Ancient Rituals in a Modern City

Vermilion gates appear around nearly every corner in Kyoto, a persistent reminder of Japan's most practiced religion: Shinto. Though the majority of Japanese people don’t consider themselves “Shintoists”, it's become clear in my first weeks here that Shinto is as embedded in Japanese culture as is appreciation for cherry blossoms or love of sticky mochi treats. Shinto’s most recognizable icon is the torii gate, which marks the entrance to every shrine (of which there are tens of thousands in Kyoto alone) and are often painted bright orange to scare off demons and evil spirits.

A torii gate at Kamigamo shrine, just a few blocks from our house

Torii gates act as barriers between the mundane, human world and the spirit realm. Bow before you enter the gate! You don’t want to offend the Shinto spirits (Kami), which are chaotic and exist in practically everything - rocks, storms, rice, mountains, hair, you name it. Shinto has no defining scripture, no founder, and no strict rules. The best description of it is the “belief in Kami”, supernatural entities that can inhabit virtually anything. Shinto is the ancient, native religion of Japan. Embodying an animistic worldview, Shinto looks at all that is beautiful and awe inspiring in nature and sees it, whether it's a waterfall or a tree or a sunset, as a physical manifestation of the divine.

Unlike many religions, Shinto doesn't have a clearcut view of good and evil. Humans are viewed as inherently good and pure but are sometimes in a state of impurity (kegare) that can be cleansed through rituals. Washing and purifying are central tenets of Shintoism. At every shrine there is a washing station (chozubachi) with wooden ladles for washing your hands and mouth before praying. Shinto attitudes around purification extend to other aspects of Japanese culture as well, such as Noh. In this ancient form of theater, performers must undergo specific purifying rites before every show.

 

The importance of purity may come from the Shinto creation myth, where one of the original Kami bathes in the ocean to remove kegare after seeing his decaying dead wife in the underworld. Hopefully not why most of these folks are washing their hands at the shrines! 

                                        

     Chozubachi at Kurama-dera temple. A Buddhist temple but with many Shinto elements!

 

Shinto is not the only religion in Japan. Buddhism came from India through China and Korea around 500 BC (such a newbie!). Buddhism and Shinto have since settled into a complex yet uniquely Japanese syncretism that persists in modern life. They never totally merged but have found an equilibrium in which the deities of each religion have been accepted into the cosmology of the other. Many Kami are considered Buddhas, and Buddhas are also seen as Kami. Shrines (Shinto) often incorporate Buddhist symbols or statues, and temples (Buddhist) frequently have a shrine somewhere on the grounds. 

A statue of Buddha children at Kurama-dera. There are many roadside carvings like this dedicated to the god of children and travelers.

When it comes to death and the afterlife, Japanese people turn their focus to Buddhism. Shintoism does not offer a specific idea of an afterlife and certainly not one with extremes like heaven or hell. In general, Shintoism is less concerned with specific beliefs or doctrine than with rituals and practices. 

We stumbled upon the Setsubun festival our third day here - a Spring celebration that involves tossing beans out the window and banishing demons from the previous year. It's also important to eat a long, uncut sushi roll facing the year's lucky direction! We ended up at the Yoshida shrine, which was packed with food vendors and lines of Japanese people waiting to pray. 

                                                     

A bonfire tower at Yoshida shrine full of offerings and amulets that was burned at midnight

I’m not sure how many of these shrine-goers truly believe in Kami. Are these practices simply Japanese culture, or truly Shinto, or both? It can't hurt, though, to toss in a few yen and politely ask for beautiful hair.

 

The hair shrine in Arashiyama. The god of hair was such an amazing hairdresser in life that he became a Kami once he died!

There are shrines for everything you can think of. One of the most popular is Fushimi Inari-Taisha, for the rice Kami Inari. Thousands of torii gates line the entire mountain, and this shrine is a tourist hotspot - I saw more white people that one day than the rest of our trip combined!

The torii gate path at Fushimi-Inari. Can't believe I got a picture with no people in it! 

 

Shrines are often much smaller, though. This shrine for the music goddess Myoon Benzaiten, who was a talented lute playing princess, is inside the Imperial Palace grounds. 

Like all Shinto shrines, this one has a torii gate at the entrance. Most shrines also have two guard dogs by the gate, one with an open mouth and one with a closed mouth.

Most shrines have a similar layout. The larger ones, like Fushimi-Inari, have a main hall called the honden, which houses the go-shintai (a ritual object where the Kami of the shrine lives). The go-shintai is typically a mirror, sword, or precious jewel. The most ancient type of shrine, though, has no honden. The ritual "object" being worshipped is a rock, mountain, or tree itself. If there is a honden, it is not open to the public. The only people who can enter are monks (kannushi). The other buildings on the shrine grounds are the haiden, worship hall, and heiden, a building specifically for offerings.

You will also see the chozubachi for ritual washing, places to buy amulets and charms, and often a whole wall of ema - wooden tablets on which people write prayers. I’ve translated some using Google lens and they’re always so heartfelt - messages like, “Please help Suki with her musical endeavors” and “May health and healing find my mother”. So sweet!

 Ema tablets at the music shrine

 

When praying at a shrine, there are a few things you must do. At the main shrine there is usually some type of altar and in front of it is an offering tray, bowl, or box with wooden slats on the top. Toss a coin in, and if there is a bell ring it a few times. Then bow twice, deeply, and clap twice. Pray to the Kami of the shrine, and bow once more before you leave. It took us all a few visits to figure out what was going on - it's a little confusing at first!

Bo and I praying at Kinkakuji temple. The white rope is the bell, and the box in front of us is for coins

 

My favorite shrines aren’t the ones with multiple halls and elaborate architecture. They are the simpler ones, dedicated to a specific tree or rock - some natural element that people found so beautiful and awe-inspiring that they ran a shimenawa rope around it to dedicate the space as sacred and deemed that there must be some otherworldly entity that calls that place home. 

On a recent hike in Kibune, we saw two giant cedar trees that had fused together. They must have each been 7 feet in diameter and stretched so far up we could barely see the tops. Truly breathtaking, but the most beautiful part is that these trees are in a place where people do more than just appreciate their beauty - they see something more sacred and powerful within them and find it perfectly natural to worship that.

 

The twin cedar trees near Kibune. The Kami here is for long life and marriage - makes sense! You can see the shimenawa rope around the base

There doesn’t seem to be much of a Kami hierarchy. Some are more powerful, like the sun goddess Amaterasu or the rain god Raijin, but there is no almighty ruling Zeus figure. The Kami cooperate in watching over the universe and us humans and work to maintain wa, the benign harmony inherent in all living things. That seems like a lovely universe to be a part of. There are destructive Kami too, associated with things like storms and traumatic death, but they can be appeased through prayer and ceremony.

Okay, enough Kami talk, time for a history lesson! Buddhism and Shinto’s syncretism was not always accepted in the way it is now. In 1868, Emperor Meiji began efforts to purify Japanese culture and remove foreign influences. He mandated that Shinto and Buddhist practices be officially separated and declared Shinto the national religion. All traces of Buddhism were wiped from shrines, and Buddhas could no longer be considered Kami. Priests became state officials, and the Emperor named himself a living Kami! Shinto was promoted by both the government and military, who stressed that the Emperor was a Divine God - an excellent tool for rallying Japanese nationalistic identity. This attitude carried into the 20th century and WWII.

When the Japanese were defeated in WWII, the Emperor publicly renounced his divinity. Buddhism was allowed back into shrines, and Shinto was no longer associated with the government. “State Shinto” was dismantled via three key documents that declared Shinto should not be used to promote nationalistic or militaristic beliefs and that the government could not give public money or support to any religion. Japan turned its focus to cleansing Shinto of pollution (kegare?) by political action - a very Shinto idea!

If you want to dig deeper, here are some sources:

 

YouTube: Shinto - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX8cz1LEeXw 
Wikipedia: Shinto - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto#In_popular_culture 
Wikipedia: Kami - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami
BBC: State Shinto - https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/history/nationalism_1.shtml