Shintoism is an ancient philosophical religion in Japan. Some social issues in Shintoism are: its lack a clear chain of identity and a lack of centralization.
There is no Shinto "Bible" or Holy Scripture its a very optimistic, open faith where there are no rights or wrongs in what you believe and believes that humans are fundamentally good but can and will make mistakes. Also there is hardly any preaching or convincing to join
Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer, and Shiva the destroyer.
there isn`t one.....or more accurately there isn`t JUST one. Shintos believe in a plurality of kamis. At New Year the 7 gods of fortune are worshiped.....so they could be considered to be more important than other gods.
Oshogatsu represents the Shinto New Year. Seijin Shiki, is for all Japanese who have reached adulthood to go to a shrine and give thanks. Rissun, a Spring bean festival. Hina-Matsuri, a celebration of the daughters in a family. Shabun-sai, a day for visiting the graves of loved ones. Shichigosun, a day for appreciating children, and Niinamesei, a labor day of thanksgiving.
Some of the teachings of Shinto are; donâ??t forget the teachings of the ancestors. Shinto also teaches the people to respect their elders and do not commit evil acts.
In the Kojiki, they have an underworld or realm of the dead called Yomi. It is not necessarily a place of eternal suffering, nor is it a place of bliss. It is a limbo like place where the dead have a bleak existence there, similar to Asphodel within Hades in Greek Mythology. However, because most Shinto people are Buddhists as well, it has become a place of suffering too.
I have heard around the time of Christ, possibly a bit earlier.
Answer2:SHINTO is predominantly a Japanese religion. According to the Nihon Shukyo Jiten (Encyclopedia of Japanese Religions), "The formation of Shintoism is almost identical with the Japanese ethnic culture, and it is a religious culture that was never practiced apart from this ethnic society." Although Shinto claims a membership of over 91,000,000 in Japan, which amounts to about three quarters of its population, a survey reveals that only 2,000,000 people, or 3 percent of the adult population, really profess to believe in Shinto. However, Sugata Masaaki, a researcher on Shinto, says: "Shinto is so inextricably woven into the fabric of Japanese daily life that people are barely aware of its existence. To the Japanese it is less a religion than an unobtrusive environmental fixture, like the air they breathe." Even those who claim to be apathetic to religion will buy Shinto traffic safety amulets, have their weddings according to Shinto tradition, and pour their money into annual Shinto festival. The designation "Shinto" sprang up in the eigth century C.E. to distinguish the local religiom from Buddhism, which was being introduced into Japan. "Of course, the Religion of the Japanese '...existed before the introduction of Buddish," explains Sachiya Hiro, a researcher of Japanese religions, "but it was a subconscious religion, consisting of customs and ''mores.' With the introduction of buddishm, however, people became aware of the fact that those mores constituted a Japanese religion, different from Buddhism, which was a foreign religion."
It is difficult to pinpoint a date when the original Shinto, or "Religion of the Japanese," emerged. With the advent of the wetland cultivation of rice, "wetland agriculture necessitated well-organized and stable communities," explains the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, "and agricultural rites-which later played such an important role in Shinto-were developed." Those early peoples conceived of and revered numerous gods of nature.
In addition to this reverence, fear of departed souls led to rites for appeasing them. This later developed into a worship of ancestral spirits. According to Shinto belief, a "departed" soul still has its personality and is stained with death pollution immediately after death. When the bereaved perform memorial rites, the soul is purified to the point of removing all malice, and it takes on a peaceful and benevolent character. In time the ancestral spirit rises to the position of an ancestral, or guardian, deity. Thus we find that the immortal soul belief is fundamental to yet another religion and conditions the attitudes and actions of the believer
No one; from what I have read, it evolved with the people of Japan. Shinto(ism) also has no official formalized system of doctrine or sacred texts. There is debate on the time period when Shinto originated,
The taoism symbol is a black and white symbol of the 2 moving in a circle around with each other, with a little bit of each color on its own inside the other. Black and white represent yin and yang (good and evil), and the pattern shows that they are in balance with each other. Trace amounts of them are found within each other, showing that no matter how good something is, it has some evil in it, and vice-versa.
Shinto believes that harmony in nature corresponds to a heirarchical relationship of natural powers and responsibilities. It has been blended with Confuscianism to emphasize that those in power have a responsibility to divine harmony, and therefore should be honored as divine agents. Although Shinto was practiced on a "folk" level of individual beliefs and prayers to individual ancestral spirits, it became organized as a state religion. In Imperial Japan, the Emperor was considered the head of the Shinto religion. Respect for the divine order of things evolved into a "my country right or wrong" loyalty to the Emperor.
Kami usually translates into other languages as god. In Japanese, it means spirit or life force.