Shinto and Modern North American Non-Christian Belief Japanese 317 University of Calgary

Religion, for the purpose of this paper, will be “One’s consciousness of being in a1 special relationship with the Divine, ”- a definition offered by Genchi Kato in his book, A Study of Shinto. All humans as they evolved through time, watched miracles occurring all around them- acts performed by powers greater than themselves. The sun rising ans setting, the change of the seasons, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes. No culture is without beliefs of how the universe (however that is conceived) came into existence and how it works. Thus religion develops. What is striking is the1 degree of similarity that exists between religions that have no traceable connection. Two such religions are Shinto, the traditional faith of the Japanese, and Wicca, a non-traditional western faith currently gaining prominence in North America. Origins: Shinto’s origins are lost in the antiquity of the Japanese people. It is evident in the earliest records of Japan and maintains a hold over the Japanese people today. As long as the Japanese have existed, so has Shinto in some for or another (for it would be foolish to say Shinto today is the same as Shinto 2000 years ago) / “Shinto ” itself literally means “way of the kami”, written with the tw