Shinto shrine
Shinto shrine
The Shinto, Japan's national religion, is an amalgam of ancestral rites and beliefs centered on the worship of supernatural forces called we. Survives from ancient times to the present, but over the centuries it suffered countless adaptations and transformations.
Characterization of Shinto
The name of the national religion of Japan, Shinto, was created in the 6th century, from two Chinese concepts, Shen and to. Shen (Shin in Japanese) means "spirit" or "god".To (in Japanese) means "way" or "path". This title was to distinguish it from the Buddhism (Butsudo or via of Buddha).
The spirits or gods whose worship is the basis of Shinto are the supernatural forces called we, multiple and varied and that, over the centuries, have increased in number and have experienced numerous changes.
The most noticeable features of Shinto are as follows:
a) the syncretic capacity, that is, the ease for adapting or assimilating the beliefs of other religions who coexisted Buddhism in particular;
b) is a national religion that favored the creation of myths, once seen complemented by other religions, such as Buddhism and Confucianism. By its very nature, is archaic and conservative, but has undergone changes and adjustments throughout history.
Gate of Itsukushima Shinto shrine on the island of Miyajuma, Japan.
Written sources of Shinto
The Shinto shrine, because it is an amalgam of disparate local beliefs, has no canonical texts of priestly source, since there was no priestly class organized and hierarchized that held the ideological control.
In the 7th century, Emperor Temmu (631-686 c.) ordered, however, compiling and sorting of genealogies (Teikí) and the narrations (Kyuji).
In the year 712, scholarly, and statesman Yasumaro died in 723, he wrote in a complex Japanese loaded Chinese expression – the Kojiki (Narrations of old stuff), which tells the story of Japan until the year 628, including mythical accounts. In the year 720 is compiled in Chinese the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), in which work the Prince Toneri (676-735) and the statesman Fujiwara No Fubito (659-720). Is also important for the study of Shinto the Izumo Fudoki, 733 and compiled the only Fudoki (local reports commissioned by the imperial court of Nara) saved. Finally, religious data of interest appear in anthologies of poems in the 8th century, the Koifuso of 751 and the Man ' yoshu of 759, and in the Engishiki (rules of Engi), compiled in 927.
Shinto: the We theology
The We are supernatural beings with higher capacity and power of man, residing or materialize objects and beings. Their number is very high and are difficult to represent iconographically.
They can be condensed into three large groups: the We of nature and his forces, the We of the uji (lineages) and the We of individuals and of their ancestors.
Shinto Temple in Kyoto, Japan
The We of nature are the oldest.Among them are the trees, especially pines. Likewise, the mountains, the rocks (in particular the strange ways), the lakes and the rivers were also We. The animals, especially the larger ones, were seen as manifestations of We or as We themselves (wolves, deer). In many cases, were designed as a friendly man beings and invoked for a better harvest. The Thunder, the stars and the wind were also venerated We, what made nature a place populated by supernatural beings and usually beneficial. Tended to identify territorially these deities emerging We, of labor camps or of fertile valleys.
The We of lineages, or uji, emerged of the We, which were territorial modifying and enlarging its field of action to represent and protect the groups there set out. The primitive if Japan organized in lines (uji); the belonging to uji relied on common ties of kinship, wants to be organic or fictitious, in accepting the leadership of the uji and the cult of the protective deity, ujigamí. When the social organization became more complex, some sublinhagens were privileged and increased their importance. On the other hand, the Yamato was consolidating its superiority before the rest of the lineages of Japan.
Recognized his bosses like Kings by the Chinese after accepting pay tribute, the Yamato line increased its power from the 3rd century, controlling extensive territories and starting to consolidate an ideology that sustains their preeminence. The Yamato rulers said originate in Yimmu Tenno, the first emperor of Japan, akin to the gods, whose life is dated in the legendary accounts in years 660 a.e.c. From the middle of the 6th century, the cult began to be centralized, in particular the feasts of spring, and the rituals were being regulated. The Yamato Kingdom intended to control and channel the religion of the uji, vassals through a United policy administration closely to religious.
Exceptional individuals for their power or their capabilities are taken into life by We, as the emperor. After the death, also they become We some characters especially notorious, although does not appear to have been a cult of ancestors as in China. In addition, as a consequence of the world of death and the funeral cult were religious facets in which Buddhism specialized from its deployment, the knowledge of the ancient funeral rites was compromised.
Also the fecundity was chaired by We, which materialized in stones and objects that presented forms alluding to the male sexual organs.
Evolution of Shinto
Since the nature of the Shinto cults more archaic to the modern xintofsmo, which brings together hundreds of doctrines United by strong syncretism and with great diversity, this Japanese religion varied greatly over the centuries.
The ancient Shinto shrine
The ancient Shinto shrine, which is not even carried the name of shinto, Japan's religions include at the time before the impact of Buddhism and of foreign methods of Government.
The Shinto cults were naturalists, without shrines, centered in ceremonies that fitted to the agricultural calendar. There were sacred, but experts did not form a true priestly caste; on the contrary, were more shamans able to attract the We and submit them, and soothsayers who used bones and tortoise shells and shoulder blades of deer or said know the future by interpretation of omens.
Shinto monks praying at a temple of Nikko, Japan
The main religious practices should be the matsurí, offerings and rites to beg to We. Appearing on a stage in which they sought to attract the We by offerings of rice or fish and especially loot (rice brandy considered a mysterious character), to beg his favors or asking you to desvelasse the future.
These ceremonies were held along with community banquets, whose participants fell into trances caused by looting and were accompanied by processions (miyuki) and clashes rituals: sword, horse or food competitions in rope. It is believed that had the purpose of joining the Group and facilitate decision-making.
Shinto monks praying at a temple of Nikko. Japan.
The imperial shogunal and Shinto shrine
Since the sixth century until 1868 the imperial Shinto shrine and, accusing the shogunal influence of Confucianism as a form of justification policy of imperial power and also receives the influx of Buddhism with his philosophical character, his insistence on iconography, in the afterlife and death. Buddhism has resulted a twist in the Shinto shrine and emerged strong controversies in take the figure of Buddha, understood by his detractors as a foreign We and pernicious. The Shinto shrine, before this challenge, sought to adapt. For example, the Buddhist sutra were used as powerful spell, and the monks acted as shaman, able to help the dead in their journey into the afterlife.
The Shinto gods end being identified, from the 12th century, with bodhisatvas who sing Buddhist sutras in shinto shrines. And yet: as a consequence of the Jesuit influence in the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a Shinto syncretic with Christianity.
Shinto monks at the 1000 Samurai
State Shinto
Since the 14th century till 1868 there was Japan, proponents of traditional Shinto shrine, Buddhist syncretism, but free, at that time, the shogunate regime. With the end of the shogunate, develops a traditional Shinto shrine that defends two fundamental ideas: the imperial supremacy and superiority of the Japanese people about all the foreign Nations, including China.
This ideological option consolidated an ultra-nationalism very harmful to the neighboring countries of Japan, since, from 1868, Shinto became the State religion,
After floating between tolerance and suppression of other faiths to align itself with European constitutions, in 1889 if opted for freedom of worship. The State, in theory, had no religious option set or legitimate means of repression against foreign religions, such as Buddhism or Christianity. In practice, the result was the emergence of three different Shinto.
In first place was the Shinto temples (jinjo shinto), which in a constitutional gimmick was said not religious and that the subvencionava State and controlled by naming the priests and organizing the traditional ceremonies, not to compromise the theoretical freedom of worship, Shinto priests were taken by public officials. Shinto was taught in the schools and the teachers took their students to their compulsory key ceremonies. Divinizaram officially old emperors and numerous other political characters of the past; He was the cult of Emperor Ōjin-Hachiman, which was taking the character of god of war and to whom is dedicated a large number of temples as the militaristic Japanese imperialism developed.
The second was the imperial household Shinto (kohitsu shinto). Was very archaic ceremonies and, despite being familiar type, influenced the cult of the shrines. In the years ranging from the Meiji Restoration to the defeat of Japan in World War II, in 1945, the country was seen as a large family headed by the Emperor and their cults.
The third Shinto, estimated as purely religious and equated to the rest of the religions of Japan, was the new Cults (kyoha shinto). Were new religions that used the prestige and support of Shinto to develop his religious message; Thirteen of these groups were accepted during the Meiji era as independent religions, being entered in the official record of cults (ujiko-shirabe) that wasn't necessarily in the Shinto temples officers.
Celebration of the death of Shogun Tokugawa era during the feast of 1000 Samurai. Nikko, Japan.
The current Shinto shrine
The law imposed by the United States in 1946, a real freedom of short who favored an extraordinary religious fragmentation in Japan.
It is estimated that the varied panorama of current Japanese religious groups include several thousand main groupings. Some are ancient, such as Tenrikyo (Religion of divine wisdom), founded in 1838 by the psychic ecstatic Miki Nakayama (1798-1887), or the Omotokyo (Religion of the great source), founded by psychic Not millenarian Deguchi (1836-1918).
Other groups are later in its foundation to the Japanese defeat and often insist on both Shinto beliefs as Buddhist amalgamate or Christians. Many are based on their religious practice in healing and ecstatic techniques and articulate with very archaic folk beliefs of shamanic character.
A context exclusively private, are kept the imperial shinto ceremonies. Also continues the Shinto shrines, strongly rooted in agricultural regions, the most traditional, which follows offering nowadays a ceremonial mark of reference to many Japanese. It is estimated that they are shintoists, in actuality, 100 million believers, and between 11:15 million correspond to some of the 200 new cults.
Category: Religion History
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