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date: 15 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter reviews the origin and development of the word Shintō as well as the basic beliefs, practices, and objects of worship associated with the religion. It then describes the emergence and development of plastic representations of objects of worship (sculpture) and permanent structures for worship (architecture). Shintō’s development in conjunction with mainland developments is stressed as well as the homogenizing influences of government control and modern training institutions.

Keywords: architecture, art, Japan, purification, rites and rituals, sculpture, Shintō, shrine, syncretism

Sybil Thornton

Sybil A. Thornton holds degrees in Latin, Film, and Oriental Studies (Japanese) from UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and the University of Cambridge. Her research explores the continuities in Japanese narrative between medieval and modern, religion and political critique, and epic and film. Her publications include the 1999 Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan: The Case of the Yugyō-ha (1300-1700) and the 2007 The Japanese Period Film: A Critical Analysis. She is currently working on a translation and analysis of a late fourteenth-century epic, the second of five.

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