Religion in Japan is a rich tapestry of diverse traditions
with a history of nearly 2,000 years. Many Japanese
people display some kind of allegiance to more than
one religion; a person will usually be expected to have
a Shinto wedding and a Budd-hits funeral, though Buddhist
and secular weddings are also possible. With this may
go a personal or family interest in a particular Buddhist
de-nomination or practice, or member-ship of one of
the various new religions which attract almost a third
of the population¡£
These different forms of religion have separate organizations,
build-dings, festivals, sacred writings, ministers or
priests and so on. How-ever, it should always be remembered
that the paths of these religions have touched at many
points in Japanese history, and that they still meet
in the lives of many Japanese people. For this reason
it is possible to speak both of 'Japanese religions'
and of 'Japanese religion' especially as the Japanese
language itself does not usually distinguish between
the singular and the plural.
Land and religion
Mountain-top shrines
Shinto
- 1. Shinto practices
- 2. Shinto shrines
- 3. Festivals
Japanese Buddhism
- 1. Buddhism in the home
- 2. Buddhist festivals
The flowering of new religions