Shintoism and Japan Today

"Human beings have the potential to become Kami." --The Essence of Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Heart by Motohisa Yamakage

In the Shinto mind there are many, many symbols of heaven here in earth. Armed with no other knowledge, the casual observer while traveling in Japan may remark upon the many shrines. There are about 80,000 Torii-gated Shinto shrines in Japan. They are located throughout the countryside and in towns and cities as well. Passers-by may spontaneously pause at these little edifices for prayer and reflection, taking a moment of their busy, modern day. A few of the best known: Ise Jingu Shrine, the most sacred site of Japanese Shintoism, as it enshrines the ancestry of the Japanese Imperial family. It may be said to represent the 'grander' side of things. Shrines to the Imperial family, both old and modern, serve to strengthen the state and its core symbol, the heavenly-descended Emperor.

 Ise Jingu and Yasukuni Jinja shrines, stand as products of the modernizing influence of revolution. Ise Jingu resulted from a Chinese led coup in a seventh-century palace that altered an earlier style of loosely affiliated clan-ship into the more centralized style of the Chinese invader. Yasukuni Jinja was a result of the Meiji Revolution. Built in 1869, its original name was Kyoto Shokonsha. Today it is best known as a memorial to World War II.
Increased contacts with the West  prompted the evolution of Japanese society into a more Westernized military-industrial complex over time. While the result of  the Meiji Revolution was the restoration of the Emperor, he no longer ruled singularly or directly.

 Ise Jingu Shrine, while emphasizing the Imperial ideals within Shintoism, composed of the inner and outer buildings, Naiku and Gekku, focuses upon a remarkable ritual symbolizing the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, from whom the Emperor is traditionally thought to have descent; so it is with great importance of place many Japanese regard this shrine, an essential element of beauty. Curiously, both Naiku and Gekku portions of the Shrine are completely taken apart every 20 years, then identically rebuilt on adjacent sites. This has been going on for almost 1,500 years; it will again  occur in 2013.

Author Motohisa Yamakage writes in The Essence of Shinto, "the union of the sacred and the mundane is a distinctive feature of Shinto... Shinto is found in our relationship and interdependence with Kami... Shinto is the path with which we seek to realize ourselves fully as human beings by acquiring the noble characteristics of Kami... but we must first become attuned to Kami... the essence of Shinto..."

He writes further that in the modern, consumer world values such as the intangibles of spirit, selflessness and sacrifice are increasingly lacking. He makes reference primarily to the 'invisible' world, the world that may be felt but not seen. Many disregard, or actively disbelieve what they cannot see before them. Simply put, as a point of reference: can we believe in the winds that bring rain, though we do not see them? We may only feel the wind. So what is wind? What is Shinto or Kami? Yamakage challenges his reader to find the unseen, the Spirit in the modern world today. He writes of a lack, a hunger to reconnect with these spiritual values within a living, breathing Shintoism.

Shinto Tokyo Governor: Japan too greedy, Punishment from heaven

'Gaman,' a Japanese word meaning 'to endure,
to persevere.'

His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan, Emperor Akihito, 77 years old, in power since 1989 at the death of his father, Hirohito, who was enthroned as the "Son of Heaven." While this phrase is very odd to western ears, within a non-theistic religion such as Shintoism, it is perfectly sensible. Under the context of Shinto tradition, perhaps such a recent comment made by the Governor of Tokyo makes sense if motivated by deep, conservative and traditional views:

"The outspoken governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, told reporters Monday via Otaku Who News Radio:

"The identity of the Japanese people is selfishness. The Japanese people must take advantage of this tsunami as means of washing away their selfish greed. I really do think this is divine punishment."

 The current occupant of the Japan's Chrysanthemum Throne, Akihito, 77 years old, traces his family line back through an astonishing unbroken 126 generations and more than 2,500 years of history. The Japanese title for the Emperor is Tenno, a Japanese word without clear English equivalent, though it might be paraphrased, His Transcendent Majesty, the Emperor Supreme. Clearly this is an old, traditional and stable institution within Japanese society. The Emperor seems to have descent from "the mists of time." He and his family have been the fabric of Japan since before the Christian era, before much of Buddhism, since before the current Common Era. And his son, Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan, 51 years old, is expected to be the next heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

His forebear, Hirohito, was considered a living god by some Japanese. From 1889 until Japan's defeat in World War II, the Emperor was considered "sacred and inviolable." But in today's Japan the role of emperor is chiefly ceremonial, since forced into a role by the Allies at the conclusion of World War II. Akihito's enthronement was the first Constitutional event that reduces the Emperor to a symbol, and realigns sovereignty in the Japanese people. Yet his lineage is thought to be divinely inspired. His Majesty claims to be a divinely begotten descendant of Japan's Sun Goddess, and is therefore sanctified in his own right.

Some basic beliefs of Shintoism may spread light on the current situation and aid observers in determining the relevance of statements made by this ancient Eastern Kingdom, now modernized State. Writing in his book, The Essence of Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Heart, writer Motohisa Yamakage explains that Shinto lives today as a faith-based religion standing upon "the belief in the presence of the kami," or spirits. Yamakage calls for a return to koshinto, the ancient Shinto practice that he says had no shrines at all, and for a rejection of the "secular, materialistic, atheistic society" that he believes modern Japan has become.

He states that Shintoism is a faith which believes principally three things. First, he writes, it is "unique to the Japanese people. It has no founder, doctrine, precepts or commands; it has no organization nor idols. Yet it does teach deeply held ideas central to Japanese life and culture. A few of the beliefs he brings up for discussion are the idea of the child-spirit, the reverence for nature, the spirit of Kami, and the importance of purification.