Shinto

Question 1

Japanese Indigenous Traditions

Answer 1

honor spirits in nature (spirits organize the material world), used since 8th century CE, contemporary return to “Japan’s spiritual heart”, unspeakable beauty of nature

Question 2

Kami

Answer 2

“God” or “spirit”, single or plural, refers to single essence manifesting in many places, “to which is above”, to follow kami is to bring life into harmony with nature

Question 3

Kannagara

Answer 3

the way of the kami, “natural religion”,

Question 4

Amaterasu

Answer 4

goodness of the sun, the one who illuminates the sky

Question 5

misogi

Answer 5

purification by waterfall (often in wintertime), spontaneous feeling connected with nature and sense of oneness

Question 6

Revival of Shinto as a universal religion

Answer 6

shinto as the spiritual basis for the government, emperor as divine, after the defeat of japan in WWII, emperor renounced the hereditary claim to divinity, *popular movements in the 1800’s