During the sixth to seventh centuries, Japan was introduced to the continental culture of East Asia through the emigration of people, ideas, and technology from the Korean peninsula. In 538 CE the king of Paekche (Korea) offered a Buddhist statue to the Japanese kingdom as the gift of the teaching of Buddhism. In fact, many of the emigrant families from Korea had already settled in the Japanese islands at this time, establishing their own private Buddhist temples. Although the powerful clans of Japan at first resisted it, Buddhism quickly was adopted by the ruling class in Japan.

The Korean immigrants were skilled at many technological advances, including building massive temples with wood, sculpture techniques, building bridges, writing and the study of Buddhist texts. Prince Shotoku, considered to be the founder of the young Japanese state, was revered as one who established guidelines of conduct based on Buddhist and Confucian ideas. He also was credited with writing a commentary on a Buddhist text. In the early eighth century, Emperor Shomu built a wooden temple to house the largest Buddhist statue known to East Asia at the time. This statue was to represent the unity of the central government and the outlying provinces through Buddhist teachings.

As you can see from this example, Buddhism was regarded as a powerful new teaching. The early Japanese understood the Buddha as a kind of deity, more powerful than their own native kami. They believed that Buddhism could work miracles for them. This kind of belief in the wonder-working power of a religion or a religious specialist is called thaumaturgy. They did not abandon their love and reverence for their native deities, the kami, who continued to be honored in their local shrines in return for help with local needs.

Recording the Indigenous Religion of Japan: Myths

Sixth century Japanese quickly absorbed the new continental learning and by 712 CE they had begun to record the myths of their own indigenous religion using Chinese calligraphy. The Kojiki and the Nihon shoki, commissioned by the Japanese court, collected myths that promoted ideas of the deities of Japan (kami) and their relationship to the people of Japan, particularly the ruling clans.

Several of these myths describe the creation of the islands of Japan by a male and a female deity. In one central myth, Izanagi, the male deity, dipped his spear into the ocean, letting the mud he stirred up drop from the pole. Izanagi and the female deity, Izanami, then conducted a ritual of greeting which they had to repeat because it failed at first. But after they performed the ritual correctly, they were able to create many more kami of the earth and atmosphere. From this myth, we can see how performing a ritual properly is linked to success in the natural world. The myth also emphasizes that islands of Japan are divinely created, not by a single deity but by the cooperation of male and female deities.

The record of these myths also in the Nihon Shoki promoted the idea that the family line of the ruler was directly descended from Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun. This link between the political and social power of the ruler with the divine power of the sun goddess became an important ideological force during the nineteenth century. In this early period, however, it simply meant that the main role of the Japanese ruler was to maintain the rituals of honoring the kami so that the Japanese would continue in health and prosperity. This is the most fundamental perspective of Shinto: that humans have a profound relationship with the kami that is sustained through rituals and hospitality towards these deities.

One famous myth of Amaterasu explains how she withdrew into a rock cave when her noisy and troublesome brother, Susano-o, wrecked her palace. Since the sun is life-giving energy, the people were all united in trying to lure her out of the cave. Nothing worked until they decided to have a party outside the cave. One of the kami stood up on a platform and started doing a sexy dance, making the whole crowd roar with appreciation. Wondering what was happening, Amaterasu peeked out of the cave. Quickly, one of the people held up a mirror, thus capturing the reflection of the sun and drawing her out of the cave.

You can speculate what natural disasters might have been explained by this myth: a typhoon perhaps, followed by an eclipse. More importantly, festivals follow this pattern of attempting to delight the kami by exciting entertainment, even drunkenness and wild parties.

A third myth explains ideas of the impurity of death and how to purify oneself. The female deity, Izanami, after giving birth to fire, died in childbirth. Desperate to bring her back, Izanagi traveled to the underworld to find her. In the darkness, he could not see her, but she promised that she could return to life if he led her out without looking at her. Predictably, Izanagi could not resist turning around. When he saw her covered in maggots and decaying flesh he was horrified and fled. She fell back into the underworld, furious with him. She vowed to take a number of the living back with her every year. But Izanagi opposed her, saying that many more would be born. Thus, the balance of life would be in favor of the living. When he returned to the surface, he washed out his eyes, and more deities were born from this act of purification. This last part of the myth demonstrates the creative power of purification.

The myth of the death of Izanami tells us that in Shinto, contact with death is a polluting factor. A person who has touched death must undergo purification. In Shinto this is done with water, a kind of external purification. As Shinto combined with Buddhist ideas, however, purification also developed an internal dimension of purifying the state of mind as well as the body.

We know little about the actual practices of Shinto before the 6th century CE when the Japanese were introduced to continental culture, including the technology of writing, temple building and engineering technologies, and most important, the teachings of Buddhism. In 538 CE, the ruler of Paekche on the Korean Peninsula presented the Japanese ruler with a statue of the Buddha and an invitation to adopt Buddhism.

There was some natural resistance on the part of the hereditary clans that controlled the ritual practices of the kami and the ruling clan, but within a short period of time Buddhism became an important factor in Japanese religious and political life. Prince Shotoku (574 – 622 CE) was a pivotal figure in this transformation. Appointed to be regent by Empress Suiko in 593 CE, Shotoku was attributed with developing a constitution for Japan which contained both Buddhist and Confucian ideas about religion, the proper conduct of rulers and their subjects, and ethical rules. He is also credited with commentaries on Buddhist scriptures. At this point, Buddhism and Shinto were both viewed as supportive of the prosperity and success of the people of Japan.

In the 8th century, Emperor Shomu (701-756) mobilized the resources of the country to build a great temple in the capital city of Nara. This temple, Todaiji, housed a large Buddha statue of Dainichi Nyorai (Sanskrit: Mahavairocana) that rivaled the continental statues of Korea and China in its size and the skill required to create it.

Along with this tremendous engineering feat, Emperor Shomu adopted an esoteric Buddhist religious principle represented by the Buddha Dainichi Nyorai or “Great Sun Buddha”. In this ideology Dainichi Nyorai embodies pure wisdom. Placed at the capital, Dainichi Nyorai emanates wisdom throughout the kingdom to unite rural provinces with the central ruling court. Emperor Shomu commissioned satellite temples to be built in all the main provinces of Japan. These satellite temples would be connected with the central temple, Todaiji, through standardized ritual practices performed for the benefit of the country. This ideology became the basis for the next phase of development of Shinto.