Word: shinto
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...searching for a deeper spiritual meaning to their lives, most are content with what they call chuto-hanpa (a bit of this, a bit of that) and scholars describe as juso shinko (multilayered faith). Blending aspects of different faiths has been the tradition in Japan since prime val Shinto, with its reverence for spirits in nature, began mingling with Buddhism and Confucianism. Both doctrines were imported from China via Korea 14 centuries...
Japan today claims a cumulative total of religious adherents well in excess of its actual population: 201 million, vs. 119 million. As in centuries past, the two dominant faiths are Shinto (98 million) and Buddhism (88 million...
Most Japanese still observe the venerable rituals; these ceremonies are part of the life of the nation. The symbols of religion are everywhere. Kyoto, the ancient capital, has more shrines and temples than cigarette shops. There are even Shinto altars in numerous offices of major cities. New skyscrapers are often decorated with red-and-white-striped sheets of Shinto cloth. Rural village homes, where traditional spirituality survives, typically have both a kamidana (Shinto altar) and a butsudan (Buddhist altar...
...Society) is by far the most successful of the new religious movements. It has its roots in ancient Buddhism, and followers are included in the statistics for Buddhists, not in the "new religions." Unlike other new Japanese sects, Soka Gakkai is intolerant, going so far as to preach that "Shinto is a heretical religion that we must destroy." Contrary to Japanese custom, Soka Gakkai also asks its believers to proselytize, and has moved abroad: it claims 200,000 members in the U.S., mainly in California. Soka Gakkai teaches that continual repetition of the phrase Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, derived from...
...Japanese. Indeed, many Japanese seem less interested in defining themselves as even Buddhist or Shintoist than in finding the "spirit" of being Japanese. "The real quest is to find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a beautiful flower," says Shigenori Kameoka, director of the Shinto Moral Training Society. "To be a good person, yes. But in order to be one, to be a good Japanese." -By Richard N. Ostling. Reported by Alan Tansman/Tokyo