Shinbutsu Shugo
Buddhism & Shinto’s Syncretic Legacy
While the story of how Buddhism and Shintoism became intertwined is beyond the scope of this article (I’ll send you to Wikipedia for that) just know that the two religions co-existed until they were forcibly separated by the Meiji government in 1868.
Okay folks, enough is enough! I’m sick of citing Wikipedia on this one. It’s high time that I finally buckle down and write my own exposé on how the religions of Shintoism and Buddhism became inexorably intertwined in Japan. After all, in just the past half year alone, I’ve written some variation of the above quote more times than I care to count. At this point, god only knows how much free traffic I’ve sent to everyone’s favorite online encyclopedia. While at the end of the day this is a blog about travel, I believe that you, the reader, will be better able to appreciate Japan’s attractions when you understand the symbiotic relationship between these two faiths. Nevertheless, since the topic of religious syncretism can easily become overwhelmingly dense, I’ll do my best to simplify things where I can.
