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KAMI personal and
transcendent
awe-inspiring spirit made
object of worship
From ancient times,
beginning with
Grand
Shrine of Ise, shrine
s
established throughout
country
Classes
individual ancestors worshipped as kami
most numerous guardians of necessities of life
those who have
given lives for
state are
worshipped as kami
by the state
Distinctive sacred tree is
evergreen sakaki.
Found on grounds of
shrines and branches
used in ceremonies
Decree of Emperor Kotuku 807 C.E.
"The empire was entrusted
by the Sun
Goddess to her descendants
with the words
"My children, in their
capacity of deities,
since heaven and earth began,
has been a
monarchy. ...The duty develoved
upon us in
our capacity as
Celestial Divinity, to
regulate
these things."
Kojiki 712 CE
Nihongi 720 C.E.
Both tell story of
creation, birth of many
kami, and conquests
of early Japanese
emperors and armies.
Kojiki brings record
down to reign of
Empress Suiko in 628 C.E.
Nihongii repeats story with variant versions to year 697 C.E.
With advent of Buddhism
All deities of
Shinto pantheon are
Tendai sect
Founded by Dengy Daishi
Bushido Code (code of warrior)
Samurai = Guards
Combines Buddhist
fatalism and
(1615-1868)
Lords and Samurai
Tea ceremony; attendance
Merchants
Principle of saisei itchi
"From the beginning
of the establishment of
the affairs of government
by the Great
Ancestress (Amaterasu
Omikami) she
worshipped the gods
and cherished the
people with tender
affection. The origin of
"Religious ceremonies and
government were
Texts from Kojiki
Creation
Now when chaos had begun
to condense, but
force and form were not
yet manifest, and
there was nought named,
nought done, who
could know its shape?
Nevertheless Heaven
and Earth first parted,
and the three deities
performed the commencement
of creation;
the passive and active
Essences then
developed, and the
Two spirits became
ancestors of all things.
...So, in the dimness
of the great commencement,
we, by relying
on the original teaching,
learn the time of
the completion of the earth
and of the birth
of islands; in the remoteness
of the original
beginning, we, by trusting
the former sages,
perceive the era of the
genesis of deities and
the establishment of men.
From Nihongi
Establishment of Shrine at Ise
Now Amaterasu Omikami
instructed
Yamato-hime no Mikoto
saying, "The
province of Ise,
of the divine wind,
is the
land whither repair the
waves of the eternal
world... It is a secluded
and pleasant land.
In this land I wish to
dwell." In compliance
therefore, with the
instruction of the great
goddess, a shire was
erected to her in the
province of Ise....It was
there that
Amaterasu Omikami first
descended from
heaven.
Recent texts
Spiritual Mission of
Emperor (Dec. 21,
1920)
The people and gods...
are only working to
accomplish this greatest
and loftiest task of
unifying the world under
the sway of the
Emperor of Japan....
We are only aiming at
making the Emperor of
Japan rule and
govern the whole world,
as he is the only
ruler in the world who
retains the spiritual
mission inherited
from the remotest
ancestors in the
Divine World.
Temporary: (August 16, 1945)
We have bowed to the enemy's
material and
scientific power.
However, in spiritual
power we have not lost
yet. We do not think
the way we have thought
has been wrong.
We are still fighting for the
independence of
East Asia. We have lost,
but this is
temporary.
Corporate Mentality
Another distinguishing
characteristic of
Shinto lies in what may
be called
corporateness. In many
other religions men
as individuals are set
over against the gods.
In Shinto we are merged
with our fellow
men about us and with the
unseen host of
ancestors that have gone
before us and, as a
great spiritiual body,
united with the divine.
We are made of one line
with the kami
through our ancestors...
There are three
things which are
inseparable: our race which
is our ancestral inheritance,
our country,
which is our ancestral home,
and our faith,
wherewith our loyalties
are sustained. This
is the true Way of the Gods.
(6th century C.E.)
Shinto entered second period
(born 774 C.E.)
-- turned from Confucianism
in youth; in
shrine of Tse received
revelation from Food
Processing Goddess
which showed him way
to reconciliation of
Shinto with Buddhism
avatars of
Buddha
in 788 C.E.
acceptance of
inevitability in
finding union
with absolute and Shinto's
reverence for and
loyalty to sovereign and
divinity of very soil
of Japanese islands
Tokugawa period of Shoguns
Rigid system of social classes
Emperor
at "No" plays
Farmers
one and the same
(aisei itchi) and the
innumerable subjects united.