Japan's oldest religion is Shinto (Shintō), its indigenous faith centered on the worship of nature spirits called kami, predating written records and evolving from ancient animistic and polytheistic native beliefs, often practiced alongside Buddhism for centuries. While early Shinto lacked a unified structure, its practices were codified in the 8th-century texts Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, forming a core part of Japanese spirituality.
Shinto (神道, Shintō), also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous religion of Japan and of most of the people of Japan.
"Shinto gods" are called kami. They are sacred spirits which take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami.
Contents. The Japanese religious tradition is made up of several major components, including Shinto, Japan's earliest religion, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
Things which are usually regarded as bad in Shinto are: things which disturb kami. things which disturb the worship of kami. things which disrupt the harmony of the world. things which disrupt the natural world.
Drinking sake is an act of purification, and it is used to bring people and gods together, similar to the role wine plays in Communion at Christian churches. It plays a major role in Shinto wedding ceremonies, as the bride and groom serve it to each other as a symbol of the vows they are making.
Hara hachi bun me (腹八分目) (also spelled hara hachi bu, and sometimes misspelled hari hachi bu) is a Confucian teaching that instructs people to eat until they are 80 percent full. The Japanese phrase translates to "Eat until you are eight parts (out of ten) full", or "belly 80 percent full".
Ultimately, this anti-Christian campaign was part of Japan's broader isolationist policies, which sought to exclude foreign influences and maintain control over the population, culminating in a period of seclusion that lasted until the mid-19th century.
Shinto priests can marry, and their children usually inherit their position. Although this hereditary status is no longer legally granted, it continues in practice.
In Japan, many other shrines have been holding marriage ceremonies for same-sex coupes too. Within the Jinja Shinto sphere, I know an ordained priestess who is a trans woman, and openly bi and gay priests too. Generally speaking in the Shinto community as a whole, it is very open and accepting.
Shintoism. “Be charitable to all beings, love is the representative of God.”
The Shinto Directive was an order issued in 1945 to the Japanese government by Occupation authorities to abolish state support for the Shinto religion. This unofficial "State Shinto" was thought by Allies to have been a major contributor to Japan's nationalistic and militant culture that led to World War II.
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest surviving religion in the world, it is also described by the 19th century term Sanātana Dharma ( lit. 'eternal dharma'). Vaidika Dharma ( lit. 'Vedic dharma') and Arya Dharma are historical endonyms for Hinduism.
In Shinto, kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of musubi (結び), the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards.
The Japanese are mostly Buddhist or Shintoist, and, in a nation of 127.8 million, about 1 percent identify themselves as Christian. The country harbors a large floating population of folk religionists enchanted by the mysterious, the uncanny and the counterintuitive.
Christianity was outlawed, not because it was a foreign religion—Confucianism and Buddhism were also foreign in origin—but because of the exclusive nature of the Christian message and the fear that the West would incorporate Japan into their nascent Western empires.
People are free to read the Bible, attend church, and speak openly about Jesus. And yet Japan remains one of the most unreached nations on earth. Fewer than two percent of its 125 million people identify as Christian, and most Japanese will likely never meet a Christian or step inside a church.
The town of Shingo, where the Grave of Jesus Christ is located, is about 30 kilometers west of Hachinohe City, the second largest city in Aomori Prefecture .
Japanese people say "草" (kusa, meaning grass) as slang for "LOL" or "hahaha" because a string of repeated "w"s (wwww) used to express laughter looks like blades of grass, evolving from the kanji 笑 (wara) for laugh, shortened to 'w'. It signifies amusement, similar to typing "lol" in English, but context matters, and it's generally used in informal online settings.
The "Japan 5-minute rule" refers to extreme punctuality, meaning you should arrive 5-10 minutes before a scheduled time, as being exactly on time is considered late, demonstrating respect and reliability, a concept sometimes called "5-minute prior action" (５分前行動). It highlights Japanese culture's emphasis on preparedness, where trains are so precise that delays over 5 minutes get official notes, making being early a crucial part of business and social etiquette.
A traditional Japanese breakfast is a well-balanced meal with rice, miso soup, fish, pickles, and side dishes. Here's how to prepare a classic Ichiju-Sansai style breakfast, which means “one soup, three dishes. ” --- Main Components of a Japanese Breakfast 1.
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