Bibliography
Bloom, Alfred. Shinran’s Gospel of Pure Grace.Tucson: Univer-
sity of Arizona Press, 1965.
Dobbins, James C. Jodo Shinshu: Shin Buddhism in Medieval
Japan(1989). Reprint, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2002.
Hirota, Dennis, et al., trans. The Collected Works of Shinran, 2
vols. Kyoto: Jodo ShinshuHongwanji-ha, 1997.
Keel, Hee Sung. Understanding Shinran: A Dialogical Approach.
Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1995.
Ueda, Yoshifumi, and Hirota, Dennis. Shinran: An Introduction
to His Thought.Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center,
1989.
JAMESC. DOBBINS
SHINTO (HONJI SUIJAKU)
AND BUDDHISM
Any investigation into the relationships of Shintoand
Buddhism in Japan cannot ignore the effects of the
anti-Buddhist persecutions and forced separation of
Buddhist monasteries and kamishrines that occurred
during the Meiji era (1868–1912). Such an inquiry can
be further strengthened by understanding the pre-
modern contexts. This entry will attempt to do pre-
cisely that by discussing how Buddhist concepts and
ritual techniques served (or were adapted) to articu-
late the significance of various kinds of gods and spir-
its in premodern Japan.
Received interpretations and their problems
According to received definitions, Shinto is the au-
tochthonous religious tradition of Japan. Its origins
can be traced to animistic beliefs dating from the re-
motest antiquity. Its main features are an animistic be-
lief in the sanctity of nature, shamanic practices,
ancestor cults, respect for authority and communal
value, and a strong capacity to integrate and homoge-
nize foreign elements. Standard accounts also present
the history of Japanese Buddhism as a gradual process
of “Japanization,” that is, of Buddhism’s integration
within the supposedly dominant Shintosystem of be-
liefs and ritual practices. These kinds of accounts are
heavily influenced by a nativist ideology of Japanese
religion and do not reflect actual historical processes.
In order to disentangle the complex relationships be-
tween Buddhism and local cults in the Japanese arch-
ipelago from ideological stereotypes, it is necessary to
begin with an analysis of the term Shinto itself. As
Kuroda Toshio has made clear, Shintodid not mean
the same things throughout history. In particular, it
did not designate an established system of religious in-
stitutions and their beliefs and rituals until after the
eighteenth century.
Shinto,most likely pronounced “jindo” until at least
the fifteenth century, was essentially a Buddhist con-
cept indicating the realm of local deities as related to,
but distinct from, Indian deities of the Buddhist pan-
theon, which were usually referred to as tenor tendo.
It was only since the second half of the Edo period
(1600–1868) that more or less autonomous Shintoin-
stitutions began to develop, mainly centered on the
Yoshida house in Kyoto (see below) and several schools
of Confucian studies. However, Shintoas an indepen-
dent religious tradition begins only in 1868 with the
so-called separation of kamiand buddhas (shinbutsu
bunri). This forceful separation, carried out upon or-
ders emanating from the government, was one of the
first acts in the Japanese process of modernization, and
amounted to the artificial creation of two separate
religious traditions, namely, Shintoand Japanese Bud-
dhism. Subsequently, Shinto’s development was di-
rectly related to the policy and imperial ideology of the
new Japanese state in what is known as State Shinto
(kokka Shinto)—a formation that was disbanded after
the end of World War II.
In practice, shinbutsu bunriwas not a mere “separa-
tion.” It defined what was “Buddhist” and what was
“Shinto,” meaning that which was supposedly au-
tochthonous in the religious world of the time. “Bud-
dhist” elements (such as images with Buddhist flavor
worshiped as the body of a kami,architectural elements,
Buddhist scriptures offered to the kami,and so forth)
were set apart and, in many cases, destroyed. “Shinto”
elements, on the other hand, were systematized and
“normalized.” Many local shrines were destroyed; the
kamienshrined in several others were replaced by kami
listed in the Kojiki(Record of Ancient Matters), an early
eighth-century text that had become the bible of the
nativists. Sacerdotal houses that had been in charge of
services to the kamiin certain locales for several gen-
erations were replaced by state-appointed officers who
were followers of the nativist scholar Hirata Atsutane’s
(1776–1843) brand of religious nationalism. Local rit-
uals were replaced by authorized ceremonies that were
related to a newly created cult for the emperor. People
were forced to attend to new holidays that were related
to state-sanctioned events. In this way, a new religion,
supposedly autochthonous and with roots in a remote
Japanese past before the arrival of Buddhism, was
created and propagated among the people. After a fewSHINTO (HONJISUIJAKU) ANDBUDDHISM