The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Shinto S 421

is extreme, unusual, and controversial, even in Shi’ite communities. Shi’ites have often lived as a persecuted minority. They have seen “dissimulation” as an appropriate response. That is, they may outwardly act like their neighbors and practice Shi’ite Islam in secret. The most distinctive Shi’ite observance is Ashura. It commemorates the assassination of Husayn on the 10th of Muharram, often through the performance of “passion plays.” SIGNIFICANCE At the beginning of the 21st century, Shi’ite Islam was familiar to North Americans as the official reli gion of Iran and the majority religion of Iraq. It was often associated with reports of violence in the news media. But in all ages, including the present, the vast majority of Shi’ites have practiced their religion in peace, sometimes despite severe perse cution. They have also made major contributions to global culture. Examples include the famous al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, founded by the Fatimids in 970 C . E ., and the glorious architectural monuments of Isfahan, Persia (now Iran). Further reading: Michael M. J. Fischer, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003); Heinz Halm, Shi’ism, 2d ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004); Etan Kohlberg, ed., Shi’ism (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2003).

HISTORY In the Middle Ages kami and buddhas were often worshipped together. The kami were considered guardians of the buddhas, or sometimes special Japanese forms of the same spiritual power seen in Buddhism as a Buddha. But in modern times Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples have been kept separate. This is largely because the nation alistic governments that ruled Japan from 1868 up until the end of World War II in 1945 wanted to make Shinto a separate patriotic cult, untouched by anything of foreign origin like Buddhism ( see NATIONALISM , RELIGIOUS ). The extreme nationalists emphasized that the emperor of Japan was himself a kami and descended from Amaterasu, kami or goddess of the sun. He was therefore worthy of all honor and sacrifice ( see KINGSHIP AND RELIGION ). However, Shinto as a religion is much more than an example of religious nationalism. The kami of most shrines are peaceful deities, protectors of families and local communities, honored in festi vals that have their roots in the agricultural year. They were there long before the extreme national ists, and have outlasted them. Though the emperor of Japan is still installed with very ancient Shinto rites, his religious and political role is now almost always seen as purely symbolic. BELIEFS AND PRACTICES The visitor to present-day Japan will see evidence of Shinto on every hand. In most places one is not too far from a Shinto shrine or jinja large or small. Large city shrines are on parklike grounds, with grass and one or two old trees. In the country side, shrines are often in places of striking natural beauty: on a mountainside, by a waterfall, beside the ocean or a lake or a rushing stream. Wherever situated, the entry to a Shinto shrine is marked by the distinctive gateway called a torii, which has become a symbol of Shinto as recognizable as the Christian cross or the Jewish Star of D AVID . Pass ing under the torii, the visitor will approach the shrine itself, a small wooden building. In the front will be a sort of porch, perhaps containing such characteristic Shinto symbols as a drum beaten during sacred dance, gohei or zigzag strips of

Shinran See P URE L AND B UDDHISM .

Shinto Japanese religion of the indigenous gods of the country. The word Shinto means “the way of the gods.” This is to distinguish it from the way of the B UDDHA , or B UDDHISM , the other great religious tradition of Japan ( see J APANESE RELIGION ). Shinto is the WORSHIP of the KAMI , or ancient Japanese gods. Many of those worshipped now were there long before Buddhism arrived in Japan in the sixth cen tury C . E . and are still honored in the Shinto shrines of Japan today.