![]() From those first Japanese accounts of the religion of times then already far past, it can be seen that a worship of the forces and forms of nature had grown into a certain stage of polytheism in which spiritual conceptions had only a small place. The written record of the ancient beliefs and customs first appeared in the Kojiki, prepared under imperial order and completed in A.D. (when Chinese writing was introduced into Japan) the myths and rituals were transmitted orally. Shinto cannot be traced to its beginnings, because until the 5th cent. Shinto, a term created to distinguish the indigenous religion from Buddhism, is the equivalent of the Japanese kami-no-michi, "the way of the gods" or "the way of those above." The word kami, meaning "above" or "superior," is the name used to designate a great host of supernatural beings or deities. In its present form Shinto is characterized less by religious doctrine or belief than by the observance of popular festivals and traditional ceremonies and customs, many involving pilgrimages to shrines. ![]() ![]() Shinto (shĭn`tō), ancient native religion of Japan still practiced in a form modified by the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism.
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