Often when I see Shinto being discussed or portrayed in the Western world, I see many issues and problems with their interpretations. Among these are some rather crucial misunderstandings. I don't know if you all know that these are misunderstandings already, but I figured I would post them anyway. Enjoy! 
1) Shinto is a strictly Japanese religion, or is only relevant to Japan.
Perhaps the most common error in the interpretation of Shinto, within the Western world, even by some professors of religion I have observed, the idea that one must be Japanese, or live in Japan, to practice Shinto, or pray to the Kami, is not true. The Kami are in everything in the world, and not just within the islands of Japan. Just as there are local and ancestral Kami within Japan, so too are there local and ancestral Kami within every other country, continent and household. Everything in existence contains a Kami, and this is without exception.
2) You need to visit a shrine, or own a kamidana (home shrine) to worship or pray to the Kami.
The term Kami itself carries no weight of gender specification, and serves to be a unisex word to refer to the deities of the world. Kami are depicted as one gender or another, in my opinion, because these are simply the ways that we have grown to commonly display them. This being the case, there are also Kami which have no common portrayal on the basis of gender.
One example of this in a prominent Kami is Inari-Ōkami, who serves as the God or Goddess of agriculture, industry, fertility and foxes. As the previous sentence suggests, depending on the person or the shrine in question, Inari-Ōkami may be displayed as either male or female, or neither in some cases. The same lack of a set gender can be applied towards all of the Kami.
I will add more of these as they come to mind, or as I see them in the world around me, but those were some of the big ones that came to mind when I thought about the common misconceptions surrounding Shinto as a faith and spirituality.
If you feel like adding anything to the list, you have a question regarding Shinto, or a clarifying question, feel free to post here in the thread. Or you can shoot me a PM anytime if you just want to chat. :^^:
1) Shinto is a strictly Japanese religion, or is only relevant to Japan.
Perhaps the most common error in the interpretation of Shinto, within the Western world, even by some professors of religion I have observed, the idea that one must be Japanese, or live in Japan, to practice Shinto, or pray to the Kami, is not true. The Kami are in everything in the world, and not just within the islands of Japan. Just as there are local and ancestral Kami within Japan, so too are there local and ancestral Kami within every other country, continent and household. Everything in existence contains a Kami, and this is without exception.
2) You need to visit a shrine, or own a kamidana (home shrine) to worship or pray to the Kami.
It is generally recommended that one have a kamindana, or a shrine they can visit, to worship and revere the Kami at, and where they can partake in rituals. This is partial because the shrines can serve as 'hotspots', for lack of a better word, for the Kami which is enshrined within it, but this does not make them mandatory in order to perform Shinto rituals or prayers. The Kami are in everything in this world, and thus it is possible to communicate with the Kami even without any form of proper shrine.
3) The Kami have set genders (ie. Amaterasu-Ōmikami is female and Susanoo-no-Mikoto is male)The term Kami itself carries no weight of gender specification, and serves to be a unisex word to refer to the deities of the world. Kami are depicted as one gender or another, in my opinion, because these are simply the ways that we have grown to commonly display them. This being the case, there are also Kami which have no common portrayal on the basis of gender.
One example of this in a prominent Kami is Inari-Ōkami, who serves as the God or Goddess of agriculture, industry, fertility and foxes. As the previous sentence suggests, depending on the person or the shrine in question, Inari-Ōkami may be displayed as either male or female, or neither in some cases. The same lack of a set gender can be applied towards all of the Kami.
I will add more of these as they come to mind, or as I see them in the world around me, but those were some of the big ones that came to mind when I thought about the common misconceptions surrounding Shinto as a faith and spirituality.
If you feel like adding anything to the list, you have a question regarding Shinto, or a clarifying question, feel free to post here in the thread. Or you can shoot me a PM anytime if you just want to chat. :^^:
Comment