Shintoism Essay -- China Chinese Culture Religion Essays

ShintoisticismThe Shinto religion was started in the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) of Nipponese history. The Tokugawa Enlightenment stir a group of people whostudied kokugaku, which roughly translated means nativism, Japanese Studies,or Native Studies. Kokugakus intent was to recover Japanese character towhat it was before the early influences of foreigners, especially the Chinese.Some of these influences include Confucianism (Chinese), Taoism (Chinese),Buddhism (Indian and Chinese), and Christianity (Western European). Thekokugakushu (nativist) think most of their efforts on recovering the Shintoreligion, the native Japanese religion, from fragments of texts and popularreligious practices.However, Shintoism is probably not a native religion of Japan (since theJapanese were not the original natives of Japan). There really is no onething that can be called Shinto, The name itself is a bit misleading becauseit is made up of two Chinese words meaning the way of the gods(Shen spiritual power, divinity Tao the way or path). The word for this inJapanese is kannagara the way of the kami .Many things can be said about Shinto. First, it was a tribal religion,not a state one. However, even when the tribes were organized into coherentstates, they still retained their Shinto beliefs. Second, all Shinto cultsbelieve in Kami (?the divine?) Individual clans worshipped a single Kami whichwas regarde...