22East Asian
Shinto
Land and kami arise in myth. There is no single creator-god doctrine across Shinto.
Architecture
Kami, shrine, and myth side by side
Kami and people share the land. Myth has a heavenly plain and Yomi. Practice is rite and purity more than creed.
- 01
Mythic arising
Land and kami come to be. No single creator doctrine.
- 02
Shrines and land
The working structure is local presence, not an axis-tree.
- 03
Myriad kami
Not one pantheon and not monotheism’s angels.
- 04
Human among kami
Not defined as a fallen soul.
- 05
Death as impurity and ancestor
One afterlife map is not shared. Rebirth is not the center.
- Time
- Festival recurrence. Not a world-ending.
- Agents
- Kami. Myth-books are sources, not a required catechism.
- Human slot
- A participant in rite and relation. Sincerity and purity, not a salvation ladder.
- Break
- Impurity. Not a cosmic enemy.
Recorded claims
An evidence label is shown only where the kind of source is already established. No label means unclassified. A label is not a judgment. Source Needed means no source is attached yet. It does not mean the claim is false, weak, or disproven.
Origin / Reality
Land and kami arise in myth. There is no single creator-god doctrine across Shinto.
Source NeededHuman Nature
People live among kami. A fallen soul is not the definition used here.
Source NeededDeath / Afterlife
Death is tied to impurity and, in many streams, to ancestors. One afterlife map is not shared.
Source NeededRebirth
Not the center of shrine Shinto.
Source NeededOther Beings
Kami — myriad, local and cosmic. Not one pantheon.
Source NeededOther Realms
Myth includes the high heavenly plain and Yomi. Shrine practice is not one map of those realms.
Source NeededWorld Structure / Axis
Shrines, land, and kami. No single world-axis is required.
Source NeededDestruction / Reset
Not centered on a world-ending apocalypse.
Source NeededHow Truth Is Known
Ritual, shrine tradition, and myth. Kojiki and Nihon Shoki are not the same text.
Source Needed
Sources & EvidenceShowHideNo source is attached yet. Source Needed is a research gap, not a judgment.
The tradition or source
What that source says. Not a scholar’s retelling, and not a SCARCE inference.
None attached.
A modern researcher
What a scholar or other modern writer says about the source. Not the source’s own words.
None attached.
SCARCE
What this project infers or sets beside the records. Not what the source said.
None attached.
How we know
Where the evidence comes from, and how far it is from the people it describes. The labels are not a score. They do not rank traditions. A manuscript year, a tradition’s own claim, and a date from the ground are kept apart on the timeline.
The Kojiki (712) and the Nihon Shoki (720) are the earliest extended mythic texts. They were compiled at the Japanese court. Shrine practice is older than those books as an activity, and those books are not shrine ledgers.
Archaeology of earlier ritual is artifact without a readable doctrine, so it cannot be quoted as myth. The word “Shinto,” and the idea of it as one religion beside Buddhism, are later classifications. Kami practice may be older than 712. The written myths date to the 8th century. State Shinto is modern. Those three must not share one date.
Original evidence → transmission / copy → translation / documentation → modern interpretation
01
Original evidence
Later religious or traditional text
The 8th-century books are court compilations of myths and genealogies. They are primary for what the court wrote, not autographs of local kami cults.
02
Transmission / copy
Later copy of earlier text
The books were copied through the medieval period. Shrine liturgies (norito) have their own, often later, textual history.
03
Translation / documentation
Modern scholarly reconstruction
The Kojiki mixes Japanese with Chinese characters used phonetically. A modern translation resolves ambiguities the script leaves open. The resolution is not the 712 text.
04
Modern interpretation
Modern scholarly reconstruction
Kokugaku and modern definitions of Shinto are interpretations, some of them ideological. They are not the Kojiki. This chart does not treat “Shinto” as a single ancient creed.
The twenty-one questions
Asked of every system. Gaps are recorded as gaps. Nothing here is filled in to make a pattern prettier.
01
Where are we?
Among kami, in the land the myths populate. Shrine, household, and landscape are the usual setting, not a metaphysical diagram.
Read every system on this question02
What is reality made of?
Not stated as a material theory. The world is where kami are present.
Read every system on this question03
What is a human being?
A person living with kami and, in many households, with ancestors. Not a soul exiled from heaven.
Read every system on this question04
What is consciousness?
Not isolated as a technical problem. Right relation, purity, and sincerity are the practical concerns.
Read every system on this question05
Where did humanity come from?
Mythic genealogies from the kami, in the written myths. Shrine life does not depend on one origin recital.
Read every system on this question06
What happens at death?
Death pollutes and is handled ritually. Ancestors are honored. Yomi belongs to myth more than to a single shrine doctrine.
Read every system on this question07
Does consciousness return to embodiment?
Not the teaching of shrine Shinto.
Read every system on this question08
Where is consciousness between lives?
Not framed as between lives.
Read every system on this question09
Are there nonhuman intelligent beings?
Yes. Kami, of place, of forces, of ancestors in many cases, and of the myths. They are not one roster.
Read every system on this question10
Can those beings become human or appear human?
Kami act in human-like ways in myth. Some dead people are enshrined as kami. That is not a god converting into a mortal.
Read every system on this question11
Are there multiple realms or worlds?
Myth has the heavenly plain and Yomi as well as the land. Ordinary practice is not a tour of those realms.
Read every system on this question12
Is there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?
A shrine sanctifies a place. That is local, not a world-pillar doctrine. Some myths speak of a heavenly pillar; that is myth, not a requirement of every shrine.
Read every system on this question13
Is the world itself alive?
Kami are in the living world. That is presence, not a doctrine that the planet is a single animal.
Read every system on this question14
Has civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?
Not the point of the tradition. Myths are about coming-to-be, not a final burning of the world.
Read every system on this question15
Does history operate linearly or cyclically?
Ritual recurrence (year, shrine festival) without a doctrine of cosmic cycles or of a final end.
Read every system on this question16
Is there an opposing positive/negative force?
Impurity against purity and right order. Not a cosmic anti-god.
Read every system on this question17
What is humanity supposed to become?
To live in right relation with kami: purity, sincerity, and the rites. Not a salvation career.
Read every system on this question18
Is reincarnation a destination, punishment, school, growth process, or something else?
Not the structure, so no role is assigned.
Read every system on this question19
What lies beyond the visible world?
Kami, including those not visibly present, and the mythic realms. The unseen is local as much as cosmic.
Read every system on this question20
How does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?
Doing the rites, following shrine tradition, and the written myths where they are used. Practice is prior to system.
Read every system on this question21
Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?
The sun kami and the festival calendar matter. A birth-chart correspondence is not Shinto.
Read every system on this question22
Why did humanity forget?
Not recorded in this chart.
Read every system on this question
Structures where this record appears
- Axis, mountain, tree, heartIs there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?
- Flood, judgment, cycle, endingHas civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?
- Return, resurrection, renewalDoes consciousness return to embodiment?
- Nonhuman intelligencesAre there nonhuman intelligent beings?
- Realms and worldsAre there multiple realms or worlds?
- Is the world itself alive?Is the world itself alive?
- Line or wheelDoes history operate linearly or cyclically?
- Do the heavens correspond?Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?
- How truth is claimedHow does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?