The term kami is characteristically vague.  As is often the case with the Japanese language, there is no distinction between the singular and plural. While one tree in a field can be a kami, in Japanese mythology, there are said to be eight million kami.

 

These kami are generally considered to be the power of phenomena that inspire a sense of wonder and awe in the beholder.  In their nature, they are not considered omnipotent, omniscient or necessarily immortal but, rather, act as the entity that can be admired. 

 

In this way, Shinto’s concept of the kami defines it as both a pantheistic and animistic religion.  The kami are similar to the western notions of the numinous and the sacred. Kami are said to inhabit all phenomena, including both the living and the dead, organic and inorganic matter, natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts and plagues and even natural forces such as wind, rain, fire and sunshine.  These all-inclusive phenomena are considered de facto divine in a western sense.  

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Important kami are usually thought to be possessed in a particularly large or noticeable rock for example.  Objects are also placed within shrines in order to contact the kami and are usually concealed from the devotee or priest. Kami are believed to be capable of both benevolent and destructive deeds, and, if ignored, some are believed to dispense suffering including illness and death and, further still, other kami are totally maleficent and must be appeased.  

 

What was all the more important in the past, considering Japan lies on border of several tectonic plates, worship of the kami is used to promote harmony between man and nature.  In smaller communities, further, localised kami can be worshipped to promote communal stability and good relations.  Not exclusive to nature, kami can also be emperors, the deceased and village founders that all are commonly venerated.  

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It is the origins of the kami that lies at the centre of Shinto’s concept of the origins of Japan and the world.  This is related in the 8th Century texts, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.  The Kojiki sets forth the cosmological myth that the universe started with the separation of the pure elements, i.e. Heaven, from the heavy elements, i.e. Earth, in a process called ame-tsuchi.  Three primordial kami then followed, which were then followed by later kami, most importantly a brother and sister called Izanagi and Izanami. 

 

The kami instructed Izanagi and Izanami to create land on earth.  Following their orders, the two siblings were said to have stirred the briny sea with jewelled spear, out of which Onogoro Island was formed.  The couple then descended to Earth and produced further kami as offspring.  One of these kami was a fire kami whose birth killed the sister, Izanami.  

 

Distraught, Izanagi descended to the netherworld, yomi, to retrieve his sister but, to his dismay, only saw her body putrefying.  Ashamed to be seen in this state, Izanami chased Izanagi out of the netherworld and closed its entrance shut with a boulder. 

 

Izanagi was then said to have bathed in the sea to free himself of the pollution brought by witnessing his sister’s putrefaction.  Through this act, he was said to have produced further kami from his body as well.  These included the sun kami from his left eye, the moon kami from his right eye and the storm kami from his nose.  

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The storm kami, Susanoo, behaved in a destructive manner forcing the sun kami, Amaterasu, to hide in a cave, dispelling light from the earth.  However, the other kami eventually succeeded in ousting her from her hiding place, and lifted the earth out of darkness.  Banished to Earth, Susanoo married and had children, while, if you follow the Kojiki, Amaterasu sent her grandson, Ninigi, to rule Japan, presenting him with curved beads, a mirror and a sword: the symbols of Japanese Imperial authority. 

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As for morality in Shinto, there is no invariable duality between good and evil.  In a search for an equivalent to western notions of evil, Shinto’s concept of aki encompasses misfortune, unhappiness and disaster although does not demonstrably correspond with western “evil”.  Although the creative principle permeating all life is defined as musubi, accompanied with its own kami, there is no specific eschatology in Shinto.

 

Rather, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki speak of the presence of multiple realms in Shinto cosmology.  The all-encompassing universe, they relate, is divided between the Plain of the High Heaven, where the kami reside, the Phenomenal or Manifested World, where humans dwell, and the Nether World, where unclean spirits exist, forming a three-part edifice.    

 

In this way, Shinto places greater emphasis on the present life rather than an afterlife. A cohabitation with the kami, it expounds, in this universe is the most important concern. Mythological narratives in Japanese literature describe the netherworld as the realm of the dead, while in the past narratives have suggested the spirits of the dead reside in the mountains, broaching into the living to help in affairs such as agricultural events. Alternatively, there is a common claim amongst Shinto priests that the deceased continue inhabit the present world and support their descendants achieving prosperity.   

 

What the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki touch upon in their account of Izanagi and Izanami is Shinto’s principle of bathing and ritual cleansing in attempt to ensure purity.  The religion professes one should avoid kegare (“pollution” or “impurity”), while maintaining harae (“purity”).  In Japanese thought, humans are regarded as fundamentally pure, however purification rites are conducted to maintain an individual’s spiritual health. 

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The focus is on bathing, however there are various entities that are considered pollutants. These include disease, death, bestiality, incest and excrement among others. Furthermore, priests and practitioners may engage in abstinence or avoid certain activities prior to a ritual or festival.  On top of this, certain words are considered pollutants, such as shi (death) byō (illness) and shishi (meat), and observers of the religion refrain from speaking them while at a shrine.

 

As for the ritual cleansing practices, the purification ceremony is known as misogi and makes use of fresh water, salt water or salt to remove kegare.  A full immersion in the sea is traditionally seen as the most ancient and efficacious form of purification practice.  That said, the act can take also commonly take place under a waterfall and, alternatively, salt is widely regarded as a purifying substance, commonly being sprinkled on themselves by individuals during Shinto funerals.

 

Shinto offers no clear-cut, codified moral doctrine, instead providing only morality tales and myths in various works of literature.  Kannagara, or “way of the kami” does, however, put the focus on tadashii (honesty) and makoto (sincerity), which is viewed as particularly cardinal virtue.   Alongside this, the presence of four virtues are sometimes referenced in Shinto, which are known as akaki kiyoki kokoro, which translates as “purity and cheerfulness of heart” and are linked to the state of harae (“purity”).  Generally, Shinto has a more flexible approach to moral and ethical doctrines compared to other religions.