Today you can find Shinto elements in many Japanese Buddhist shrines Chinese styles, imported with the new religion, likewise influenced the development of Shinto shrines. One controversial fact that might also suggest some relation between their religions is the Ainu name for "divinity," kamui, which sounds similar to the Japanese word, kami.Īfter the introduction of Buddhism from China and Korea in the middle of the sixth century (552 A.D.) Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples began to be integrated into the same architectural complex. An example seen here is from the Ainu museum in Hokkaido. The Ainu, a hunting and fishing people who once populated the main island of Japan and were gradually driven north by the Japanese, also built with thatch roof and walls. The short logs lying horizontally across the ridge of the roof are called katsuogi. The forked timbers on the roof are called chigi. The roofs, which shed Japan's heavy rainfall, are built up in a delicate curve from strips of Hinoki bark and then trimmed. Thatching consisted of either the barks of the Japanese "hinoki" or miscanthus or thin wooden plates, and the ridges of roofs are made of wood in the shape of a box. Poles set in the ground supported a thatched roof and walls.
For walls, no clay or mud was used, nor was plaster or mortar. Like the earliest Japanese dwellings, the shrines were made entirely of wood.
This pre-historic Japanese ancestor worship was incorporated into the Shinto practice of enshrining deities named in the Kojiki and historical heroes as kami. The earliest constructed Shinto shrines suggest the form of single dwelling houses in ancient times and were in fact intended to house ancestral spirits who would be given food offerings. Under the influence of Buddhism, kami can also, though more rarely, be represented by statues. The location of a shrine represented the legendary settlement of that shrine's kami. The resident kami might be represented by symbols or sanctified objects. Shrines were erected to house both kinds of kami and accommodate rituals and celebrations intended to maintain harmonious unity between the deities and man. The kami can be divided into two main categories: kami of natural phenomena (the object kami) and kami of mythical or historical people (the active kami). For example, the foremost ritual of Shinto priests, the purification ( harai) was done with natural water sources such as waterfalls, hot springs and rivers. Rituals were held outdoors, among natural surroundings, with no particular structure for them. Rather than buildings, shrines of the earliest age were sacred precincts such as mounds, groves, or caves. Reflecting the understanding that kami reside in nature, Shinto shrines were traditionally near unusual "concentrations" of nature such as waterfalls, caves, rock formations, mountain tops, or forest glens. Organization of Sacred Space: The Ritual Landscape Influence of Buddhism: Syncretism in Architecture
The Geography of Sacred Space: Shrine Complexes This page is divided into seven illustrated sections:įirst Structures: Early Shrine Architecture Materials presented here were developed by teachers in a year-long ORIAS program, Teaching Comparative Religion Through Art and Architecture. This page uses the architecture of Shinto shrines as a window into Shinto practices and worldview. Shinto rituals and celebrations stress harmony between deities, man, and nature - a key feature of Japanese religious life and art to the present time. Shinto - "the way of the kami" - is deeply rooted in pre-historic Japanese religious and agricultural practices. The term kami can refer to Japanese mythological deities, but also can mean divinity manifested in natural objects, places, animals, and even human beings. Learning about Shinto through Architecture