In the years following 1868, a nationwide system of shrines, priests, and doctrines relating only to non-Buddhist divinities (mainly these were kami stripped of their Buddhist titles) was developed with government support. Buddhas, kami, and other well-known divinities were understood to form part of a common pantheon also revered by numerous Sh ūgend ō (mountain ascetic) practitioners and other specialized religious groups and movements. Up to this time, kami -worship throughout Japan had largely taken place at shrine-temple complexes run by Buddhist clergy. Immediately after taking office in 1868, the modernizing Meiji government issued decrees dissociating kami from buddhas. The most radical took place as recently as the mid-nineteenth century, when Japan resumed full contact with the outside world after two and a half centuries of seclusion. The meaning of the term Shint ō has undergone many changes in the course of Japan's history. A narrow definition of Shint ō might restrict it to only those elements in Japanese religious history that have explicitly identified themselves by the term Shint ō, while broad definitions of the term sometimes see Shint ō as coterminous with the entirety of Japanese culture, past and present. However, the worship of kami in Japan is not restricted to Shint ō, and those who worship the kami at Shint ō shrines are nearly all Buddhists and/or members of Japanese new religions. In modern Japan, it signifies forms of ritual practice and belief focusing on Shint ō shrines ( jinja, literally ' kami -places') which are institutionally separate from Buddhist temples.

Shint ō is a Japanese term often translated as 'the way of the gods.' Broadly, it refers to the worship of the multifarious Japanese kami (gods).

Kami definition japan