ABSTRACT
Purification is a key concept in Japanese spirituality. For example, harai often precedes the commencement of important events and ceremonies. The spatial and architectural features of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples symbolically segregate degrees of the sacred and profane via insideness and outsideness. Many rituals and ceremonies, influenced by folk religion, Shintoism, and Buddhism, have acquired customary observance. They can be divided into three types: ancestral festivals; agricultural rituals; and exorcism and purification. Japan's two main religious traditions are Shintoism and Buddhism. Shintoism, the so-called indigenous Japanese religion, is associated with joyous events, brightness, revelry, this world, the particularities of life-affirming celebrations and bonds of the local community, and ethnocultural heritage. Buddhism, on the other hand, finds expression in somber ceremonies, darkness, suffering, death-related rites, ultimate existence, and eternal verities and profundities. Shintoism and Buddhism to be the major historical faiths of Japan, other traditions, such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Christianity, have also played important roles.
