Located at the eastern end of the Eurasian continent is a Far Eastern island nation surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan. Today's Japan has its own traditional culture, expressed in Ikebana (flower arrangement), Chanoyu (the tea ceremony), Zen Buddhism, Waka (31-syllabled poems), Haiku (17-syllabled poems), No dramas, Kabuki dramas, Judo, Karate, Aikido, Nihonga (Japanese painting), Ukiyo-e prints, and Kimonos. Japan also is known for a unique style of architecture, gardening, cooking and dancing.
If one seeks the common features among these traditional cultural elements of Japan, one will find that they all contain the spirit of Wabi (quiet taste) and Sabi (elegant simplicity); the spirit of respecting the definite form or tradition; broadness of capacity; and the reality or possibility of creation and development. Shintoism, as the root of Japanese traditional culture, is the purest expression of these features.
Shintoism is the spiritual and cultural root of Japan and thus the source of her uniqueness. As a religion and a way of life, Shintoism has been popular within Japan since very ancient times, even before Confucianism, Buddhism or Chinese systems of laws and ethics were introduced to Japan. Therefore, Shintoism is the original spiritual culture of the nation with a history of more than 2000 years.
In the early sixth century Confucianism and Buddhism were introduced to Japan through the medium of a nation named Paekche (Kudara) which was located on the Korean peninsula. In 600 A.D. the Japanese government dispatched the first envoy to the Sui (Zui) dynasty (589-618) ruling the Chinese Continent at that time. An age of vigorous diplomatic relations between the two countries followed, bringing foreign (Chinese) culture into Japan rapidly. As a result, the so-called Taika Reform was carried out in 645 A.D., and subsequently, the new system of laws and ethics (Ritsuryo system) was put into practice, in imitation of the Chinese laws and system at that time.
Shintoism can be simply defined as a principle of living to improve the wealth of real life through conforming to God's will by worshipping him.
"God" in Shintoism does not mean God as the Absolute who created heaven and earth and dominates all things, but means God as the divine spirit or deity dwelling in everything in the universe, including human beings. Shintoists consider every human being to be a god because each possesses divine spirit or deity. Moreover, divine spirit dwells in every being in the cosmos; not only in human beings, but in mountains, rivers, fields, seas, stones, trees, forests, animals, insects, and even in germs. Therefore, Shintoists call the gods who exist in countless number "the Eight Hundred Myriads of Deities" (Yaoyorozuno-Kamigami).
Shintoists grasp "God" essentially in the same manner as Buddhists, who recognize a Buddha-nature (deity) not merely in every human being but in every creation such as dogs, cats, trees, stones, water, etc. the first words spoken by Gautama Buddha, at the moment he obtained spiritual enlightenment after six years' journey of life in pursuit of the Way, were said to be: "How surprising, how curious that every creature is endowed with a Buddha-nature without fail."
The same view can be
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