What is Shinbutsu-shūgō and how did it shape Japanese religion?
Shinbutsu-shūgō is the syncretism of Shinto kami worship and Buddhism that served as Japan's main organized religion until the Meiji period. It developed after Buddhism arrived from China in the 6th century Asuka period, when the Japanese reconciled the two traditions by attaching Buddhist temples to Shinto shrines and vice versa. The blending was so thorough that Shinto's conceptual vocabulary and even its shrine architecture bear Buddhist origins.
When did the Japanese government separate Shinto and Buddhism?
The formal separation began in 1868, when the new Meiji government approved a series of laws ordering the separation of native kami worship from Buddhism. Jingū-ji, shrines with temples inside them, were destroyed under this order, while chinjusha, temples with shrines inside, were tolerated.
What is the honji suijaku theory in Shinbutsu-shūgō?
Honji suijaku is the theory, developed in the 9th century, that Japanese kami are local emanations of buddhas, bodhisattvas, or devas who take on familiar forms to guide human beings toward the Buddhist path. It transformed most kami from potentially dangerous spirits into local faces of Buddhist enlightened beings, and served as the doctrinal foundation of shinbutsu shūgō for many centuries.
What role did Hachiman play in the fusion of Shinto and Buddhism?
Hachiman was a pivotal figure in the second stage of amalgamation. He was declared a dharmapala and then a bodhisattva, and chinjusha built in his honor began appearing inside Buddhist temples. When the great buddha at Tōdai-ji in Nara was constructed, a shrine for Hachiman was erected within the temple grounds, after which temples across Japan adopted their own tutelary kami.
Did Shinbutsu-shūgō fully merge Shinto and Buddhism into one religion?
No. The two traditions remained inextricably linked but never fused into a single unified religion. A parallel tendency called shinbutsu kakuri kept certain kami deliberately separate from Buddhism, and the relationship between the two was described as largely un-systematized and tense throughout its history.
What did historian Toshio Kuroda argue about the origins of Shinto?
Toshio Kuroda argued that Shinto as an independent religion was born only in the modern period, having emerged from Buddhism in the Middle Ages, and that Shinto as a distinct religion is a Meiji era invention of Japanese nationalist ideologues. He noted that the word "Shinto" in early texts such as the Nihon Shoki originally referred to Taoism or to religion in general, not to a uniquely Japanese faith.