Shinto

Shinto (Shintoism, Sintuism,;"the Religion of the Kami") is the term for the religion of the ancient Japanese which existed before the introduction of Confucian ethics or Buddhism into Japan, and which was practiced in a more or less pure form until the restoration of the mikado to supreme power in 1868, when a thorough purification and propagation of the ancient cult was ordered by the government. Nearly all accounts of Shinto by European writers prior to 1870 are of little value, as these treat of the impure Buddhaized form. The ancient documents and archaic literature of Shinto have been unearthed and made accessible even to native readers only during the last and present centuries. The ancient faith has always had a distinct life and literature apart from the imported creeds of India and China, and pure Shintoists insist that the native and the foreign religions are incompatible.

Shinto is a Chinese term repudiated by native scholars, who use the pure Japanese word Kami no Michi (way or doctrine of the gods). Since the introduction of Chinese letters in the 6th century A.D., every important Japanese word has a Chinese equivalent and synonyms. The term Shinto was coined to distinguish the native cult from the two other to or do then new upon the soil, viz. Ju-do (Confucianism) amid Butsu-ao (Buddhism). The literal rendering of Shinto is "theology."