Shinto, once an unwritten tradition rooted in nature, shrines, and ancestral worship, wasn’t always classified as a “religion.” This video traces how Japan’s native spiritual practice was reshaped ...

Under State Shinto, the divinity of the emperor and the special place of the Japanese people became official dogma. At the behest of the U.S.-led occupation forces after the war ...

"State Shinto was rejected as a state religion after the war, but some of that sentiment remains today," he said. "It has a large influence in politics." ...

Shinto rituals are performed by priests at shrines around Japan – and the world – on behalf of the deities and the local communities of people under their purview. The emperor of Japan also ...

Shinto is the native religious tradition of Japan. I think it's easy to see visual signs of it throughout Japan, from the shrines (jinja) to the gates (torii). But what I was interested in finding out ...

State Shinto glorified the emperor, under whose name Japan invaded wide swaths of Asia before and during World War II. After Japan's defeat, ...

A 2019 report by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs counted 88.9 million practitioners of Shinto, with Buddhism running a close second (84.8 million) and Christianity a distant third (1.9 million).

Shinto is Japan's indigenous religion that goes back centuries. It is an animism that believes there are thousands of kami, or spirits, inhabiting nature, such as forests, rivers and mountains.