Tracing Shinto in the History of Kami Worship: Editors' Introduction

Abstract

STUDIES OF SHINTO in Western languages are few and far between. In this journal, too, articles on have been rare. Compared to Japanese Buddhism, or Japanese New Religions, has had little appeal to both scholars and students even in Japan. Yet, few university courses about Japanese culture, history, and religion manage to get around the subject altogether. No doubt, many in teaching positions will recognize the feeling of unease that arises whenever the topic comes up. There is a fundamental uncertainty about central questions relating to Shinto. Is it a relic of ancient nature worship, surviving by some miracle into the modern age? An amorphous repository for Japan's metahistorical cultural subconscious, impenetrable for foreigners? Or is it an outdated invented tradition, cynically created by the Meiji government to aid the building of the Japanese nation state? Even if we limit our view to contemporary society, how is it that most Japanese are involved in some form of shrine practice (at least in the form of hatsumode t1J), while at the same time Shinto seems to mean nothing to them? These and other issues give an elusive, and, in the minds of many, an outright dubious character. In this special issue on studies, we have tried to collect a number of essays that may be of some help in pinning this elusive in different historical periods. Of course, this is possible only if we first succeed in narrowing down the scope of the term. How may be used as a historiographical term will be the main subject of this brief introduction.

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