ABSTRACT
It was in the early modern period (1600-1867) that the outline of Shinto as we know it today came into focus. From the perspective of the religious system, we have already seen that Shinto of the middle ages was indistinguishable from Buddhism in terms of constituents, network and substance. In the early modern period, however, Shinto gradually re-defines itself in contradistinction to Buddhism. It is not that both existed as separate religions; rather they coexisted, each necessitating the other. Bito¯ Masahide has defined that coexistence by saying that Shinto, Buddhism and folk religions merged and adopted the form of a ‘national creed’.1 He points out, for example, that it was in the early modern period that all sorts of religious elements, Shinto, Buddhist and many more besides, began to intermingle; the ritual cycle of contemporary Japan proves to be a legacy of this early modern period.
