The oldest religion in Japan is 神道 (Shinto) also known as 神の道 (Kami no Michi). This translates respectively to Way of the Gods/Spirit and Road of the Gods/Spirit. Shinto was first written about in the 古事記 “Kojiki” and 日本書紀 (Nihon Shoki in the 8th Century but the name of “Shindo” has been used since the 6th.
Shinto is a polytheistic religion that worships the (“kami”) this word translates in English as gods, and the Kojiki certainly speaks of entities as if they were Gods, but Kami are also spirits of nature for use of a better translation and it is usually easiest when considering Shinto to think of Kami as Kami. Although the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki outlines important Kami such as;
お伊弉諾 (Izanagi) – The First Man
お伊弉冉 (Izanami) – The First Woman
お天照大神 (Amaterasu) – The Sun Kami
お月夜見 (Tsukuyomi) – The Moon Kami
おスサノオ (Susanoo)- The Kami of Storms
お八幡 (Hachiman) – Kami of War
お稲荷様 (Inari) – Kami of Rice
There are many others and even the rivers, rocks and trees carry an essences of Kami. What you do find however is that certain “truths” in regards to Shinto and what “Kami” are is not strictly agreed upon and there are two reasons, one is that in Modern Japan Shinto is giving way to Buddhism and other religions and so as it becomes less important the original ideals get blurred and the second is that Shinto is broken down into separate Sects and each different Sect is noted to have slightly different ideas. There are far too many Sects to state but each important clan within Japan would usually have their own sect to demonstrate their ideas, but also many sects formed out of Buddhist ideals this continued until the war, and then as the Modern times came yet more sects formed to incorporate even newer ideas even now, new Sects are being formed.
I stated previously that Shinto was giving out to Buddhism, but this is not strictly true, so allow me to expand on my point. 仏教 (Buddhism) was introduced from both China and Japan and in 587 the Japanese court accepted it into Japan, later Confucianism and Buddhist ideals were written into the Japanese constitution was a way of ensuring prosperity and peace to the nation. The official religion of Japan was henceforth known as “Shinto-Buddhism”. What is evident both from history and from first-hand experience of living in Japan is that all Japanese are born Shinto, and Shinto is important to them, but Buddhist ideals within the religion became a lot more important and a lot of the old Shinto ideas remain important either out of tradition or that they are so ingrained into Japanese culture, that the Japanese would call it “cultural” rather than Shinto. Buddhist ideals however tend to be still solidly identified as “Buddhist”.
Religions: Shintoism 83.9%, Buddhism 71.4%, Christianity 2%, other 7.8%
Note: total adherents exceeds 100% because many people belong to both Shintoism and Buddhism (2005)
Most Religious Japanese; at a guess 70% or so are Shinto-Buddhism and so you can take from that 70% of Shinto and Buddhism but then bear in mind for many, the Shinto is quite Buddhist heavy. Those who worship Shinto solely are about 13% or so. Also however in Modern Japan many confess to being “Non-Religious”.
Shinto by no means is dying out in Japan, it is just very different from ancient Shinto and ever changing, but this is similar to many world religions. Shinto is in fact also very slowly gaining a Gaikoku (foreign) following from Gaik0kujin who have lived in Japan, and thus slowly spreading to outside of Japan.
Follow the Wind Currents 