Roger Lang, age 16, of Asbury Park, N.J., for his question:
CAN YOU EXPLAIN SHINTO?
Shinto is the oldest surviving religion of Japan. The word Shinto means "the way of the gods." Followers are called Shintoists. They worship many gods, which are called kami.
According to Shinto, kami are the basic force in mountains, rivers, rocks, trees and other parts of nature. Shinto also considers kami the basic force in such processes as creativity, disease, growth and healing.
Shinto emphasizes rituals and moral standards. It does not have an elaborate philosophy and, unlike many religions, it does not stress life after death.
More than 65 million people are said to practice Shinto. Often they worship at small shrines in their homes. Roadside shrines dedicated to certain kami are also common.
In Japan you'll often find public shrines that consist of several buildings and gardens. Individual worshipers recite prayers and offer gifts of cakes and flowers to the kami.
Special occasions will see the Shinto priest leading a ceremony called matsuari. One of the most important rituals is the Great Purification Ceremony. It consists of a confession of sins committed by individuals and by a nation as a whole, followed by a request that the kami remove the impure conditions caused by these sins.
Other ceremonies deal with such basic goals as good health, long life, peace and abundant harvests.
No one knows when or how Shinto started. But Shintoists have always worshiped the kami through nature.
Beginning about the A.D. 500s, the Chinese philosophers of Buddhism and Confucianism influenced Shinto. Shintoists identified Buddist gods as kami and shrines adopted Buddhist images to represent kami.
Under Confucian influence, Shinto developed strong moral standards of honesty and respect.
During the 1800s, Shintoists started to reject the Buddhist influence.
In the mid 1800s, a movement called State Shinto stressed patriotism and the divine origins of the Japanese emperor.
After Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, the emperor denied that he was divine and the government abolished State Shinto.
During the 1800s and the 1900s, Shinto movements called New Religions attracted many followers in Japan. The New Religions center around the teachings of a particular group or person. Some of them encourage group worship, charity work and the organization of society on a cooperative basis.
The symbol of Shinto is a wooden gate called a torii. A torii stands at the entrance of every Shinto temple. It consists of two posts connected by crossbars. The posts represent pillars that support the sky and the crossbars symbolize the Earth.