Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Religions

Shinto

SHIN-toh
Also Known As Shintoism The -ism form English speakers commonly use.
Polytheistic (Animist)

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Origin 300 BCE to 712 CE

Shinto is the ritual tradition of the kami of Japan: powers present in mountains, rivers, trees, storms, ancestors and exceptional people, honoured at shrines called jinja and approached through the gateway of a torii. It has no founder, no creed, and no scripture with the authority a bible has elsewhere, and its weight falls on purification, offering and festival rather than on belief. For more than a thousand years it was inseparable from Buddhism; the two were prised apart by government order only in 1868. Most people in Japan take part in shrine rites at new year, at birth and at marriage without calling themselves believers, which makes any adherent figure for Shinto meaningless.

History & Origin

Shinto has no single founder or founding scripture; its practices and shrine traditions developed from indigenous Japanese veneration of kami, codified in part by the eighth century chronicles the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.

Facts
Status
Status Today
Living tradition, practised today 1
Reach
Adherents Today
An Agency for Cultural Affairs statistical survey found 84.7 million Shinto believers in Japan as of December 31, 2016, self-reported by Shinto institutions; the total, alongside an equally large reported Buddhist figure, exceeds Japan's population because many people are counted as adherents of both. 3
Giving
Standing Giving ExpectationSourced to the subject's own account
Local shrine support in Shinto runs through ujiko status: households and individuals of a locality are traditionally regarded as under the protection of, and in turn responsible for supporting, their tutelary kami's shrine, historically formalized by a Meiji-era 1871-1873 law requiring registration and issuance of ujikofuda amulets, a system some scholars read as paralleling the Buddhist danka temple registration regime of the same period. That formal registration mechanism did not survive into the present: under Japan's postwar Religious Corporation Law, "the shrine ujiko system has lost its administrative regulations and has turned into something maintained only by practice and belief." What remains is customary rather than legal or institutional: ujiko help arrange seasonal festivals, carry the shrine's mikoshi in procession, and support the shrine's upkeep as an "obligation" borne of local belonging rather than compulsion, with no fixed monetary rate and no registration, certificate or penalty attached today. 5
How the Expectation Is Enforced
Customary Norm 6
Origins
Origin Period
300 BCE to 712 CE 1
Origin Period
The first written codification is the Kojiki of 712 CE, and Shinto as a named, self-conscious tradition is later still 1
Place of Origin
The Japanese archipelago 1
Founder
None 1
Form of the Confession
Shinto has no fixed creed or catechism comparable to the Nicene Creed or the Shahada. Its coherence rests on shrine practice, purification and the seasonal festival calendar rather than assent to stated propositions. The State Shinto attempt to standardise doctrine in the Meiji era was a break from this older pattern, not a continuation of it. 2
Belief
Theology
Polytheistic: many gods 1
Theology
Animist: persons and powers in land, water and living things 1
Observance
Observance Note
Shinto has no funeral rite of its own. Death is kegare, ritual pollution, so funerals in Japan are overwhelmingly conducted by Buddhist clergy, a division of labor hardened by the Edo-period danka temple registration system. Shrines handle birth, growth and marriage; a household typically keeps both a kamidana and a butsudan, and calls the Buddhist priest when someone dies. 1
Practice
Practice Status
Partly restricted: some elements are closed to outsiders 4
Sourced to the subject's own accountMost Shinto shrine worship is open to the public and widely documented, but a small number of the most important rites, including certain ceremonies at the largest shrines performed only by their own priesthood, are not open to outside observation or full publication. General practice is open; specific high-shrine inner rites are the documented exception.
Law and State
Establishment Status
Disestablished 7
State Shinto, Kokka Shinto, held quasi-official status as Imperial Japan's state cult from the Meiji era administrative settlement until the Allied occupation's Shinto Directive of December 1945 and Japan's 1947 constitution ended the arrangement, separating religion from the state.
Trajectory
Membership Over Time
84.7 million self-reported Shinto believers in Japan, per the Agency for Cultural Affairs' annual statistical survey of religion. 3
Membership Figure As Of
2016-12-31 3
Basis of the Membership Figure
Church-Reported Rolls 3
Institutions' own reports, aggregated nationally by a Japanese government cultural agency rather than counted from individuals directly.
Learn More
Kami, and What a Shrine Is For

Kami is not translated well by "god". The word covers the powers of striking places and things (a waterfall, an old tree, a rock, a mountain, a storm), as well as ancestors, the dead of a locality, historical figures, and abstractions such as growth or the harvest. Some kami are known across the country and appear in the eighth-century court chronicles; most are local, tied to one shrine and one community, and have no mythology at all beyond being there.

A jinja is the kami's residence rather than a hall for congregational worship. The visitor passes a torii, which marks the boundary between ordinary and sacred ground, rinses mouth and hands at a water basin, and makes an offering with a bow, two claps and a bow at the outer hall. The inner sanctuary holds an object in which the kami is understood to be present and is not open, in some cases not even to most of the priesthood.

The organising concern is purity rather than sin. Pollution is contracted from death, blood, illness and disorder, and is removed by washing, by salt, and by the priest's purification rite. It is a condition, not a moral fault, and it is treated by cleaning rather than by repentance. This is why Shinto handles birth, marriage, new buildings, new cars and new businesses, while funerals in Japan are overwhelmingly Buddhist.

Festivals, matsuri, are the tradition at its most visible: the kami is invited into a portable shrine and carried through the district it protects, with music, food stalls, drinking and crowds. The atmosphere is closer to a fair than to a service, which is a fair reflection of what the occasion is for.

There is no creed to assent to and no membership to take up. Participation is what there is, and it is generally understood as belonging to a place and its community rather than as a statement about belief.

The State, the Shrines and the War

Shinto's modern shape was made by government decisions, and they are worth stating precisely because the subject is politically contested.

Until 1868, kami and buddhas were served together. Shrines stood in temple grounds, Buddhist clergy conducted kami rites, and doctrines developed explaining kami as protectors of the Buddhist teaching or as its local manifestations. The Meiji government ordered them separated. Edicts from 1868 required shrines to expel Buddhist clergy, images and vocabulary, and the resulting haibutsu kishaku agitation destroyed a great deal of Buddhist property before the state pulled back in the 1870s. The separation was never completed, but it created the modern impression that Shinto and Buddhism are two distinct religions.

The state then organised shrines into a national ranking, appointed and paid priests at the higher grades, merged or closed thousands of small shrines, and defined shrine rites as non-religious civic observance. That definition mattered: it allowed the government to require attendance from schoolchildren, soldiers and colonial subjects in Korea and Taiwan while formally maintaining freedom of religion. The arrangement, usually called State Shinto, tied the shrines to the imperial institution and, in the 1930s and 1940s, to mobilisation for war.

The occupation dismantled it. The directive of 15 December 1945 ended public funding, official sponsorship and the teaching of State Shinto doctrine in schools. On 1 January 1946 the emperor issued a rescript that the Allied command presented as a renunciation of divinity; Japanese scholars have argued since that the wording says something narrower, and the reading is still disputed.

Yasukuni Shrine carries the unresolved part. It enshrines those who died in the service of the state, and in 1978 the names of fourteen men convicted as Class A war criminals were added. Visits by prime ministers and cabinet members draw formal protests from China and South Korea, are defended in Japan as private mourning and a matter of sovereignty, and are opposed by many Japanese as well. The dispute is live and this entry takes no side in it.

Shinto Now

Roughly 80,000 shrines operate in Japan, most affiliated to the Association of Shinto Shrines, the private body formed in 1946 to replace state administration. It sets standards for priests and ritual, though individual shrines are largely self-governing and some large ones, including Yasukuni, stand outside it.

Counting believers does not work here. Surveys asking Japanese people whether they hold a religion typically get low figures, while surveys asking whether they visited a shrine at new year get high ones, and both are honest answers to different questions. Something like two thirds of the population makes the new year shrine visit, hatsumode. Newborns are presented at a shrine, children are taken at the ages marked by the shichi-go-san rite, many weddings use Shinto form, and construction sites are commonly purified before building starts. The same households will use Buddhist rites for funerals and memorial days without any sense of contradiction.

Institutionally the tradition faces the same demographic problem as rural Japan generally. Depopulation has left many shrines without a resident priest, with one priest serving a dozen or more, and without the local subscriptions that maintained buildings. Large urban and pilgrimage shrines, Ise and Meiji Jingu among them, are by contrast very well attended.

Politically, the Association has an affiliated lobby that campaigns for constitutional revision, official recognition of shrine rites and patriotic education. Its influence is a matter of active argument in Japan, with critics tracing continuity from prewar state doctrine and defenders describing ordinary civic advocacy. It is worth separating that argument from the shrines themselves: the great majority of shrine activity is local, seasonal and unconcerned with national politics.

Spread History
Shinto Spread Map Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe The Meiji Government Establishes State Shinto, Japan, 1868 to 1900, DominantThe Meiji Constitution Enshrines State Shinto as Civic Duty, Japan, 1889, EstablishedShinto Arrives In Hawaii With Japanese Immigrants, United States, 1898, ArrivedJapan's Home Ministry Orders the Shrine Merger Policy, Japan, 1906, DominantThe Chosen Jingu Imperial Shrine Opens in Seoul, South Korea, 1925, EstablishedWartime Suspicion Suppresses Shinto In America, United States, 1941 to 1955, SuppressedGHQ's Shinto Directive Disestablishes State Shinto, Japan, 1945 to 1946, SuppressedThe Association Of Shinto Shrines Organizes After Disestablishment, Japan, 1946, RevivedJapan Enacts the Religious Corporations Law, Japan, 1951, EstablishedThe Association of Shinto Shrines Wins Reinstatement of National Foundation Day, Japan, 1967, EstablishedTsubaki Grand Shrine Opens The First Shinto Shrine On The US Mainland, United States, 1986, ArrivedEmperor Akihito Performs the First Daijosai Since State Shinto's Disestablishment, Japan, 1990, EstablishedMount Fuji Joins UNESCO's World Heritage List, Japan, 2013, EstablishedEmperor Naruhito Completes the Sokui no Rei and Daijosai Enthronement Rites, Japan, 2019, EstablishedTsubaki Grand Shrine of America Relocates to Vancouver Island, Canada, Canada, 2023, ArrivedIse Grand Shrine Begins Its Sixty Third Shikinen Sengu Rebuilding Cycle, Japan, 2025, Established

Marker size and shape show how established Shinto was there: a small filled dot for an arrival, a larger one for an established or dominant presence, and a hollow, distinct marker where it was suppressed or nearly disappeared, never simply absent.

View the Full Spread Map

  1. The Meiji Government Establishes State ShintoJapan, 1868 to 1900, Dominant
  2. The Meiji Constitution Enshrines State Shinto as Civic DutyJapan, 1889, Established
  3. Shinto Arrives In Hawaii With Japanese ImmigrantsUnited States, 1898, Arrived
  4. Japan's Home Ministry Orders the Shrine Merger PolicyJapan, 1906, Dominant
  5. The Chosen Jingu Imperial Shrine Opens in SeoulSouth Korea, 1925, Established
  6. Wartime Suspicion Suppresses Shinto In AmericaUnited States, 1941 to 1955, Suppressed
  7. GHQ's Shinto Directive Disestablishes State ShintoJapan, 1945 to 1946, Suppressed
  8. The Association Of Shinto Shrines Organizes After DisestablishmentJapan, 1946, Revived
  9. Japan Enacts the Religious Corporations LawJapan, 1951, Established
  10. The Association of Shinto Shrines Wins Reinstatement of National Foundation DayJapan, 1967, Established
  11. Tsubaki Grand Shrine Opens The First Shinto Shrine On The US MainlandUnited States, 1986, Arrived
  12. Emperor Akihito Performs the First Daijosai Since State Shinto's DisestablishmentJapan, 1990, Established
  13. Mount Fuji Joins UNESCO's World Heritage ListJapan, 2013, Established
  14. Emperor Naruhito Completes the Sokui no Rei and Daijosai Enthronement RitesJapan, 2019, Established
  15. Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America Relocates to Vancouver Island, CanadaCanada, 2023, Arrived
  16. Ise Grand Shrine Begins Its Sixty Third Shikinen Sengu Rebuilding CycleJapan, 2025, Established
Denominations of Shinto
In the Texts
Kojiki, Section I: The Beginning of Heaven and EarthThe Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matterscreation, cosmos

The names of the Deities that were born in the Plain of High Heaven when the Heaven and Earth began were the Deity Master-of-the-August-Centre-of-Heaven, next the High-August-Producing-Wondrous Deity, next the Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity. These three Deities were all Deities born alone, and hid their persons.

The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters. translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain.

About This Passage

Kojiki, Section X: The Purification of the August PersonThe Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matterspurification

The name of the Deity that was born as he thereupon washed his left august eye was the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity. The name of the Deity that was next born as he washed his right august eye was His Augustness, Moon-Night Possessor. The name of the Deity that was next born as he washed his august nose was His Brave-Swift-impetuous-Male-Augustness.

The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters. translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain.

About This Passage

Correspondences & Relations

Pantheons

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Aikido, Practices

Through Ueshiba's Omoto faith, a Shinto-derived new religion

Classical Japanese already carries core Shinto liturgical texts (Oharae no Kotoba, the Oharae rite, Sect Shinto itself) as originates-in-language edges.

Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Emperor Shomu, Figures

His consultation of Ise and Usa Hachiman before the Great Buddha, and the bringing of Hachiman to Nara, is a founding episode of the long combination of kami and buddhas.

Source Buddhas and Kami in Japan: Honji Suijaku as a Combinatory ParadigmMark Teeuwen and Fabio Rambelli (eds)

Reigned as head of the imperial cult central to Shinto while personally patronizing the newly arrived Buddhist establishment, sponsoring temple building across the Yamato court.

A government agency, not a shrine. It administers the imperial regalia and the court rites, which are Shinto in form; Japan's postwar constitution treats those rites as the emperor's private observance rather than as state religion.

Source Imperial Household Agency (institutional record)the holders' own account
Japan, Countries

Indigenous kami worship practiced alongside Buddhism, without exclusive identification for most adherents.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center
Source Japanese Religion: Unity and DiversityH. Byron Earhart
Kyudo, Practices

Shinto ritual archery survives in shrine ceremony

The temple's library holds the oldest surviving manuscript of the Kojiki, the earliest account of the kami and of the imperial line's descent from them.

Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Seijin-shiki, Rituals

A civic ceremony with Shinto-linked roots and shrine-visit customs

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

His postmortem veneration as the kami Tenjin, after the goryo pattern of pacifying a wronged spirit, is where this figure's religious record in this atlas ultimately sits.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Amaterasu, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Ame-no-Uzume, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)

Shinto shrines are guarded by animals that serve particular kami, foxes for Inari, deer at Kasuga, monkeys at Hie, and these are understood as messengers of the kami rather than as personal guides or totems in the modern sense.

Benzaiten, Figures
Source The Dragon in China and JapanMarinus Willem de Visser
Chinkon, Practices
Daijosai, Rituals
Source A New History of ShintoJohn Breen and Mark Teeuwen

Its own text: "worn by Shinto priests with their vestments."

Source A New History of ShintoJohn Breen and Mark Teeuwen

Ema are wooden plaques left at a shrine carrying a written request. The name means horse picture, from the live horses once given instead.

Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University

Emperor Jimmu is the legendary terminus of the Shinto imperial genealogy descending from Amaterasu.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Senior leadership office of Shinto.

Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Source Shinto: The Kami WaySokyo Ono with William P. Woodard
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Gagaku, Sacred Sound
Source Ancient Japanese RitualsErnest Mason Satow (translator)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Harae, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Hatsumode, Practices
Source A Year in the Life of a Shinto ShrineJohn K. Nelson

UNESCO's own Intangible Cultural Heritage record names Shinto outright as a concept tag and describes this dance's origin as worship of Mount Hayachine as a deity, the performancework the atlas was missing for the tradition.

Source Hayachine Kagura (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage)UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
Hifumi Norito, Mantras
Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Hirohito, Figures

Head of the imperial house and the living centre of the shrine system until the establishment was dismantled in 1945 and 1946.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Hoori, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)

Japanese households set sticks upright before an image, a Shinto-linked domestic practice.

Source The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)Anonymous (multiple authors)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source UNESCO World Heritage ListUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Izanagi, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Izanami, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Source A New History of ShintoJohn Breen and Mark Teeuwen

Its own record calls it a rank of Shinto shrine.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

Its own record calls it a Shinto shrine, the dwelling of a kami.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

Its own text: "worn by Shinto priests where the coloured kariginu would be too formal."

Source Shinto: The Kami WaySokyo Ono with William P. Woodard
Kagura, Rituals
Source A New History of ShintoJohn Breen and Mark Teeuwen
Kagura, Sacred Dances

Kagura is danced at shrines and in the court rite, and its warrant is the mythology of the kami themselves.

Kami, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Kannagara, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

A folk water-spirit tradition tied to local river and pond belief rather than to canonical Buddhist doctrine.

Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University

Its own text: "worn by Shinto priests for formal rites."

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Kegare, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Kemari, Rituals
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Konkokyo, Religions
Source Japanese Religion: Unity and DiversityH. Byron Earhart
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Kyudo, Practices

Kyudo's spiritual register draws on Shinto ritual archery, still seen in shrine ceremonies.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Matsuri, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

A Shinto shrine enshrining the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Misogi, Practices
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Mitama, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Musubi, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Niiname-sai, Rituals
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Ninigi, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Source Ancient Japanese RitualsErnest Mason Satow (translator)
Source Ancient Japanese RitualsErnest Mason Satow (translator)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University

An ofuda is a shrine talisman placed in the household kamidana, and it is renewed each year.

Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Oharae, Rituals
Source Engishiki: Procedures of the Engi EraTranslated by Felicia Gressitt Bock
Source Engishiki: Procedures of the Engi EraTranslated by Felicia Gressitt Bock
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Okami, Games
Source Okami (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Okina, Rituals

An omamori is a shrine amulet that is not opened, and it is returned to a shrine to be burned rather than thrown away.

Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University

Omikuji are drawn lots giving a graded fortune. An unwanted one is tied at the shrine so the luck stays there.

Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Omoikane, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Source Shinto: The Kami WaySokyo Ono with William P. Woodard
Osechi, Sacred Foods
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Pilgrimage, Practices
Source The Qur'an
Source Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A HistoryMary Beard, John North and Simon Price
Reiki, Disciplines

Reiki arose in Japan in the 1920s in a culture shaped by Shinto sensibilities of unseen force and of purification, and its early practice drew on Japanese spiritual currents of the period; Shinto itself neither teaches nor recognises it.

Source Reiki: What You Need To KnowNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
Source Repatriation of the Freavnantjahke gievrieMeininger Museenthe holders' own account
Saikai, Practices
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Sarutahiko, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Seijin-shiki, Rituals

Seijin-shiki carries Shinto-linked shrine-visit custom alongside its civic ceremony.

Source The Rites of PassageArnold van Gennep; Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee (trans.)
Setsubun, Rituals
Source Shinto: The Kami WaySokyo Ono with William P. Woodard

The Seven Lucky Gods are venerated within Japanese religious life alongside Shinto practice, though most of the seven were absorbed from Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist sources.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The shake were the hereditary priestly families of Shinto, holding shrine office by descent until the Meiji reforms replaced hereditary succession with state appointment.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Shamanism, Disciplines

The earliest Japanese sources describe female mediums who spoke for the kami, and Himiko of the Chinese accounts is read in that light; organised shrine Shinto has long since displaced them, and the surviving mediums, the itako of the north, stand outside the shrine system.

Shichi-Go-San, Rituals
Source Shinto: The Kami WaySokyo Ono with William P. Woodard
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Shinsen, Sacred Foods
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Shinsosai, Rituals

The minority Shinto funeral form, from the Meiji period.

Source A New History of ShintoJohn Breen and Mark Teeuwen

The Library of Congress American Folklife Center's own research guide to this field recording collection names Shinto music and songs outright as a distinct component, making this the first musical work the atlas holds for the tradition.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

Its central setting, a bathhouse where kami come to be purified, is read by peer reviewed religious-studies scholarship as Shrine Shinto and Japanese folk religious imagery translated directly into image and plot, more heavily than in any of the director's other translated films.

Source Shinto Directive (SCAPIN-448)General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers
Sukunabikona, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Sumo, Practices

The ring consecration, salt purification and referee's dress are Shinto ritual

Susanoo, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)

Its own record calls it a title borne by major Shinto shrines, matching Shinto already carried by Jingu and Jinja in this same fill.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Takamagahara, Realms
Tamashii, Doctrines
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Temizu, Practices
Source A Year in the Life of a Shinto ShrineJohn K. Nelson
Source Rituals and Ceremonies (Ise Jingu, Official Website)Jingu Administration Office (Ise Jingu)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Toyotama-hime, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Tsukuyomi, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Watatsumi, Figures
Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)
Yomi, Realms
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Passages on This

Regions Where This Is Principal

Japan, Regions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Related To

Buddhism, Religions

Shinto largely delegates funeral rites to Buddhism because of the Shinto treatment of death as kegare, ritual pollution; the division dates to the Edo-period danka temple registration system.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Bushido, Doctrines
Okami, Games
Source Okami (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Onmyodo was a Heian court office resting on Chinese yin-yang and calendrical science. Its practitioners served the same court as the shrine priesthood and it is not itself a Shinto office.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of World ReligionsJohn Bowker (ed.)
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

Sacred to This Deity

Kyoto, Cities

Kyoto was the seat of the emperor's Shinto ceremonial role and home to major shrines including Fushimi Inari Taisha.

Source Kyoto: A Cultural HistoryJohn Dougill

The Yuki Shrine fire festival is among the best known in the Kyoto region.

Okinoshima received state ritual deposits for safe passage, and the Munakata shrines hold it sacred.

Spread Events

Adds a milestone in Shinto history between the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America's founding in 1986 and Mount Fuji joining UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2013, both already recorded here: Emperor Akihito's Daijosai of 22 and 23 November 1990, the first performed since State Shinto's 1945 disestablishment and the subject of lawsuits over its public funding under the postwar constitution.

Closes a 13 year gap since 2013's Mount Fuji Joins UNESCO's World Heritage List, the most recent event already on Shinto's map, with the most recent performance of the imperial enthronement rites.

Source Naruhito Proclaims His Enthronement in Ancient Ceremony (Reuters)Elaine Lies and Kiyoshi Takenaka

The homeland reversal that closes State Shinto's arc, four years after the tradition's existing 1941 wartime-suspicion event in America, giving the map both the American diaspora's and the homeland's own wartime-era experience side by side.

Source Shinto Directive (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Closes a two year gap since 2023's citation of the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America's relocation, moving the map from Shinto's overseas presence back to the tradition's own most sacred site beginning its next twenty year renewal.

Adds a specific, dated milestone in Shinto's postwar institutional history between the Association of Shinto Shrines organizing in 1946 and Tsubaki Grand Shrine opening the first Shinto shrine on the US mainland in 1986, both already recorded here: Japan's 3 April 1951 Religious Corporations Law, giving Shinto shrines legal standing as independent religious corporations.

Adds a specific, dated administrative milestone between Shinto arriving in Hawaii with Japanese immigrants in 1898 and wartime suspicion suppressing Shinto in America in 1941, both already recorded here: Japan's Home Ministry issuing its December 1906 shrine merger order, consolidating roughly seventy thousand of the country's shrines into larger regional shrines under closer state supervision by 1914.

Closes a 40-year gap since 1986's opening of the Tsubaki Grand Shrine, the first Shinto shrine on the US mainland and the most recent event already on Shinto's map, with the tradition's most prominent sacred mountain receiving the highest form of international heritage recognition.

Shinto's own postwar reorganization into a nongovernmental religious body, less than a year after the disestablishment already on its map and the only event on record between that 1945 order and the 1898/1941 events concerning Shinto in the United States.

Source Association Of Shinto Shrines (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Adds a specific, dated milestone in Shinto's history between Japan enacting the Religious Corporations Law in 1951 and Tsubaki Grand Shrine opening Shinto's first shrine on the US mainland in 1986, both already recorded here: the Association of Shinto Shrines' successful fourteen year campaign to restore 11 February as National Foundation Day, enacted by the National Diet on 9 December 1966 and first observed in 1967.

Adds a specific, dated milestone in Shinto history between Japan's Home Ministry ordering the shrine merger policy in 1906 and wartime suspicion suppressing Shinto in America in 1941, both already recorded here: the 1925 dedication of the Chosen Jingu imperial shrine in Seoul, the central instrument of State Shinto's extension into colonial Korea.

Adds a milestone in Shinto history between the Meiji government establishing State Shinto in 1868 and Japanese immigration carrying Shinto to Hawaii in 1898, both already recorded here: the Meiji Constitution's 11 February 1889 promulgation, whose Article 28 fixed shrine worship's legal status as civic duty rather than religion, binding on every subject regardless of private belief.

Shinto's own homeland establishment as a state institution, distinct from the tradition's existing two events, which cover only its later Hawaii diaspora and never touch Japan itself.

Source State Shinto (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Closes a 7 year gap since 2019's Emperor Naruhito Completes the Sokui no Rei and Daijosai Enthronement Rites, the most recent event already on Shinto's map, with the same shrine whose 1986 founding opened the map's own thread on the US mainland now carrying its enshrined kami across the border into Canada.

Shinto's most recent event on this atlas's map by forty years, and its first arrival on the US mainland rather than Hawaii, where the tradition's only prior American events already on this map are anchored.

Source Tsubaki Grand Shrine Of America (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Symbolized By

The torii gate marks the entrance to Shinto sacred space and is an emblem of Shinto.

Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre

Traditions Fused into This

Worship Of

Amaterasu, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Ame-no-Uzume, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Benzaiten, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Hachiman, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Hoori, Deities
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Inari, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Izanagi, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Izanami, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Kunado, Deities
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Ninigi, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Omoikane, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sarutahiko, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sukunabikona, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Susanoo, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Tenjin, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Toyotama-hime, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Tsukuyomi, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Uke Mochi, Deities
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Watatsumi, Deities
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
Source Shinto: A HistoryHelen Hardacre
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Shinto: A History
Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press, 2017View the Source
2. Shinto: The Kami Way
Sokyo Ono with William P. Woodard, Tuttle, 1962
3. Believe It or Not! Religious Adherents Outnumber People in Japan (Nippon.com)
Nippon.com
Quote
there were 84.7 million believers in Shinto and 87.7 million Buddhists in Japan
View the Source
4. Wikipedia, Shinto (source)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia
5. Shrine Parishioner Registration (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
Quote, Lead section
The Shrine Parishioner Registration act, Ujiko shirabe, was a law in Japan that forcibly registered people in Shinto Shrines. It is a religious policy that obliged citizens to become parishioners of local shrines.
View the Source
6. Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)
Kokugakuin University, Kokugakuin University, 2006View the Source
7. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
A New History of Shinto
John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
Shinto Directive (SCAPIN-448)
General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1945The directive of 15 December 1945
Quote, The directive of 15 December 1945
State Shinto was disestablished by occupation directive.
View the Source
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. ShintoView the Source
Fireman's Jacket with a Susanoo-no-mikoto Deity Scene, accession 1983.158a to c (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Metropolitan Museum of ArtObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Fireman's Jacket with a Susanoo-no-mikoto Deity Scene (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983.158a to c), accession 1983.158a to cView the Source
"The God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami," accession 2015.300.115 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Metropolitan Museum of ArtObjects and Practices of This Tradition: "The God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami" (Nishikawa Sukenobu, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015.300.115), accession 2015.300.115View the Source
Bowl with Face of Uzume, accession 36.120.627 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Metropolitan Museum of ArtObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Bowl with Face of Uzume (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 36.120.627), accession 36.120.627View the Source
Sarutahiko, No. 2, accession 1970.520 (Art Institute of Chicago)
Art Institute of ChicagoObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Sarutahiko, No. 2 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1970.520), accession 1970.520View the Source
Ema of Empress Jingu, Her Minister Takenouchi no Sukune, and an Infant (the Future Emperor Ojin), accession 1985.396.2 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Metropolitan Museum of ArtObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Ema of Empress Jingu and the Future Emperor Ojin (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.396.2), accession 1985.396.2View the Source
Library of Congress and Wikipedia Records for Harich-Schneider's Shinto Recordings
Library of Congress, American Folklife Center; WikipediaObjects and Practices of This Tradition: Shinto Music and Songs (Harich-Schneider Field Recordings, 1954), guides.loc.gov/japan-folklife AFC 1957/010; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Harich-SchneiderView the Source
Hayachine Kagura (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage)
UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO, 2026Objects and Practices of This Tradition: Hayachine Kagura, ich.unesco.org/en/RL/hayachine-kagura-00272; iwatetabi.jp/en/spots/99128/View the Source
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