The bones of religion were conceived the moment man first walked the Earth. It has provided comfort to loneliness, answers to the unknown and euphoria with a fulfilling experience. Much like humanity, religion varies thrives and changes with history. Translated to “The Way of the Gods, Shinto has thrived from the common era carrying with them ancient beliefs of connection to nature that has continued to thrive in a time where humanity is losing its connection to what was once held so dearly.
Shinto has no official founder as according to Oka Masao there are five different ethnic groups that came into the making of modern day Japanese (Kitagawa 127). These groups carried with them varying beliefs and deities (Kitagawa 127). These beliefs eventually
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However, Buddhism is not the indigenous religion of Japan and has often come in par with Shinto over history (Pigott 42; Kitagawa 131). In the reign of Emperor Meiji Shinto became the ideal Japanese state and action was taken in order to separate it from Buddhism (Kitagawa 131). This led to a series of events resulting in the destruction of Buddhist shrines in provinces and the persecution of its followers (haibutsu kishaku movement) (Kitagawa 131). It was not until the surrender of Japan in 1945 that state Shinto was abolished and religious tolerance followed, allowing different religions to be practiced by the masses (Kitagawa 131).
Both worship of ancestors and nature are present in Shinto, however, it is the veneration of Ameterasu that unites the two (Pigott 42). Shintoist believes in the existence of kami’s which is roughly translated to soul, they are spirits present in everything both living and not (Pigott 42). May it be a small rock to a fox, there is a kami representing each of Mother Nature’s gift (Pigott 42). One such kami is Amaterasu, the supreme deity representing the sun and all the good it gives humanity (Cotterel