S H I N T O 3

SHINTO

Basix of Shintoism Shintoist Worldview Shinto Charms Shintoist Clan Gods & Shrines
Shinto & Bushido Synchretic Shinto Yamabushi BIG PICTURES of Shinto
Shrine Maidens Shinto Heroes Shinto Gods Shinto Brides Real Onmyoji

 

Clan gods are all Shintoists. Founders of samurai clans, or the greatest of the clansmen, were immortalized by building shrines for them. In Japanese, these superclansmen are called 'ujigami' ('uji' is of course 'clan', 'gami' is the same as 'kami', i.e. 'spirit' or 'god').

 

Takeda Shingen shrine Oda Nobunaga shrine
Shinto shrine of Takeda Shingen of Kai Shinto shrine of Oda Nobunaga of Owari

 

So the village of Oda, where the clan came into being, made a shrine for Oda Chikazane, the patriarch of the clan and the first person bearing that name on this planet, as well as for the greatest of all the Oda clansmen of all times, Nobunaga. In Yamanashi, people erected a shrine for the greatest Takeda ever, Shingen.

The most extravagant shrine for a clan god is of course the Tokugawa Mousoleum (Toshogu shrine) in Nikko, Tokyo, that holds the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Click here for pictures.

 

Kusunoki shrine Fujiwara shrine Minamoto shrine
Shinto shrine of Kusunoki Masashige Shinto shrine of Fujiwara Sadakuni Minamoto Hachiman shrine

 

Jizo, or protector of travelers (that's why you can see the statues everywhere), is one of the most beautiful things on this sorry little planet. They are at once Shintoist and Buddhist.

Originally Jizo was Buddhist; you can nail the statues as the individual ones along a road or path, or several statues in a row, but never carved as a crowd on a single rock.

 

Kusunoki shrine Fujiwara shrine Minamoto shrine Minamoto shrine

all roads, streets, and paths in Japan are under the jurisdiction of innumerable jizo & dorokujin statues

BIG PICTURES of varieties of Buddhist JIZO BIG PICTURES of Shinto 'jizo', DOROKUJIN

 

The more indigenous version of jizo is what the Japanese call 'dorokujin', which always appears in pairs and most of the time the two figures are carved together from a single rock.

Hachiman is the Shinto god of war. When still alive and kicking, he was the 15th Emperor of Japan, named Ojin (270-310). He was the clan protector of one of the greatest samurai families, the Minamotos. That's why the most famous shrine for Hachiman is in Kamakura.

That the nature of Japanese wars were Shintoist (except, of course, when it concerned the warrior-monks) was obvious from the man-to-man combats -- especially the way wars were to get opened (see how to do war in feudal Japan at another page). The most famous of these war-openers has been this line routinely delivered by a strikingly good-looking young lancer in 1560's: "I, Maeda Toshiie, fourth son of Toshimasa, vassal of my lord Oda Nobunaga, challenge any one of you cowards --"

That the line was a routine testifies of how good Spearman Maeda was -- he always managed to get rid of those who rose to take his challenge.

Anyway, the line, as well as the will to die (some say the will to kill is more precise) any second in battlefield, were all Shintoist; Maeda and everybody else never invoked the name of Buddha and such but their own pedigree and the boss they served.

So, Shintoism got a whole lot to do with the so-called 'way of the warriors', 'Bushido' (click here for everything about Bushido), nevermind that it is a synchretic concept which has usually been taken to be 'Buddhist'. At the core of 'Bushido', the reason for a samurai to exist is Shintoist, while the attitude towards that existence is Buddhist; the two make a perfect blend.

 

rock basin mochi fighting dog offerings
rock basin for 'misogi' 'mochi'-making fighting dog shrine

 

Rock basins (to wash hands with), ubiquitous at entrances of tourist destinations, are Shintoist.

The use of salt as a 'purifying agent' (spiritually-speaking), either by putting a pinch around the house, scattering some into the wind, or sprinkling a little over, behind, on or around a person, is Shintoist. This is called 'shubatsu'.

While both Buddhism and Shintoism involve flowers for offerings (click here for the Japanese art of flower arrangement, a.k.a ikebana), only Shinto includes rice wine (saké), tofu ('inari'), and glutinous rice cakes ('mochi') as offerings.

 

sumo sumo doll offerings
sumo wrestler notice the Shinto loincloth the ubiquitous 'shimenawa' Shinto bells are different

How To Make Shintoist 'Shimenawa' ................................ BIG PICTURES of Shintoist Stuff

 

Sumo wrestling is a Shintoist tradition. It used to be performed for the Goddess of Harvest, Inari.

It was Shinto that defined Japaneseness, not Buddhism; and defended indigenous things from the swarming new stuff from China not by repulsing them but by refashioning them until the Chinese couldn't recognize any of them anymore as their cultural spillover.

Unlike Buddhism, Shintoism only has a very few people to whom the credit for doing something to the timeless belief is due. Click on to the next page for the Shinto thinkers, heroes and movements.

 

Shinto Ideas PREVIOUS PAGE Shinto Basix NEXT Shinto Heroes

 

Basix of Shintoism Shintoist Worldview Shinto Charms Shintoist Clan Gods & Shrines
Shinto & Bushido Synchretic Shinto Yamabushi BIG PICTURES of Shinto
Shrine Maidens Shinto Heroes Shinto Gods Shinto Brides Real Onmyoji

 

.HELP ME ....Answering people's questions about Japan, samurai & warlords.  CLICK HERE.

 

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Nina Wilhelmina

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