“Shinto is Japan's indigenous religion that originated from ancient Japanese folk beliefs in kami, which are spirits or sacred powers believed to inhabit natural phenomena such as mountains, rivers, trees, the sun, and animals.”

“First has been Shintō. In its archaic form, especially before its contact with the literary philosophical heritage of continental Asia, it is better termed proto-Shintō or even simply ‘ancient kami worship’ because it only loosely resembles what we now know as Shintō. Institutional Shintō thought did not really begin until the medieval period… Dating back to preliterate times, proto-Shintō was more an amalgam of beliefs and practices lending cohesion to early Japanese communities. As such it largely resembled religions in ancient animistic and shamanistic cultures found elsewhere in the world. Specifically, the material and spiritual were internally related… Kami… could refer to anything ranging from a celestial deity to a ghost to a possessed human being to a spirit within a natural object to a wondrous natural object itself (such as Mt Fuji).”

“With his fundamentalist confidence in the text as a True Book (makoto no fumi) Norinaga argued that, as described in Kojiki, the native Way of Japan was a Way created not by humans like the imported Chinese Ways, but by the native kami who are ultimately responsible for all human action and activity.” This presents Shintō as a native Japanese ‘Way’ grounded in kami rather than in imported religious systems.

“Shinto… is often described as Japan’s indigenous religion… Shinto deities or kami were seen as permeating the natural world. Uniquely shaped or awe-inspiring trees, mountains, rivers, and rocks, all could be considered the dwelling places of kami.” “Shinto developed from the ancient worship of nature and ancestors in Japan.”

“Folk Shinto can be defined as folk belief deeply connected to the religion of jinja or traditional ideas of kami.” “In ancient Japan, people sensed the presence of invisible spiritual powers (kami) in natural phenomena, such as mountains, rivers, trees, and rocks, and this sense of awe and reverence formed the basis of Shinto belief.”

“Like many creation myths around the world, the universe started as silent chaos… When heaven was formed, five deities, the kotoamatsukami (The Separate Heavenly Gods) appeared… While there is an innumerable amount of kami now, the Japanese creation myth shows how the first 17, the 5 kotoamatsukami and the 12 kamiyo-nanayo, emerged… These myths explained how the universe and kami came to be, creating the basis for other Shinto stories and beliefs.” This explains that Shinto beliefs grow out of early Japanese myths about the origin of the universe and kami.

“Central to Shinto is the concept of kami, which is a life energy or self-creative life force that permeates everything, be it animate or inanimate. Kami constantly seeks to manifest itself and does so in multiple ways. It may be manifest in waterfalls, rocks, trees, mountains, hills, animals, and people.” “The name of the religion reflects this, for the word Shinto is derived from the two Chinese words shen and Tao… Thus Shinto is the way of the gods… The Japanese name for the religion is Kami-no-michi, which also means ‘way of the gods.’”

“Shintō is often described as Japan’s indigenous religion, although the term ‘Shintō’ itself only came into common use after the introduction of Buddhism… At its core is belief in countless kami—spirits or deities that inhabit mountains, forests, rivers, rocks, and other natural phenomena, as well as ancestral spirits. These kami are worshiped at local shrines and festivals that long predate the arrival of Buddhism.” This both notes the ‘indigenous’ description and qualifies it historically, while reaffirming the focus on kami inhabiting natural phenomena.

“Shintō is often described as Japan’s indigenous religion, but it is not an organized faith in the Western sense. It evolved gradually out of the ancient beliefs and practices of the Japanese people centered on the worship of kami—spirits or deities thought to inhabit natural phenomena like wind, rain, mountains, trees, and animals as well as ancestral and local tutelary spirits.”

“As Japan’s oldest faith, Shinto plays an important role in the nation’s history… The Encyclopedia Britannica describes Shinto as the country’s indigenous religious beliefs and practices.” “The Ancient History Encyclopedia explains that ancient Japanese people practiced ancestor worship, shamanism, and animism… Animism is the belief that everything in the natural world possesses a soul: rocks, trees, animals, elements, and even the weather. Kami, or energies that inhabit aspects of our physical universe, are a primary concept in modern Shinto religion.”

“Shintoism is an informal animist religion that honors ancestors, pays tribute to ‘kamis’, or spirits, and has traditionally had strong bonds with the Japanese imperial family. Kami are essentially nature spirits… Kami can be elements of the landscape or forces of nature; they can be rivers, trees, rocks, wind, rain, mountains, valleys and even the sun itself.” This describes Shinto as an animist religion focused on kami understood as nature spirits inhabiting elements like rivers, trees, mountains and the sun.

“Proto-Shintō lacked philosophical reflection and even self-conscious articulation, but it can be so named because today’s Shintō has often claimed (sometimes disingenuously) a resonance with its main values, ritual forms, and world view. Dating back to preliterate times, proto-Shintō was more an amalgam of beliefs and practices lending cohesion to early Japanese communities. As such it largely resembled religions in ancient animistic and shamanistic cultures found elsewhere in the world.” This frames the origins of Shintō in very early, animistic community beliefs before formal doctrine.

Shinto is commonly described as Japan’s indigenous religion, but scholars note that the term covers a complex historical development rather than a single ancient belief system. Even so, its core focus on kami as spirits or sacred powers in nature is a standard description.

Transcript: “Shintoism, the indigenous religious practice of Japan… literally Shinto is the way of the gods or in Japanese the way of the kami… to put it simply Shinto is the worship of kami… kami can be spirits of the landscape, forces of nature and the spirits of dead ancestors… anything in this world that fills you with a sense of wonder or awe can be a kami… in Shinto there is no one all powerful god and instead the universe is watched over by the harmonious cooperation of the kami.”

“Shintoism, the indigenous religion of Japan, centers around the worship of Kami, which are revered spirits or deities. The Kami can embody natural elements, ancestors, historical heroes, or even abstract concepts… The Kami, much more than mere deities, are the incarnations of everything that is sacred and powerful in the natural and human world. They symbolize a wide range of aspects, from the elemental forces of nature to human values and virtues.” This description links Shinto as Japan’s indigenous religion to kami as spirits of natural elements and ancestors.

Modern scholarship often notes that while many Shinto rituals and kami beliefs are very old and rooted in Japanese folk practice, the idea of ‘Shinto’ as a single, unified, indigenous religion was systematized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (e.g., State Shinto), and thus the label ‘indigenous religion’ can obscure this historical construction. This perspective does not deny the antiquity of kami beliefs or their association with natural phenomena, but questions the anachronistic projection of a unified ‘Shinto’ back into prehistory.