SHINTŌ. Shintō is a Japanese term often translated as "the way of the gods." Broadly, it refers to the worship of the multifarious Japanese kami (gods). In modern Japan, it signifies forms of ritual practice and belief focusing on Shintō shrines (jinja, literally "kami-places") which are institutionally separate from Buddhist temples. However, the worship of kami in Japan is not restricted to Shintō, and those who worship the kami at Shintō shrines are nearly all Buddhists and/or members of Japanese new religions. A narrow definition of Shintō might restrict it to only those elements in Japanese religious history that have explicitly identified themselves by the term Shintō, while broad definitions of the term sometimes see Shintō as coterminous with the entirety of Japanese culture, past and present.

The meaning of the term Shintō has undergone many changes in the course of Japan's...