The lakes, rivers, mountains and rice fields each have gods to watch over them.
None, however, are ascribed the power of God or Yahweh or Allah. Moreover, Shinto and Buddhism co-existed after Buddhism was imported from China as Japanese, unlike Westerners who belong to only one denomination, see no conflict in following the tenets of both faiths.
Shinto was co-opted in the 1930s and 1940s by the militarists who ran Japan and turned it into a force for ultranationalism. After World War II, the Allied Occupation decreed a constitutional separation of church and state, with Shinto reverting to the private domain.
Even so, the emperor remained the chief priest of Shinto, somewhat the way the queen of England is head of the Church of England.
That tradition seems widely accepted by the Japanese who applauded in November last year when Prince Hisahito, who is third in line to ascend the throne, was taken shortly after his birth to be blessed at one of three Shinto shrines within the imperial palace grounds.
Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.
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