Shintō and jinja shrines
Officially twenty-five centuries old, Shintō, or Shintoism, is the indigenous religion of the Japanese, as opposed to Buddhism, which came from China and Korea. It consists in the worship of the notion of Kami. The mythology of Shintō was transcribed in the Kojiki (collection of ancient things) in 712 by order of the emperor and then in the Nihon shoki in 720. The reading of these two works reveals a rich and pictorial mythology. Curiously, Shintō is the only religion in the world that does not have a Koran, a Bible or another Talmud, that has no written precepts, and whose shrines have no statues in the image of a deity. However, every Japanese has the intuitive perception of Kami, often called friendly and honorific "Kami-sama" in everyday life. This religion is not supported by any scripture, nor by any representation; the Japanese perceive two things: the event, i.e. the phenomenon itself, and the state of a force that makes the event take place. A certain resonance that makes one say "it comes from somewhere". It is therefore difficult to speak of deities, god(s), spirits or shamanism. It is better to keep in mind the word Kami or Kami-sama and the perception it covers. And since Shintō involves no baptism, communion, prohibition, punishment, written knowledge or precepts, it is only the power of the place that counts, the shrine. During your stay, you can visit Ise Shrine (Mie), the most important Shintō shrine in Japan, or Izumo-taisha Shrine (Shimane).
Buddhism and temples
The year 552 is the date of the official introduction of Buddhism in Japan, the year in which the king of Paekche, in Korea, sends a letter to the emperor Kimmei, of Yamato (Japan), asking him to help him to contain the expansionist aims of his neighbor, the ruler of Silla. This letter also explained to him the merits of Buddhism. At that time, Yamato had a colony in Korea, the Minama. In 562, the Japanese were forced to abandon their fiefdoms in Korea and took with them a good number of Korean artists and religious who were fleeing the war. Buddhism thus entered the Empire in an official way, but soon came up against the opposition of the Shintō. Only the nobility converted with some clans redoubling their rivalry with the Shintō clans. The regent Shōtoku Taishi still managed to impose Buddhism as the official religion and renewed ties with China and Korea. The Japanese leaned more and more towards syncretism, a mixture of the Shintō and Buddhist ways, but at the beginning of the 8th century, the establishment of six different sects in Nara led to doctrinal divergence. Six texts were written: the sanron-shū, the kusha-shū, the hossō-shū, the jōjitsu-shū, the kegon-shū and finally the ritsu-shū. One hundred and fifty years later, the emperor, anxious to free himself from the six sects of Nara which had assumed great political weight, sent missions to China so that new doctrines could be brought back. Syntheses were made of them. They allow the faithful to reach their goal by the only adoration of the deities and simpler practices. It is the time of Amida (Amida is the representation of Buddha who brings the souls to the paradise). Supported by what becomes the jōdō, or worship of Amida "of the pure land" in a future life, Buddhism does not depart from the Tendai sect, but the mere vocal invocation of the nembutsu assures the devotee of entry into paradise, i.e., the goal is no longer to achieve enlightenment in the time of one's lifetime, unlike the original Buddhism. The troubles that accompanied the decadence of the Fujiwara period in the 12th century favored, in the Kamakura period, the installation of new aristocratic sects such as Zen, coming from the Chinese Chan, corresponding to the warriors of the aristocracy: the sects of the jōdō-shin-shū or of Nichiren. It was Chinese monks who imported Chan (Zen) through Eisei, who founded the Rinzai sect in 1191. The monk Dōgen, for his part, founded the Sōtō sect some thirty years later. This doctrine was very successful among intellectuals and warriors. It is not based on any text and refers to the essence of things, meditation and the study of paradoxes. Zen has a considerable influence in the world of arts, whether it is architecture, painting, garden art or the tea ceremony. Its teaching uses the didactic paradox.
Shingon Buddhism
Shingon is an esoteric Japanese Buddhist school, founded in the IXᵉ century by the monk Kūkai (or Kōbō Daishi). During a stay in China in the year 804, Kūkai was initiated into the arcana of Shingon Mikkyo, by Master Keika, which he then spread throughout the Archipelago upon his return. In the year 816, he was awarded Mount Koya by the emperor. Since that time, Koyasan has been the main place of practice of Shingon Buddhism. The monastery was built in the heart of the mountains, far from any distractions, to allow the monks to meditate and pray for peace. According to one belief, Kōbō Daishi did not die. He would meditate for eternity in the Gobyo, his mausoleum. In this school, the understanding of the Buddha's wisdom and many pious acts are emphasized in order to help people and bring them happiness.
The shugendō
Emerging in the 8th century, shugendō, a thousand-year-old Japanese spiritual tradition of osmosis between man and nature, has as its founder En no Gyōja, a half-historical, half-legendary figure. This religion, which could be literally translated as "the path of training and testing", includes the notion of asceticism, mountain life and other beliefs such as animism, Shintoism or Taoism. The ascetic, called shugenja or yamabushi, devotes himself to nature, worships it, prays to it and tries, by creating a pure spirit, to merge with it. They were once hermits who lived in the mountains and underwent intense training. For these followers, the Yoshino-Omine mountains in Nara are the supreme place for this ascetic practice. It is in the heart of the village of Yoshino that the Kinpusen-ji is located, the main temple of the shugendō, established in the 6th century by En no Gyōja. Sanctified by the Shugendō ascetic cult, the three Dewa Mountains (Dewa Sanzan) are also part of the pilgrimages of this religion.
Christianity
The beginning of Catholic missionary activities in the country is traced back to 1549. They were started by the Jesuits, who had the support of Portugal. The Mendicant Orders, supported by the Spaniards, soon followed and arrived in the archipelago. The Jesuits' strategy was first to try to influence the men of power so that it would facilitate the spread of Christianity to the rest of the population. Some Japanese historians believe that the conversion of the Japanese to Christianity was forced, but the Christians defend themselves by saying that the conversions were due to the exemplary behavior of the lords. The Christians in Japan at that time are called " kirishitan ". The vast majority of converts abandoned Christianity after the Tokugawa shogunate (the dynasty that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867) banned the religion in 1614, and it was only in modern Japan that Christians were able to practice their faith again.
