ABSTRACT
Nor were these kami presences easily forgotten. Once the official religion of Japan, since World War II Shinto has no longer been under state control. Now shorn of ultranationalistic overtones, it retains its shrines under local democratic administration. It has not withered away as some thought it would but has prospered as a popular religion. To be sure, few of those frequenting the shrines would call themselves exclusively Shinto. Most are also Buddhist, at least nominally, or members of one of the “new religions” of Japan (to be discussed later). And many would hardly think of themselves as religious at all. Yet they may pause for a moment as they pass a shrine.
