Clan gods are all Shintoists. Founders of samurai clans, or the greatest of the clansmen, were immortalized by building shrines for them. In Japanese, these superclansmen are called 'ujigami' ('uji' is of course 'clan', 'gami' is the same as 'kami', i.e. 'spirit' or 'god').

Shinto shrine of Takeda Shingen of Kai	Shinto shrine of Oda Nobunaga of Owari

So the village of Oda, where the clan came into being, made a shrine for Oda Chikazane, the patriarch of the clan and the first person bearing that name on this planet, as well as for the greatest of all the Oda clansmen of all times, Nobunaga. In Yamanashi, people erected a shrine for the greatest Takeda ever, Shingen.

The most extravagant shrine for a clan god is of course the Tokugawa Mousoleum (Toshogu shrine) in Nikko, Tokyo, that holds the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Click here for pictures.

Shinto shrine of Kusunoki Masashige	Shinto shrine of Fujiwara Sadakuni	Minamoto Hachiman shrine

Jizo, or protector of travelers (that's why you can see the statues everywhere), is one of the most beautiful things on this sorry little planet. They are at once Shintoist and Buddhist.

Originally Jizo was Buddhist; you can nail the statues as the individual ones along a road or path, or several statues in a row, but never carved as a crowd on a single rock.

all roads, streets, and paths in Japan are under the jurisdiction of innumerable jizo & dorokujin statues BIG PICTURES of varieties of Buddhist JIZO BIG PICTURES of Shinto 'jizo', DOROKUJIN

The more indigenous version of jizo is what the Japanese call 'dorokujin', which always appears in pairs and most of the time the two figures are carved together from a single rock.

Hachiman is the Shinto god of war. When still alive and kicking, he was the 15th Emperor of Japan, named Ojin (270-310). He was the clan protector of one of the greatest samurai families, the Minamotos. That's why the most famous shrine for Hachiman is in Kamakura.

That the nature of Japanese wars were Shintoist (except, of course, when it concerned the warrior-monks) was obvious from the man-to-man combats -- especially the way wars were to get opened (see how to do war in feudal Japan at another page). The most famous of these war-openers has been this line routinely delivered by a strikingly good-looking young lancer in 1560's: "I, Maeda Toshiie, fourth son of Toshimasa, vassal of my lord Oda Nobunaga, challenge any one of you cowards --"

That the line was a routine testifies of how good Spearman Maeda was -- he always managed to get rid of those who rose to take his challenge.

Anyway, the line, as well as the will to die (some say the will to kill is more precise) any second in battlefield, were all Shintoist; Maeda and everybody else never invoked the name of Buddha and such but their own pedigree and the boss they served.

So, Shintoism got a whole lot to do with the so-called 'way of the warriors', 'Bushido' (click here for everything about Bushido), nevermind that it is a synchretic concept which has usually been taken to be 'Buddhist'. At the core of 'Bushido', the reason for a samurai to exist is Shintoist, while the attitude towards that existence is Buddhist; the two make a perfect blend.

rock basin for 'misogi'	'mochi'-making	fighting dog	shrine

Rock basins (to wash hands with), ubiquitous at entrances of tourist destinations, are Shintoist.

The use of salt as a 'purifying agent' (spiritually-speaking), either by putting a pinch around the house, scattering some into the wind, or sprinkling a little over, behind, on or around a person, is Shintoist. This is called 'shubatsu'.

While both Buddhism and Shintoism involve flowers for offerings (click here for the Japanese art of flower arrangement, a.k.a ikebana), only Shinto includes rice wine (saké), tofu ('inari'), and glutinous rice cakes ('mochi') as offerings.

sumo wrestler	notice the Shinto loincloth	the ubiquitous 'shimenawa'	Shinto bells are different

How To Make Shintoist 'Shimenawa' ................................ BIG PICTURES of Shintoist Stuff

Sumo wrestling is a Shintoist tradition. It used to be performed for the Goddess of Harvest, Inari.

It was Shinto that defined Japaneseness, not Buddhism; and defended indigenous things from the swarming new stuff from China not by repulsing them but by refashioning them until the Chinese couldn't recognize any of them anymore as their cultural spillover.

Unlike Buddhism, Shintoism only has a very few people to whom the credit for doing something to the timeless belief is due. Click on to the next page for the Shinto thinkers, heroes and movements.

• History of Japan
• Family Crests of Samurai Clans
• Samurai is identical with swords, right? WRONG.
• Japanese Swords, Swordsmaking & Swordsplay
• Historically-Correct Samurai Armors
• Authentic Swords of Japanese Warlords
• Samurai Weapons
• Historically-Correct Samurai Armors
• History & Pictures of Japanese Christian Samurai & Warlords
• How a Japanese Warlord Got His Army
• Spaces, Interior Design & Architecture
• Japanese Warlords' Money
• Japanese 16th century Warlords
• Management of a Warlord's Household
• Japanese Samurai Wars
• Origins of Samurai Habits
• Bushido
• Yamabushi, the Japanese Demon-Slayers (For Real)
• History of Japanese Portrait Paintings
• Maps of All Japanese Provinces, Warlords & Battles
• Premodern Japan: Real-Life in Emperor Meiji's World
• Japanese Warrior Codes & Samurai Beliefs
• Real Samurai Legends
• Origins of Japanese Music, Songs, Dramas & Dance
• Many traditions that we assume to be Japanese are actually imported from China: kanji, Buddhism, ikebana, bonsai, tea ceremony, and so on -- even sushi and Shinto. No kidding.
• Things that are 100% Japanese
• Incidents of Real Samurai Lives
• Yakuza & the Underground Samuraihood
• Kamikaze, the Flying Samurai
• Ainu, the Forgotten Natives of Japan
• The Shield Society
• The Japanese Self-Defense Forces
• Ukiyo: the Fleeting World, the Floating World, the Samurai's view of Life (Death)
• Meanings of the Japanese Flowers & the Samurai Flowers
• Incidents of Real Samurai Lives
• Shinto, the Essence of Japan
• Yakuza & the Underground Samuraihood
• Kamikaze, the Flying Samurai
• Zen, Samurai's Buddhism
• Meanings of Japanese Names, Nicknames & Titles
• How the Japanese Name Themselves
• History of Japanese Clothes
• Kimono Culture
• Samurai LEGENDS: since 660 BCE until 1868
• History of Japanese Dolls & Origami
• Structure of Japanese Feudal Society
• Rulers of Japan since 660 B.C. until today
• Shoguns for Dummies
• The Japanese Greatest Warrior Clans
• Cities of Japanese Warlords
• Weird snapshots, strange truths, odd realities & wacky info about Japan
• Samurai ANIME: Watsuki Nobuhiro's