WORLD RELIGIONS

Detailed explanation-1: -During the Meiji era (1868 to 1912), Japan’s nationalist leadership expelled Buddhist influence from kami worship and formed State Shinto, which some historians regard as the origin of Shinto as a distinct religion.

Detailed explanation-2: -Confucianism was known to the Japanese from the sixth C.E. on; however, it was not until the Edo or Tokugawa period (1600-1868) that it became a leading ideology of state and a pervasive teaching in Japanese society.

Detailed explanation-3: -Consequently, the purpose of most Shinto rituals is to keep away evil spirits by purification, prayers and offerings to the kami. Shinto shrines are the places of worship and the homes of kami. Most shrines celebrate festivals (matsuri) regularly in order to show the kami the outside world.

Detailed explanation-4: -II. At the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th centuries, the celebrated Japanese teacher Kukai, or (posthumously) Kobo Daishi, established a doctrine uniting Buddhism and Shinto under the name of Ryobu Shinto (Japanese, “the Shinto of two kinds").

Detailed explanation-5: -Shintoisms were the only religions in Japan until the arrival of Buddhism in the 6th century CE. From then on Shinto faiths and traditions took on Buddhist elements, and later, Confucian ones. Some Shinto shrines became Buddhist temples, existed within Buddhist temples, or had Buddhist priests in charge.