Shinto
Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan, a life-affirming animism calling upon the blessings of the numinous forces of nature and of specific spirit deities.
Thus, being about nature, Shinto is largely associated with growth and prosperity. It encourages people to be sincere, cheerful, and pure, and to live in relationship with Kami. Kami is sort of a catchall term for invisible spiritual forces that range from the nameless power that inhabits a waterfall, beautiful tree, or enigmatic rock formation, to an actual, personified guardian or helper. Typically, a Shinto religious site can be a formal temple - approached by a vermillion cross-beamed gateway - or an unadorned feature of the Japanese landscape, marked off only by a white straw rope. The devotee presents an offering, claps hands or rings a bell to alert the Spirit of the environment of their presence, and says a prayer to respect and honor them. Small shrines for Kami are also very common in homes and offices. Followers of Shinto celebrate a mythical history of Japan and the special bond between the people and its islands. In the 19th century, Shinto was used to legitimize militaristic and fascist nationalism, a phase that officially came to anend in 1946, after Japan’s defeat in world war 2, when the emperor publicly renounced the belief that he was a living embodiment of Amaterasu, the Shinto goddess of the sun. Shinto is by far the largest religion in Japan, practiced by nearly 80% of the population, yet only a small percentage of these identify themselves as “Shintoists” in surveys. This is because “Shinto” has different meanings in Japan: Most of the Japanese attend Shinto shrines and beseech Kami without want or need to belong to an institutional “Shinto” religion. Therefore, the number of members is often counting those who join organised Shinto sects. Today, there are 81,000 shrines and 85,000 priests across the country.
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