Discover Shinto

Shinto is a native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. It involves the worship of kami, which can be translated to mean gods, spirits of nature, or just spiritual presences. Some kami are local and can be regarded as the spirit or genius of a particular place, but others represent major natural objects and processes, for example, Amaterasu, the Sun goddess. The word Shinto was created by combining two kanji: shin meaning god (the character can also be read as "kami" in Japanese) and to¯ meaning Tao ("way" or "path" in a philosophical sense). Thus, Shinto means "the way of the gods."

After World War II, Shinto lost its status of state religion; some Shinto practices and teachings, once given a great deal of prominence during the war, are no longer taught nor practiced today, and some remain largely as everyday activities without religious connotations like omikuji (a form of drawing lots).