WORLD RELIGIONS

Detailed explanation-1: -The essence of Shinto is the Japanese devotion to invisible spiritual beings and powers called kami, to shrines, and to various rituals. Shinto is not a way of explaining the world. What matters are rituals that enable human beings to communicate with kami. Kami are not God or gods.

Detailed explanation-2: -"Shinto gods” are called kami. They are sacred spirits which take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami.

Detailed explanation-3: -Amaterasu is the most venerated deity in the Shinto cult, and the Japanese flag Hinomaru, symbolizing the sun in a red circle, is a direct reference to her.

Detailed explanation-4: -Shintoism too is similar to that form and belief system in Hinduism. Ancestors are considered Kami too and just as we worship and follow the system of gotras (descendents of Rishis), they worship their ancestors.

Detailed explanation-5: -Kami are the divine spirits or gods recognized in Shinto, the native religion of Japan. There are eight million kami-a number that, in traditional Japanese culture, can be considered synonymous with infinity.