Shintoism Explained

Shintoism, the indigenous religious practice of Japan. Even with an over 2000 year history Shinto has never been easy to define, the word Shinto wasn’t even used much until the seventeenth century. Shinto has its own shrines, priests, gods and rituals. Everything you'd expect from a religion but today while over 80% of Japanese people participate in Shinto practices only 3-4% identify themselves as believers in Shinto and many Japanese people practice Shinto alongside Buddhism without any sense of contradiction.

So what is Shinto? Why are Sumo wrestlers so salty? And what can the god of hair do for you? Well, let's find out.

This video was researced and co-written by Clark Van Horne.

0:00-1:16 Intro
1:16-5:11 Creation Story
5:11-5:45 Etymology
5:45-9:40 Kami
9:40-11:35 Purification
11:35-14:56 Shrines
14:56-16:09 Festivals
16:09-19:05 State Shinto
19:05-22:41 Conclusion

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Sources and Further Reading:

Boyd, James, and Ron Williams
1999 Artful Means: An Aesthetic View of Shinto Purification Rituals. Journal of ritual studies 13(1):37-52.

Breen, John, and Mark Teeuwen
2010 A new history of Shinto. Chichester;Malden, MA;: Wiley-Blackwell.

Hardacre, Helen
2017 Shinto. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kamata, Tōji, and Gaynor Sekimori
2017 Myth and deity in Japan: the interplay of Kami and Buddhas. Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture.

Katō, Genchi, and Iinkai Nihon Yunesuko Kokunai
1988 A historical study of the religious development of Shinto. New York: Greenwood Press.

Kuroda, Toshio
1981 Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion. The Journal of Japanese studies 7(1):1-21.

Littleton, C. Scott
2002 Shinto. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Macwilliams, Mark Wheeler, and Michiaki Okuyama
2020 Defining Shinto: a reader. Abingdon, Oxon;New York, NY;: Routledge.

Ō, Yasumaro, and Gustav Heldt
2014 The Kojiki: an account of ancient matters. New York: Columbia University Press.

Ono, Sokyo, and William Woodard
2011 Shinto the Kami Way. New York: Tuttle Publishing.

Picken, Stuart D. B.
2011 Historical dictionary of Shinto. Volume no. 104. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.

Rots, Aike
2015 Sacred Forests, Sacred Nation: The Shinto Environmentalist Paradigm and the Rediscovery of "Chinju no Mori". Japanese journal of religious studies 42(2):205-233.

Teeuwen, Mark
2002 From Jindō to Shinto: A Concept Takes Shape. Japanese journal of religious studies 29(3/4):233-263.

Teeuwen, Mark, et al.
2003 Shinto, a short history. London;New York;: RoutledgeCurzon.

Yamakage, Motohisa
2012 The Essence of Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Heart. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

#Japan #History #Shinto
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[ShortHax]

Shinto blessings must explain why Japanese cars last so long

[austinfreyrikrw]

Congratulations for doing an excellent job at summarizing what Shinto is. As a person who actually served at a small local shrine as an assistant priest for 9 years, I can testify the accuracy of the information on this video. ⛩

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

D.T. Suzuki (鈴木 大拙 貞太郎) once wrote:

"The more you suffer the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life. All great artists, all great religious leaders, and all great social reformers have come out of the intensest struggles which they fought bravely, quite frequently in tears and with bleeding hearts"

[tavmminqat]

I just want to thank you for this excellent video on Shinto. There's so much more to cover, but this is a great introduction to Shinto in a very general sense. It's great to see creators showing Shinto to the world. There's even shrines outside of Japan with a couple in the USA.

[Aaron-bept]

I didn't expect to learn about Shinto this afternoon, but I'm glad I did.
What an amazingly produced video; I'll have to check out more!

[kinokfilms]

Next time do Aztec or Inca religion. Both absolutely fascinating, and I think sharing these cultures with incredible legacies with more people will do much good.

[heavypen]

I was raised (partially) in a Nichiren/Shinto household in Japan. All I had were the kid stories and none of the deeper adult details. Thanks for this - really helped clarify things for me.

[tara]

the amount of research and handwork and fun and animation is insane man. Keep up.

[memesmojo]

The water purification ritual makes sense though. Notice that when you feel angry, tired or anxious, taking a shower balances and "purifies" you. So that may be one of the reasons for the ritual

[dantefernandodantezambrano]

To summarize this video Shinto is such a spiritual practice in which humans are directly connected with all that exists in the earth. For example, forests, waterfalls, rivers, trees, flowers, animals, the sun, the moon, the stars, volcanos, etc. Each one of these has its own spirit, therefore humans worship them in order to acknowledge their existence as well as to request their protection. Literally, Shinto may mean something like " We all are part of the Whole as well as the Whole is part of us all"

[JaagUthaHaivaan]

There are some Kami's inspired from Hinduism via Buddism also. Like Benzaiten, who is similar to goddess Saraswati (associated with art and knowledge) and Durga (associated with motherhood and war); Kangiten, who is similar to lord Ganesha (associated with good luck and wisdom); Bishamonten, who is similar to Kubera (the God of wealth and guardian of north direction); Daikokuten similar to Mahakala, a Buddhist version of Shiva; and Kisshoten similar to goddess Lakshmi (associated with beauty and prosperity). I learned about this from wikipedia. I like how major eastern religions took inspiration from each other.

[Boggybros]

Can I just say- I'm blown away by the sheer research you had done. Incredible storytelling, guys.

[krankarvolund]

"And many japanese practice shinto alongside buddhism"
Honestly, before this video, I thought shinto was a subgroup of buddhism.... I blame Total War Shogun II :p

[backcherry]

This is one of many theories.
There is a theory that a shrine is not a place to make a request, but a place to make a vow before God.
I like that theory very much.
I also like the fact that Japanese gods are not omniscient and omnipotent, and that there is a custom of "taking a break once in a while" from the gods who are always watching over us.

[manasidash]

Keep up the work man. People like you give meaning to internet. You deserve a million views. Your videos are truly educational and your animation is awesome. Hope you will continue to make educational videos.👍👍👍

[machinismus]

I love Shintoism. it’s so whimsical yet impactful and it seems pretty positive overall. I love the idea of Musubi and humans not being a source of good or bad, just being a part of the celebration of nature and the universe. looking forward to visiting shrines and learning more.

[crystalbarnes]

I read once in my Japanese class that many Japanese people nowadays "are born Shinto, marry Christian, and die Buddhist."

I know you did a video on Taoism/Daoism already (great video by the way), but I really hope that you will make one on Chinese mythology and folk religion, which is a religion so not centralized that people still can't agree on a term for its name. Though, given its long history and coexistence with Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, they've become extremely closely intertwined with one another so I understand that it would be difficult to research.

[stacie]

Japan really is a beautiful country! Some places there just feel alive. It's not hard to believe ancient Japanese people felt that everything had a soul because I felt that way when I was in japan. (Especially enoshima Island and places in tohoku)

[piratenpotter]

Great informative video. I've always been interested in Shintoism and how it has successfully and peacefully fused with other dominant religions in the East like Buddhism and Confucianism. This goes to show that yes, we can learn to live and accept other faiths when we focus on common goals rather than differences.

[quocvutruongphan]

This explains why the Uchiha are so overpowered. Their techniques are name after the freaking gods.