious practice that wasn't buddhist these nationalistic reforms banned all combinations of buddhist temples and shinto shrines meiji also created the shrine bureau which nationalized the hundreds of thousands of community managed shrines and brought them under the control of the state shindo practice was then directed towards the worship of the imperial family who were seen as the divine descendants of the sun goddess amaterasu and the emperor was worshiped as a living kami this state shinto became the belief system in japan during the first half of the 20th century and became a key aspect of the nationalist and imperialist direction that japan went in before and during the second world war and so remains controversial up until today after the war the emperor was forced to renounce his divine nature that he was not a living cami which he kind of did it's it's complicated another part of this was to sever the connection between the state and the shrines shinto was formally separated from the state and from state funding and now the non-governmental association of shinto shrines oversees shinto shrines that was very difficult to say that was a lot of s's in a very short space of time today over 80 percent of japanese people participate in shinto rituals but still the majority say that they don't belong to any religion the common saying within the religious landscape of japan is shinto weddings buddhist funerals even after meiji's attempt to separate them buddhism and shinto in japan remain intertwined in everyday life except in the case of priests most japanese people practice both shinto and buddhism shinto rituals tend to be centered around this world and life events and finding ways to respectfully live with the kami and other human beings people go to a shinto shrine after the birth of a child or at a wedding or for success in studies and business over time buddhism has taken over the afterlife aspect of religion and today funerals and memorials are generally buddhist japanese people easily combine shinto and buddhism in their daily lives shinto is still a practice that offers a way for people to connect with the environment around them and perform respectful rituals towards nature family and their community shinto continues to pop up across japanese culture from respect for dead ancestors to pokemon to studio ghibli films and to the nation's unique relationship with nature in japan shinto continues to be more than a religion it's a way of life a part of the country and its people there's just something gorgeous about the landscape of japan that brings about a sense of wonder and awe something that really hit me when i was watching hidden japan over on curiosity stream it has beautiful shots of the japanese landscape people and these monkeys who are just chilling in a hot tub it's adorable what more could you want doesn't matter we're gonna give you more anyway because kagito and a bunch of our creator friends got 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Channel: Cogito

Views: 895,572

Keywords: japan, history of japan, japanese religion, shinto, shintoism, what is shinto, what is the shinto religion, what is the religion of japan, shinto religion, shintoism beliefs, shintoism 101, shinto explained, japanese religion explained, what are kami, kami explained, japan kami, studio ghibli explained, studio ghibli, anime religion

Id: mX8cz1LEeXw

Length: 22min 42sec (1362 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 23 2021