Can Shinto Become a Global Religion? 

Watch the full Shinto series here: ru-vid.com/group/PLHsXddZFR9AO-GbFRwqoBUQnFabXy6YBr

It's important to realize that culture, land, history and religion are all connected. American Christians trace their religion to the other side of the world, but they can never really experience and understand the life style of the early Christians, or even modern ones who live in different cultures. It's even more important to understand this in the context of Shinto, which doesn't emphasize faith and biblical canon the same way that Christianity does.

This Hawaiian Shinto reminds me of the syncretism of Christianity and traditional African religions that happened here in Brazil and other places in the Americas.

I would say it's both. Traditionalists might not accept people in other parts of the world but that won't stop people from believing, practicing, and adapting religions.

The Hawaiian shrine reminds me of the Vietnamese Cao Dai religion which you should definitely do an episode on. They have saints like Charlie Chaplin and Herman Melville.

All religions start out as indigenous. Some of them spread beyond the founding group, and others don't.

I find it absolutely hilarious that a shrine exists venerating George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as kami.

Actually in my city Santos, Brazil, hade a Shinto Shrine that was demolished to build a park in their place that has a Shinto portal and some few rocks of the old temple, the japanese people that came her 100 years ago practiced their religion but over time they would convert do catolicism like majority of brazilians to better adapt to our culture but have some japanese that even in this day attend to shinto shrines in São Paulo to some festitivites

Religions are very interesting when dissecting the culture behind them.

Sadly the shrine mentioned at the start of the video is now closed down. It closed on 30, June, 2023.

I think the answer might be "both". I can imagine that when building a shrine outside of Japan, practitioners can conceive of Kami local to their own area. In polytheism and animisim there's the idea of "our local spirits/gods" and then also foreign ones, which are recognized but live elsewhere (and not in your local shrine). I think that allows for shrines outside Japan that utilize the same ritual practices but recognize a different mix of Kami. Imo I think shinto may be flexible enough to have shrines overseas, since ritual practice seems to just as or more important than believing in Kami.

Imo, being a form of polytheism (see Edit below for clarification) and incorporating ancestor and nature spirit worshipping, Shinto certainly can find something in common with Neopagan traditions and maybe even New Age spirituality. This would make it possible for non-Japanese to incorporate Shinto practices into their religious lifes and, in the end, adopt Shinto practices holistically. That being said, if a foreigner adopts Shinto on account of its similarity with that foreigner's, say, Neopagan beliefs, there would be a reason to ask, whether what has been adopted is actually Shinto and not some sort of "non-specific eclectic paganism" with Japanese aesthetics. EDIT: Thanks for all the replies, certainly gives something to think about. A little clarification: by "polytheism" I did not mean the term in its strict sense of "worshipping a multitude of deities/spirits equally", but rather "the belief in multiple deities/spirits that can be worshiped in any number of ways". That would include henotheism, monolatry, etc.

08:50 It's quite interesting that a lot of Western converts to Shinto practice their faith with what seems to me as characteristically born-again-esque fervour like daily offerings of prayer which to my Tokyoite sensibilities is quite foreign to say the least, while a vanishingly small percentage of urban population in Japan own a personal Shinto-specific altar as opposed to a more syncretised, part Shinto part Buddhist part vaguely ancestor-veneration kinda altar, to which then again as far as I personally know very few people pray or light an incense in front of on a daily basis.

Gotta get here early for the future world religion

It's so strange to learn that Granite Falls WA has a Shinto shrine. I grew up there for a while and it's a VERY small rural town just below the Cascade mountains. It's also very conservative. That seems like such a random place to put a Shinto shrine!

I live in germany and in my hometown there is a shinto shrine. Very beautiful place

You can't imagine how delighted I was to click on this video :)

Could the tension between Ethnic Japanese-Only Shinto and Gaijin-Inclusive Shinto lead to a split of religions, like between Judaism and Christianity?

As a neopagan I certainly see Shinto as having universal appeal. When speaking with japanese exchange students at my university, it seemed clear that our ideas about religion were more similar than different. Considering how new age religious movements tend to work, and I mean this in positive and negative ways, it's amazing to me that Shinto type practices and inspirations aren't more widespread among neopagans. Shinto has all of the tools necessary to adapt to new environments, adopt elements of them (such as foreign or cultural gods), and an appealing, relavant message about both nature and mindfulness. I maintain a personal shrine which sits high on a wall. It's not a kamidana, but it might be close. Neopagan belief already incorporates nature worship, polytheism, and animism, often with purification practices and interaction with a personal, dynamic, spiritual world.

I'm curious to know exactly how the American Shinto priests interact with the idea of Kami in America. If they are spirits connected to the natural environment, such as rivers, trees, rocks, etc. then do they have to make up new spirits connected to American natural phenomenon? Would you name and identify these spirits, or just worship the natural phenomena themselves without anthropomorphizing them? Do Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon have really big, important spirits, comparable to that of Mt Fuji? How does the Kami of Mt. Rushmore feel about having presidential faces carved into it? Also, there are many natural sites that are already sacred to Native American traditions, such as Bear Butte in SD. What if a non-native American wanted to build a Shinto Shrine at Bear Butte? Do you worship two different spirits side-by-side, or do you try to work Lakota mythology into Shinto practices? That sounds problematic, to say the least...

"Defining Religion is a very high stakes topic". That's why we leave it to RU-vid comment! What could possibly go wrong? ;-) I love this series and your other content, thanks for doing this!

You mentioned Japanese kami being worshipped abroad, but I’m surprised you didn’t mention foreign figures being enshrined in Japan like Thomas Edison.

In Brazil because of the large japanese population, there is a shinto shirine in São Paulo, but there isn't a kami enshiraned. Some people prefer mantain a kamidama with their house.

When people say that Shinto is a Universal Religion, do they mean Traditional Japanese Shinto? More Modern Secular Shinto (were everyone says they believe in Kami but aren’t superstitious or visit shrines that often)? Or are they talking about Animism? I think they’re talking more about Animism because that’s been a universal foundation for belief for hundreds of thousands of years. I’m enamored buy the practices of Shinto, and think it’s valuable to more observant of the world around us, whether you believe in spirits or not. Yet I think the tricky thing in making Shinto universal is transmitting meaning of certain rituals (washing hands, writing to Kami, etc) to everyone. When most religions move to someplace new or are enforced, the older, more orthodox practices get mixed with new ones and look different. Two examples that come to mind was how Christianity was made the state religion in Rome in the 4th Century (thus bringing a lot of “pagan” practices into the fold) and how Catholicism in the Caribbean is practiced in places where there’s Voodoo or Native Spirit rituals brought from Africa.

Maybe this American Shinto will be like how Romans accepted Jewish concepts to create a distinct Roman/Greek/Semitic religion. Forming a new form of religion.

I do love the way you present content that is provocative, posing questions, presenting evidence and arguments from different perspectives and, in the end, not providing any definitive answers to the questions (this goes for all your videos, not just this one). You leave much room for opening discussion and debate rather than closing it down. This is terrific "food for thought" as well as tools for classroom discussion! Keep up the good work! Looking forward to the next installment.

I love Shinto, specially for it's relationship with and respect to Nature... Also it amazes me how Zen Buddhism and Shinto get along together and how Zen Buddhism can help explain Shinto and viceversa, I absolutely adore these two traditions ☺️⛩️❤️☸️

Missed opportunity to call the video AMERI-KAMI. Lol

The very first non Japanese/ Western Shinto priest lives in the Netherlands and is named Paul de Leeuw. He had to proof that kami also exist outside of Japan. He send a photo of a tree in the Netherlands and he was proven right by his Shinto teachers in Japan.

In Sri Lanka also you can find an indigenous faith going well along with Buddhism - but it does not have a name as such. The idea of Kami is very much the same. Different from village to village and sometimes historical figures, other times related to some natural feature in the area, or even from the Hindu pantheon later become popular. Many people who believe and even practice don't notice the difference - only when one learns about Buddhism (and see how people actually practice and believe) they notice two distinct religions intertwined in practice. It is that, Buddhism does not replace any pre-existing indigenous belief - able to coexist and intermingle.

We incorporate Shinto values with our kids, being thankful for everything is important. They're only 3 and 1 and they say thank you to things like the house for keeping them warm and their bath water for cleaning them.

This was beautiful and illuminating. Thank you.

Liking and commenting to improve your luck in the RU-vid algorithm. Thank you for your awesome and educational content. Much love

Two videos in a month, I'm feeling spoiled. Interesting take on Shinto, I've always thought about it as something so intrinsically tied to Japanese history and the land itself that I never even thought of its potential as a universal religion.

That was good. As someone who lived in Hawaii for several years, and who has lived in Japan for much longer, I would liked to have seen a bit more about Shinto in Hawaii. But still, it was good.

This video needs at least one qualifying statement that was left out. Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, which is the head shrine of many Shinto shrines in Japan dedicated to Inari, is not part of Jinja Honcho. In addition there are any number of independent shrines. So when the spokesperson at the head office of Jinja Honcho makes statements regarding the number of practitioners of Shinto, that does not mean they are in anyway connected to that organization.

Now I want to build a Shinto Shrine...

Great video! Could you make one on Mexicayotl (modern Aztec paganism)?

Here in São Paulo the majority of Japanese descendants converted to Catholicism in the mid twentieth century. Shrines are rare however there is still influence, for example, in these people's houses sometimes there is a kamidama with catholic saints since in Brazil religions tend to acquire a syncretic characteristic. Here in my neighborhood there is a Shinto priestess works in her home and people from different ethnic/religious backgrounds search for her, very interesting.

In the English speaking West Shinto is likely to become a universalist tradition but in a transformed and hybrid form. I mean, in a form transformed from what we can see now in the shrines in Hawaii and continental America. Shinto is very likely to be syncretized with modern Paganism (some Pagan bloggers and scholars are already consedering the many similarities between the two religions). The ways of syncretization, we may surmise, will include the abandonment of shrine-centeredness which now characterizes most of Shinto, and the emergence of a more individual-centered practice (perhaps with magic taking a more prominent role than now). I think it possible because the same is now happening to many Afro-Carribean traditions in America. They are taken out of their communal context, translated into the context of a globalized megapolis and marketed transnationally. The religious "grammar" of Paganism (expecially in its latest development - the fideist "devotional polytheism") suits perfectly well for accomplishing this amalgamation, which is likely to result in formation of new forms of religion worldwide. Living in St Petersburg, Russia, I encountered a Wiccan coven which practised a mixed form of Shinto-ish rituals in the framework of a generic Modern Pagan/Wiccan rituals (with an eight-fold Wheel of the Year, circle casting, power raising and, of course, the absence of shrines besides one home kamidana). The Kami invoked in the rituals I attended included Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, Idzanagi/Idzanami and two creator-gods, whose names I just don't remember. The rites were conducted in Russian, with fragments of translated Nikhongi and Kodziki materials included for invocations and as script for sacred drama Taking into account, that this was possible in a country with virtually no Japanese presence, but only due to the wordwide influence of Japanese culture, it is highly likely that suchlike phenomena can be met in America whith its ethnic Japanese citizens and in other countries of the Pacific Japanese diaspora, where Japanese tradition, language and way of life gives way to a more globalized and Anglicized setting.

I go to Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America every year for Hatsumōde on New Years. ⛩ 😊 It’s a beautiful place on a river.

Interesting! This series is so interesting.

In my view, a religious tradition can be interpreted as indigenous or universal depending on what the specific branch is aiming for. Yoruba religion is an indigenous religion, but when transplanted to Brazil it was transformed into universal Umbanda. Even though they have a close mythology and rituals and are related geneologically, they have very different aspects when it comes to being ethnic or universal. So it seems to me that some branches of Shinto are ethnic, while others are universal

I think it depends who you ask, which seems like a cop-out answer, but this reminded me of Eastern Orthodoxy where it’s organized on national lines and certain practitioners in older generations or in the national homeland would consider foreigners converting nonsensical since this is “the Bulgarian church for Bulgarians” (or whatever national church). But clearly in practice and abroad there are many Orthodox Christians in modern societies who are not ethnically aligned with the autocephalous/national church they attend and believe.

Shinto means way of the gods, technically the pagans, wicca, Kahunas and tlamacazui also venerate kami except they are native to the Americas. Shinto is just the Japanese aesthetic. Nearly every society has had shamanistic gods. Shinto is just the Japanese name for it.

Outstanding video!

I'm amazed to see ReligionForBreakfast do a five-part series on Shinto! And also the video on Wicca. Would love to see one for modern Druidry as well.

I can definitely get behind the idea of Washington and Lincoln as kami, that's just awesome.

I wish I could turn on your notifications :( love the video :)

Omoto and Konkokyo are two examples of Shinto being practiced outside Japan. Konkokyo especially, as there are several Konko churches in the US, mostly in major cities on the east coast and Hawaii. One doesn't have to be Japanese to practice Konkokyo, nor is the Konko religion restricted to purely Japanese cultural expression.

As an Aussie, the idea of universalising kami and shinto have got me thinking about how Japan (seemingly) nearly conquered our northern lands during WWII, land that just so happens to include lots of traditionally living aboriginal people, whose spirituality is highly animist. I could imagine an alternative history where the japanese invaders syncretise shinto and dreaming spirituality as a form of imperialism and to also legitimise local beliefs so as to help win over a population whose practices were long subjugated and suppressed by anglo-australia, and thereby cultivate loyalty. I could even imagine aboriginal people embracing and defending these practices as they'd give a highly visible institutional legitimacy to their once maligned and dismissed beliefs.

Thank you for your good explanation about Shinto. I'm pleased with you explained well that traditional Shinto and imperial Shinto are different things. Actually, not a few numbers of Kami in Shinto came from abroad with Buddism and adopted. Hence, there is no reason to limit the Shinto religion only to indigenous, in my view. Shinto is just a way of Kami. You can practice it no matter who you are and where you are. And anything you respect or love or fear can be Kami for you.

Amazing edit at 4:00. Groundbreaking stuff.

It’s a good day when religion for breakfast posts a video

I am SO here for this

The following is a rather subjective statement. For the most part I am an atheist, although I have some spiritual tendencies. I tend to see some value in the veneration of nature. At least I see the value of nature itself, and thinking about it in a sense of being inhabited or intertwined with Kami. When I was in Japan in late 2019 , I happened to come across a small Shinto Shrine on a small cliff on the shore of lake Kawaguchiko with a magnificent view on Mount Fuji, and I decided there an then to say a small prayer for the flora and fauna of my home. Since there wasn’t water or smoke for purification I used water from a bottle, that I had on me. In this regard I think Shinto very well can be in part at least universal, since there is nature all over the world. I mean I am not to much in the matter, it’s more like a very broad and shallow interpretation of Shinto, a feeling or to put it more or less contemporary a vibe rather than a belief, but I think that in part Shinto has some great aspects that resonate with me, which make it universal to me and also make it possible to practice it in a somewhat atheistic yet spiritual(-light) way. Amazing content by the way. I really enjoy this series and hope that you might find the time for some single videos on Shinto after you’ve finished the series.

There's a similar universalist phenomena occurring in the modern reconstructionist Norse/Germanic polytheistic religion. The core similarities between the Shinto religion and the Forn Sedr ( old ways) of the Northern Tradition are amazing. I really look forward to seeing how this develops in our future! Thank you for this RU-vid article.

I formative & interesting presentation!

This is incredibly interesting and relevant to me. I've been wanting to create my own terrible light novel and part of it would need shinto in the us.

This was fascinating! ogasawara shozo seems like a cool dude.

Absolutely loving the Shinto series, it's definitely something I wanted to read more on! Currently doing a university project on Gnosticism and Mary Magdalene, but I love watching your Shinto content when I'm having my breaks :)

I'm very interested to see what would happen if Shinto got 'combined' with modern pagan movements, like Hellenism or Heathen. Honestly, from what I've heard, I feel like they would intersect very well.

This was very informative, I used to be heavily involved in Shinto religion as a child but I do not identify with the kamis and shrines as much anymore, but I still go to shrines regularly, but do not see it as a part of my Japanese identity.

As an European practitioner of Himalayan Vajrayana Buddhism, this is an interesting video to see. Also in the world of Himalayan Buddhism there are various interest groups and ways of thinking who either emphasize the universalism of Buddhism or people who want to keep the religion exclusive to Tibetan people. In principle Vajrayana is passed on from a teacher to student and is therefore not really ethnic in its core, but the religion is so tied to the Tibetan culture, that some might view it from the lens of ethnic exclusivity. (That said, even in the universalist camp, for a western born person to become a Buddhist Lama is a really challenging task. The lack of social support makes it hard practically and financially, and even if you would become a qualified Lama, it would be more difficult to be taken seriously by others.)

I love shinto and ninpo so much!!! Changed my life

The progression and evolution of the social dynamics and worldview of Shinto is fascinating. I wonder if it will give us insights into the psychological, social, and political evolution of polytheism and various cults (in the academic sense, not the NRM sense) in human history.

I'm a convinced atheist, but i like to learn how thinking is molded, with culture and religion in simbiosis with society. You certainly make great education content with a lot of implication with it. More work like this is needed.

This reminds me of saint Bridgette being an adaptation of an old goddess or how the Romans imported and equated gods.

Since Shinto is about performing rituals, I think anyone who performed a ritual at a shrine of his/her volition may be a Shinto "believer". I'm hoping to be able to go to Japan and visit a shrine.

I was going to say that in many parts of asia, shinto shrines had left a bad taste because of being associated with the occupations during wwii, but you did bring that up too.

Hey RFB, long time watcher, first time commenter. Think you could do a video on Eliphas Levi? Him and his writings are super interesting and influencial and there's hardly anything of good quality on RU-vid about it. Keep up the great work!

I love that you pronounced Kamehameha like Goku... I also am flabbergasted that the shrine here venerates washington and lincoln,lol..

👍 good video

Regrettably, the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America closed their doors at the end of June in 2023. Rev. and Mrs. Barrish moved to Florida where I'm to understand they set up a small independent shrine.

Shinto is definitely indigenous to Japan. Something can be transported elsewhere, but that doesn't stop it from being indigenous to where it originated from. You can see this with all manner of plants and animals that have an indigenous location yet can be transported or migrate elsewhere.

Christianity is began as exclusive religion of jews followers of Jesus. It's saw as a cult inside judaism. Before it's spread universaly because of St. Paul teachings. In this matter maybe someday Shinto also become universal religion because of someone teaching also like that white Shinto priest guy. I believe it's currently indeginious religion although it did enshrined non-Japanese as kami. Japanese though kamis are everywhere.

I think that, like Buddhism or Jediism, Shintoism is private and informal enough that you don't have the dogma and negativity of more established and traditional religions like Islam and Christianity while still getting that spiritual fulfillment and a way to connect with the greater universe. I would say that the answer to whether or not Shintoism is an indigenous tradition or universal is like the answer to whether or not Shintoism is a religion as Westerners view it. And that answer is: it's complicated. Shintoism has definite roots in the Japanese people and has large cultural influences which make it uniquely indigenous to Japan. However, the ideology is easily adapted into the cultures of others, which makes it very universal. I guess Obi-wan is right when he says that everything is true "from a certain point of view".

haven’t seen anyone else but adam neely do that epic transition at 4:00

Heyo, can you do a video on Chinese Folk Religion? I haven't seen much talk of it.

Question: this means that a Winchester riffle with 100 years in a museum could become a tsukumogami?

Interesting!

Bold of you to use the Greenough statue of Washington at 8:17.

Love this place!

First of all, Many Kami are Indian gods/goddesses, because when Japanese embraced Buddhism, many Hindi deities were also introduced. In the animistic worldview, Supernatural beings, people, Animals, Plants, Natural phenomena, Man-made objects, and even fictitious things, are part of the universe more or less equally, and they all communicate with each other.

It will be a blessing. I hate organized religion. Promotion of any other religion is good for the world.

The Japanese have always taken foreign things and made them their own. Recently, they reversed the process to some extent with anime, etc. Now perhaps it's happening with their religion.

I'm a follower of Shinto and have a kamidana shelf dedicated to Amaterasu omikami sama, uka mitama okami sama, ame no uzume no mikoto sama and Sarutahiko-no mikoto sama. I follow a few Shinto groups on Facebook. And actually follow the Kannagara Shinto shrine of Kissimmee Florida which is where Koichi Barrish Sensei is located at now that he turned the grand Tsubaki shrine of North America over to a Shinto Shrine of Victoria Canada to maintain. I will tell you that Shinto is a both indigenous and universal. It has been the desire for Shinto although a Japanese spiritual path to reach out to the world. Unfortunately it was done the wrong way especially in the late 19th century and 20th century especially during World War 2. The followers of Shinto in Japan that had advocated pacifism were suppressed especially in world war 2. It I believe it was always meant to reach out to the rest of the world to spread information about living in harmony with nature and with others something that religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam failed to do. Yes I support Koichi Barrish Sensei and others views that it is meant to be universal. However still rooted in Japanese mythology, folklore, and culture. Great video ❤

I like that my boy Dan gun got a shout out in the video as a student of taekwondo I do approve.

I mean, if they're practicing shinto rituals, hold shinto beliefs, have shinto shrines, and call themselves shinto, then they're obviously shinto? Maybe a new sect of shinto, but definitely shinto.

I like it. It seems like a tradition that fits anyone's ancestors or persons from the past. Idk how G Washington would feel about it but but i bet he could be convinced if phrased to him right.

He’s is amazing

I didn’t see this in the comments, the king of Hawaii is pronounced Ka-MAY-ha-MAY-ha. Good episode! Surprised there aren’t more Shinto shrines on the US west coast.

My grasp of Shinto is twofold: Shrine Shinto is an organized religion and there are many rules of what to do and not to do in common behavior and ritual, but according to Motohisa Yamakage the Way of Kami is maintained through stories and rituals passed down through families and communities making for an amorphous common identity of 'Shinto' but being really hard to pin down as to what it is or isn't. Yamakage also argues that blind observation of ritual without sincere Faith and Communion with Kami or Divine is an imitation of Shinto and not to the Spirit of Kami. He also believes Shinto can and should be adapted to other cultures and spiritualities as wished by an individual so long as it's done with sincerity. So to him, one can be Christian and Shinto and have no contradiction. I'm inclined to agree as I see Kami and Angels as compatible experience. Baptism and Misoji do after all have common ritual and purpose. If Shinto is viewed as a shamanic tradition that has become formalized, we can see that Shinto and virtually all indigenous spiritual traditions throughout the globe have a commonality. One could argue that the many Native American spiritual traditions are Shinto and similarly vice versa. And then we could get into esoteric healing methods such as Reiki and see that it carries Shinto practices and even spontaneously regains Shinto qualities lost through international transmission. Again thanks for the education 🙏☮️

The buildings look so beautiful

Now I'm wondering if there's a comparison that could be made between Shinto and Judaism in this respect?

Kami are simply powerful spirits, Hachiman and Tenjin who are some of the most popuar kami for all of Japan, were originally Emporer Ojin and scholar Sugawara-No-Michizane, all real people. Kami aren’t some small group of intangible all powerful gods like how western religions such as Christianity and Paganism view their deities. Theres nothing absurd about Japanese-Americans doing the same to people as influential as George Washington Abe Lincoln and King Kamehameha in Hawaii.

Crazy how this channel's take on religion is completely different from what my university's religious studies was teaching. Modern western/protestant take on religion seems so alien(to us).

Many faiths share beliefs with Shintoism, whether they realize it or not. Shintoism is extremely adaptable, hence why it meshed with Buddhism. It also highly resembles the animism and shamanism of world cultures.

Loved this video. I think every religion has potential to be universal and indigenous. Religions are internally diverse so not all people have to understand the religion in the same way. This makes me think of "Judaica" in the Roman empire when non-Judaean Roman citizens would take on certain Jewish practices (abstaining from pork was often the most popular; circumcision, predictably, less so) or donate to the Temple in Jerusalem because they saw some meaning in worship of the God of Israel, whatever that may have been, though certainly many Jews would have seen their religion as indigenous. Because religion is made and changed by those who adhere to it, the only limits to a religion's scope seems to be how people are willing to practice and understand it.

I wish I had more time in the world. There'd be so much I'd like to research, religion being one of them. Although I sometimes disagree with your takes, especially on neopagan faiths, I appreciate your work. Also, for the question: I think that Shinto is now, since the 19th century both an indigenous and a universal religion.