What is Shinto?

imagine a religion with no systematized doctrine or theology no sacred text no founder a religion in which many people practice the rituals but don't claim to be religious this religion is shinto often described as a tradition indigenous to japan but what is shinto all about well it's in the name itself shinto which can be translated as the way of the kami and what are kami well kami is tough to translate into english some translate it as gods or spirits but kami are way more complicated than that sure some kami can be thought of as gods or spirits in the common sense of a divine personality according to shinto mythology recorded in the kojiki and nihonshoki 8th century texts that are part myth and part history the kami izanami and izanagi created the earthly realm this heavenly duo stirred the ocean with a spear and the salt that dripped down created the first island they populated the world with all sorts of kami and natural phenomena including their three noble children the sun goddessa matarasu and her brothers the moon god sukuyomi and susano the storm god the term kami can also refer to impersonal divine forces akami might be the spirit of a natural feature like a river or mountain a natural force like wind thunder or fire kami may also inhabit sacred man-made objects such as mirrors swords and comma-shaped jewels called magatama these objects also make up the three imperial regalia sacred treasures passed down to the emperor by a matarasu to signify his divine authority even certain humans can become kami after they die such as tengen the kami of education tenjin is the deified 10th century scholar sugowara nomichizane whose spirit was believed to have haunted the court until a shrine was built for him today students and parents will pray to him for success on their entrance exams it's sometimes said that there are eight million kami in other words countless kami however kami are very different from the concept of gods in other religions especially in religions like christianity judaism or islam in which god is transcendent kami are down to earth what i mean by that is that shinto does not distinguish between a natural and a supernatural reality there is one reality that humans and kami inhabit together but it's split between the realm that we can see and an invisible realm kami are also not omnipotent and they're not necessarily good or evil too kami have generative powers musubi and encourage harmonious relationships between humans and other living beings on the flip side they can also punish people with illness misfortune and even natural disasters when angry so what are the origins of shinto keeping in mind that there's not a single orthodox shinto tradition scholars have traced kami veneration back to ancient times the scholar helen hardacre writes that the yayoi period between 400 bce and 300 ce is the earliest we can identify ritual practices that are reasonably linked to shinto practice later such as ritual objects like these bronze bells called dotaku and the kama shaped magatama that i mentioned earlier but the term shinto only appears in the 6th century when buddhism spread to japan buddhism had such a huge influence on shinto that the two were practically indistinguishable for big parts of japanese history but i'll talk about that later in episode two kami veneration began as a super local practice focusing on performing rituals for the good of the community and agricultural production each villager clan had its own rituals and patron kami known as ujigami over time people migrated and merged into states until the establishment of a unified system of rule with the yamato court the yamato kings claimed that their divine ancestor amaterasu gave them the right to rule they promoted their own ritual traditions and became major supporters of shrines who supported the court in return still each shrine had its own myths and rituals even though they might enshrine the exact same kami as the other shrines and in fact many powerful shrines had their own school of shinto too including the ise shrine complex where a matarasu is enshrined however local shrine traditions continued to be the most relevant for the masses although certain kami and major sites gained wide popularity in the medieval and tokugawa periods shinto underwent a huge transformation in the 19th century when the leaders of the meiji restoration overthrew the samurai government in favor of the emperor the state promoted the ise shrines and public veneration of amaterasu and the emperor two new categories of shinto were created state shinto a state-sponsored program for civil rituals and sect shinto referring to shinto traditions and new religious movements related to shinto that were designated as private religious organizations after world war ii the western powers legally classified shinto as a religion and separate it from the state there is way more to talk about shinto before during and after the world wars if you want to learn more about the modern politics of shinto stay tuned for episode 3 of the series first i want to talk about how shinto is way more about what you practice than what you believe yes shinto has its own moral philosophy shinto promotes purity sincerity and gratitude as its primary virtues while shinto teaches that improper and harmful actions tsumi can pollute a person it really isn't equivalent to the christian concept of original sin because humans are not considered to be innately or permanently polluted yes people should try to avoid pollution when they can but the pollution that inevitably accumulates can be purified through rituals which leads us to shrine practice as you've probably figured out today kami veneration is done at shrines or jinja there are somewhere between eighty thousand and a hundred thousand shrines in japan and even some across the world they can range from structures the size of a mailbox to the massive ise grand shrine complex which includes a total of 125 shrines you can identify a shinto shrine from a buddhist temple by its iconic toriigate which represents the boundary of the shrine's sacred precinct shrines can just have one or thousands of torii gates like the famous fushimi inari in kyoto ropes woven out of straw or hemp called shimanawa also mark off sacred space shimanawa are hung with white paper shaped like lightning bolts that symbolize purification you'll often see shimanawa hanging on torii gates ritual washing stations and sacred rocks and trees shrines are where the kami are thought to dwell when they interact with humans they can enshrine just one or a bunch of different kami every day shinto priests conduct rituals for the kami which involve purification offerings and chanting prayers called norito sometimes dances are performed to entertain the kami in exchange for a donation shrine visitors can request priests to perform personal prayers on their behalf and receive ritual items such as amulets fortunes and other charms tens of thousands of shinto priests manage these shrines both men and women can become shinto priests and unlike catholic priests or some buddhist monks shinto priests can marry and have kids now many priests come from specific shrine families but technically anyone can train to become one if you're not ashamed a priest you yourself can visit shrines as frequently or infrequently as you like tons of people visit shrines for seasonal rituals and festivals throughout the year and rites of passage like weddings or the birth of a child even if a person doesn't regularly visit a shrine they'll often go to pray for blessings during the new year during a typical visit you first bow at the first tory gate to show respect to the kami then visit a ritual washing station with flowing water and wooden ladles called a temizuya after you've purified yourself you can go greet the kami ring the bell throw a coin as an offering bow twice clap twice to get the kami's attention and bow once more when you're finished before you leave you can hang a vote of plaque to leave behind a prayer and commemorate your visit with a special collectible stamp called a goshuin now even though shinto is one of the two major religions in japan today measuring religiosity in japan is notoriously difficult due to contradictory data anywhere between 50 to 70 percent of the population visit shrines but the majority of people have reported in government surveys that while they visit shrines all the time in temples and participate in rituals they don't have a religious affiliation and don't consider themselves to be religious for a lot of westerners this is a very different way to think about religious affiliation growing up in the united states i'm accustomed to people claiming religious affiliation if you attend a christian church and believe christian doctrine generally it follows that you identify as a christian at least nominally the religious affiliation and practice are a package deal but in japan you can bring your kids to the shinto shrine attend the new year festivals or buy an amulet at a shrine without ever identifying as shinto in fact shinto priests are often happy for people of different religions to visit shrines and pay their respects to the kami as long as you do it correctly and respectfully so next time you're in japan make time to check out some shinto shrines for yourself as always thanks for watching and i'll see you next time hey everyone that was episode one in a five part series on shinto here are the other episodes i'm gonna try to release them maybe every other week over the next few months but first i would like to introduce the sponsor for this episode the freedom forum's religious freedom center they're a non-profit non-sectarian nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public about the principles of the first amendment of the u.s constitution i actually used to work for them a few years ago here's my face on their faculty page uh so actually i was helping them design and teach some of their online courses about world religions and religious literacy and some religion for breakfast videos were actually filmed in their studios such as my intro to sikhi video and my intro to islam video so i can say confidently that they are friends of the show and that they share religion for breakfast mission to advance religious literacy from a non-sectarian perspective so the religious freedom center is hosting a series of online lectures or seminars on american religious history the first one is on thursday october 1st at 1 o'clock p.m that's u.s east coast time and the topic is on something that might be fitting for a bunch of people living in a pandemic it's on a smallpox epidemic that struck boston in 1721 and how an enslaved african man named onesimus taught the puritan minister cotton mather how to inoculate against the smallpox virus so among other things you'll learn about how the boston medical professionals and religious leaders reacted to reverend mother trying to inoculate people with this new african technique spoiler alert they did not react well it's a very interesting episode in american religious history so here's a link to signing up for the seminar on screen the seminar is completely free and it's made possible by generous support from the arthur vining davis foundation another nonprofit organization that's committed to religious literacy everyone should check out this seminar link is in the description below thanks for watching i'll see you next time

Channel: ReligionForBreakfast

Views: 271,125

Keywords: Shinto, Shintoism, what is Shinto?, Shinto Explained, Shintoism Explained, Japanese Religions, Japanese Religion, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, kami, Amaterasu, Japan, religion, religious studies, Tenjin, Tokyo, Osaka, Meiji Restoration

Id: qlKeVY_FsVg

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 30 2020