Shinto: Types Of Religion

There are many forms and types of religion throughout the world today. Religion being beliefs in and worship to a higher power. There are ethnic religions, meaning it is associated with certain ethnicity, that of its practitioners. One example of an ethnic religion is Shinto, it is nearly exclusively associated with Japan and the Japanese people. Shinto is an indigenous religious tradition of Japan. Its main concerns are the sacredness of Japan’s landscape, Japanese family ancestors, and heroes within the nation. Shinto helps form and maintain relationships with the sacred from birth to death and beyond (Williams 4). Shinto has no historical founder, it comes from deep religious practices of the Japanese people. Shinto also does not
Author George Williams says the Kami is a divine and holy spirit that lives within all elements and creations. It has to do with anything that has astonishing or higher power. The Kami can be divided into three categories: nature, family ancestors, and heroes of a nation. The Kami of nature refers to the experiences of the awesome features of nature. Shinto is to be experienced, not confessed. The Kami in nature can be experienced through the aspects in nature, such as, waterfalls, trees, mountains, and fields (Williams 34-35). Sokyo Ono says the Kami of nature is admiring the natural beauty in one’s surroundings. Tree worship is a common Shinto practice. The trees help one find the Kami of nature, they are believed to be the special dwelling of the Kami. Mountain worship is another form of Shinto practice. It is the oldest type, no shrines are necessary, the mountains are the shrines (Ono
Shinto is primarily a “life religion,” dealing with the world around us, bountifulness of nature, and fertility. It is believed that person’s spirit continues to remain around after death. The spirit stays to benefit the lives of the living. The deceased member becomes a tama for thirty-three years before merging with the Kami. Shinto followers may look to the Buddhist ideas about afterlife, they believe the soul is assigned to hell or a paradise type place. Most Japanese do not find conflict in encompassing both Shinto’s Kami and tama with Buddhist’s soul assignment concept. The majority of Japanese decide to be cremated and placed in Buddhist cemeteries. However, there are two Shinto cemeteries today, one is for imperial family only. Shinto believers also demonstrate a belief in obake, ghost. These are spirits of people who were afflicted by others in their lifetime. They seek revenge from those who caused their suffering. These ideas and beliefs have influenced Shinto from the start and continue to influence the practitioners up to current date (Littleton