Shinto

4 Pages 923 Words

What is the meaning of Shinto? Shinto is a nature- focused religion in Japan and deals with a number of Japanese mythological rites and has gone through many changes or the years. Today Shinto emphasizes the harmony of natural beauty and a clear perspective of reality. Shinto celebrities’ clarity and the contact with the diverse forces of nature. The word kami is described as something that possessing power that no individual believer does. Kami is used to identify something that is physical, animate, spiritual, or inanimate objects.
In American culture though we have no set religion, which means people are allowed to believe and pray to whom ever they choose to pray to. Therefore, most religions that is in the American come from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. This lets Americans be able to believe in whom every they want to and they will not be prosecuted for these actions. Yet when a person dies in the United States may people put something by their tombstone or where they died, so that the person who dies knows that people did care for this person.
Shinto has shrines to embrace much more then just religious practice. Shinto shrines are made up of wood and are generally situated near sacred trees and flowing water. When a person passes through one of these shrines, tori, he or she is regarded as having left the world of finite things and entered the realm of infinite power where the kami may be invoked for the purpose of the ceremony at hand.
In American culture we do not have things like this we have either a church, or another place of worshiping. Where we go to confess our sins or ask the spirits for guidance through our days on earth. Yet when a person dies in America people go through a whole grieving process either set flowers, photos, or stuffed animals down by a person’s grave. This helps people deal with the lose of a loved one and makes them feel a little bit better about this person d...