Not many people realise the debt Shinto owes to Taoism. It’s usually asserted that Shinto is the native religion of Japan, as if it is a purely indigenous creation. In fact, up to 70% of modern Shinto rituals are taken … Read the rest
Category: Origins (Page 2 of 7)
The NHK website has a radio programme lasting 12 minutes about ways of appreciating a fourth century mirror. It includes observations on the design, the history of mirrors in general and in the Far East in particular, as well as … Read the rest
The scholar Takagi Hiroshi writes that: “After the Meiji Restoration, an idea of the everlasting and unbroken single line of emperors was created, and at the same time, closely related to that idea, imperial mausoleums were invented anew. The latter … Read the rest
The Shinto shrines I love best are those that originated with sacred rocks. Some are kept out of view, hidden from public gaze as their numinous power might be eroded by human contact. Sometimes the rock is a ‘spirit-body’, visible … Read the rest
Last Monday David Lurie of Columbia University gave a talk in Kyoto about ‘Dead Goddesses and Living Narratives’. It centred around the differences between the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720). As is well-known, the two books cover similar myths … Read the rest
Travel around modern Japan, and the shaping of the country’s spirituality is still very much evident in the villages that nestle in the valley basins. Fertile land is at a premium, so houses tend to be packed together. A system
The great debate about when Shinto began continues to be a subject of controversy. Some say in ancient times, some say in the seventh century, and some say in the medieval period. Helen Hardacre’s monumental book on Shinto: A History… Read the rest