ABSTRACT
The term Shinto is derived from the Chinese shendao, meaning "the way of the higher spirits or gods." Shinto thus expresses a religious faith about Japan and its past. Prehistoric Shinto had been mainly a haphazard cult of nature worship, loosely tied in with ancestor worship. An amplified Shinto was made possible and natural by two central orientations that have had a pronounced role in Japanese religious history: the extension of the "family" concept and hospitality to guests. Scholars have called the resultant "mixed" Shinto, with its architectural modifications and altered rituals, Ryobu Shinto. The revival of Shinto was a slow and gradual process. The Japanese government endeavored to save Shinto by making it over into a positive force, a national institution of an ethical and a historical character. Shinto, the native religion of Japan, is not fundamentally a system of doctrines, although before World War II it did take on some doctrinal elements.
