From time immemorial, the Japanese people have worshipped
Kami-spirits that inhabit or represent a particular place, or
embody natural forces like the wind, rivers, and mountains.
Whenever a new settlement was founded a shrine would be erected for
the spirits of that place to honor them and ensure their
protection. It was believed that Kami could be found everywhere,
that no place in Japan was outside their dominion. Shinto
encompasses the doctrines, institutions, ritual, and communal life
based on Kami worship. The ideal of Shinto, central to this study,
is a construct in which a monarch rules through rituals for the
Kami, a priestly order assists the sovereign by coordinating
rituals, and the people who fulfill their obligations to the
collective are in turn blessed by the Kami. Center and periphery
join together in untroubled harmony through this theatre of state.
Helen Hardacre offers for the first time in any language a
sweeping, comprehensive history of Shinto, which is practiced by
some 80% of the Japanese people. The basic building blocks of this
vast and varied tradition, she shows, include the related concepts
of imperial rule and ritual, the claim that rituals for the Kami
are public in character, and the assertion that this complex web of
ideas and institutions devoted to the Kami embodies Japan's
"indigenous" tradition. This study addresses the story of the
emergence and development of these elements and the debates that
surround them to this day. Because Shinto is centered on the Kami,
it might be assumed that it is a religion, but Hardacre resists
that assumption, instead questioning the character of the tradition
at each stage of its history. She analyzes and deconstructs the
rhetoric of Shinto as a defining feature of Japan's racial
identity, inextricably woven into the fabric of Japanese life. This
definitive study represents a first, momentous step towards a more
developed understanding of Shinto.
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