#Shinbutsu shūgō

[studentofshinto]

[shintoinenglish]

Hello!

I am studying Buddhism and Shintō and I was wondering how people combine these two worldviews in Shinbutsu-Shūgō? As I know Shinto is very focused on nature and love for the world around us, while Buddhism believes that we are in the wheel of samsara, the world is full of suffering and we should leave here to Nirvana

Thank You in advance for Your answer.

I don't think Buddhism encourages leaving this world in any way, but rather teaches us how to deal with hardships, trauma, and inequality in this life. It's understandable why many people think Buddhism is more afterlife-oriented, especially in Japan, but this definitely does not mean that this world is inherently bad. It's more of a neutral perspective, from what I've read and heard. Both Shintō and Buddhism acknowledge that the natural world can harm, and the ways this is explained, as well as how humans react to it, varies by sect.

I think Zen temples are a good example of how Buddhism can focus on nature (though I'm not Zen, so please don't take my word for this!). There's a reason why monks trained in nature, in mountains far from the city. There's also a reason why even today, Shugendō practitioners keep practicing their asceticism in the wild. Reminding ourselves that we are part of nature is still Buddhist; being a good steward for nature is probably a way to build good karma (toku) which you can dedicate to others. To give a concrete example, I see veterinarians and those involved in animal welfare and rescue as being of service to Kannon-sama, because that is a field in which compassion is a driving force. Not that you have to be Buddhist to be a veterinarian, but I believe it to be a profession that is inherently compatible with Kannon-sama's goals. Of course, this includes wildlife rehabilitation, and I'd say is even more relevant for 'uncharismatic' wildlife such as vultures, who play a valuable part in the cycle of life on this planet. I lack knowledge in the field of plants, but I'm sure there is something similar to be said about people who engage in environmental activism, guerilla gardening, etc.

Shintō isn't necessarily about love for the world around us, but appreciating connections between people, kamisama and so on, spanning from history to now: the ancient peoples who discovered rice could be edible, to those who first farmed with it, to the farmers currently harvesting it, to the rice itself, full of life, on your plate.

Thank you for sending me this question, it really got me thinking!

[cookinguptales]

yamagata (part one)

So last October, my father and I rented a car and drove around Yamagata, Japan. We were there mostly because I'm a terrible little nerd and I really wanted to see the Dewa Sanzan, but we also stayed the night in an onsen town in the middle of a volcanic caldera.

The trip didn't go entirely to plan... I meant to have three days so we could more thoroughly explore the sacred mountains, but it ended up storming terribly for a couple days, so hiking... Not ideal...

I have mobility issues (and Dad was recovering from an injury) so I have to be pretty careful while doing stairs in the first place, so... doing it during a storm... It just wasn't going to happen. Still, though! We got to see a lot of cool things and we had a nice time.

Explanations and photos under the cut!

To begin with, the Dewa Sanzan are a set of three extremely sacred mountains in Yamagata Prefecture. The three mountains are Hagurosan, Gassan, and Yudonosan. That's also the order in which they're meant to be hiked, and each mountain increases in sacrality.

Which religion are they sacred to? Well... that's kind of a complicated question. When Buddhism came to Japan in the 6th century, it entered into a sort of (sometimes awkward) alliance with Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan. (...more or less...)

You hear the term shinbutsu shūgō a lot around the mountains of Yamagata. Basically speaking, this refers to the syncretic religion created by combining elements of Shinto and Buddhism. There's another concept, honji suijaku, which explains how this was accomplished. The idea is that Buddhist deities were manifesting themselves on earth as Japanese kami, or the indigenous spirits that made up Shinto. In other words, the idea was that when Japanese people were seeing kami, they were actually seeing Buddhist deities who were disguising themselves in order to better spread the precepts of Buddhism.

These syncretic kami-buddha(/bodhisattva) pairs were called gongen. This part's important for where I'm going next.

This syncretic religion wasn't really cohesive or regulated throughout Japan. There wasn't one set list of sacred texts or one set person in charge to make rules, y'know? It spread around Japan largely organically, so there was a lot of variation in belief systems, rituals, etc. Some people would identify more with the Shinto side of things, some more with the Buddhist side.

What I was interested in, and why I went all the way out there, was a mountain ascetic religion called shugendō. Shugendō was a religion primarily practiced in the remote mountains of Japan, and it centered largely around the worship of gongen as well as submersing oneself in nature to meditate. It wasn't exactly easy to learn about where I went to school in Kyoto, so I jumped at the chance to rent a car and go see some mountains that were very sacred to shugendō practitioners, or yamabushi.

(I had originally also had us going to see the Kumano shrines in Wakayama, but after Dad got hurt, I cut a lot of walking out of the trip. So we chose Yamagata because you could drive right up to a lot of the shrines.)

Now, during the Meiji period, Shinto and Buddhism were forcibly separated by the government. (I won't get into the whys right now.) When that happened, a lot of syncretic sites were forced to either choose to be one or the other or be physically destroyed by the government. On Dewa Sanzan, most of the shugendō sites decided to convert to Shinto. It makes it kind of odd, when you're walking around a Shinto shrine that still clearly, clearly has a lot of Buddhist influence...

One of my big interests, when it comes to religious studies, is syncretic religions, so I've been wanting to learn more about all this for ages. But, due to the purposeful destruction of religious orders/sites as well as the remote locations... well, it's been hard. I was PUMPED to get out there.

lmao now that I've given you all a mini history lecture...

Yamagata!

Now, the first day, Dad and I rented a car in Yamagata City and drove out to Hijiori Onsen. It was really out in the middle of nowhere and honestly? Big Spirited Away vibes. I'm over here explaining the concept of kamikakushi to Dad and he is like. Not loving it.

Add to that the fact that it was raining and dreary and kind of awful, and the whole situation was just spooky.

Hijiori Onsen is also known for something in particular -- a thing that I forgot to tell dad about. They're known for making kokeshi dolls, which I guess explained.... uh. what we encountered on the drive up.

Oh? What's that in the distance?

A giant, deeply creepy kokeshi?

The terrible weather and empty countryside really did not make these things more reassuring.

I will be honest with you, the whole area kind of had Fatal Frame vibes lmao.

BUT when we finally made it to Hijiori Onsen, it was really lovely.

This was our ryokan, aka the only one that had an elevator and would allow my father's tattoos lmao.

And oh look, more kokeshi. lmao

It was kind of fun to see the traditional fall decorations (the persimmons) next to more modern Halloween ones.

It was really lovely inside, though, and this was the view from our room.

They also had a lot of local snacks, which was fun to try. (Pictured: apple cookies, green tea, and... I want to say candied burdock root?)

The food was a recurring theme, tbh. They fed us so much that my Dad was like no ;; please ;; we'll die ;;

More kokeshi, this time in the form of a chopsticks rest.

(Yes, I did buy myself one of their kokeshi at a shop in town before we left, lmao.)

The dining room was pretty, with traditional braziers, soy sauce jars, etc.

Seriously, though, dinner lasted for like two hours and they must have brought dozens of little dishes.

They cooked the local beef and vegetables inside giant leaves, which was fun and tasted really nice. Kiritanpo rice balls... Sesame-crusted fish...

Even things I wasn't expecting to like as much, like the horse sashimi (🥲) and the fried fish bones were pretty good. (Honestly, horse is a little flavorless for me, but the fish bones were surprisingly good.)

I won't show photos of everything (we'd be here all day) but one more highlight of dinner was the imoni, which is a sort of beef and taro hotpot they make in Yamagata in the fall. It was so good. ;; Tasted like sweet gyuudon with potatoes.

Also, I don't believe I got a photo of it, but when they were like "we have pumpkin :) :) for dessert :) :) happy halloween, americans!!!" I was like "omg, kabocha is my favorite, especially pudding!" and he was so excited, he was like YES, WE HAVE KABOCHA PUDDING! It was really cute.

(They seemed equally shocked and thrilled by my not-great Japanese. lmao. I think they'd had very low expectations of the weird Americans who'd come all the way out to Yamagata for reasons unknown to them.)

And after dinner, they brought a selection of local sake to my room to let me try, including some nigori sake, which is my favorite. It was so nice, even if we almost died from the sheer amount of food. They just kept BRINGING it lmao.

The baths there were also really nice, though obviously I couldn't take photos of those.

And this was the view from my window the next morning, once it was light out:

And breakfast, which was again far, far too much food. lmao

Then we drove around town a little. I forgot to take my phone with me when I got out of the car, like a dummy, so I didn't get great pictures of the tiny shopping district. I got myself a kokeshi, though, and got my father and I a box of karinto manju to split. (YES, I GOT THEM BECAUSE MY FROG GOT THEM FOR ME IN TABIKAERU, SO SUE ME. THEY WERE DELICIOUS.)

We then got extremely lost, but eventually stopped at the public baths. It was seriously pouring and it was cold and miserable so Dad just waited in the car while I took some short baths. Again, I can't show you photos of actual baths I took, but here are a few from online:

(Caldera Onsenkan)

This one was fun because it was naturally carbonated! They had hot and cold onsen you could bathe in. You couldn't really feel the carbonation in the hot onsen, but you sure could in the cold one. I put my feet in and was like "I am bathing in very, very cold soda" lmao.

(The cold bath for your hands and feet.)

And you could drink it, too! It was supposedly good for you! I only remembered weeks later that shugendō monks were able to self-mummify (more on that later) in Yamagata because their natural spring water was so high in arsenic!

So uh hopefully that one doesn't come back to haunt me. lmao

Watch out for the stinkbug.

There was another one in town that I was interested in, too... They say that Hijiori Onsen got its start as a medicinal hot spring town after a monk fell off a cliff and broke his elbow and then rolled into the hot spring and was instantly healed, and this was attributed to Jizo-sama.

So there's an onsen where Jizo will watch over you as you bathe.

Which is fun, though I liked the similar experience in Kusatsu Onsen a little more. Gotta love a sacred bath, tho.

So then we left to go to the Dewa Sanzan. In the end, we ended up taking our time and stopping a lot at various shrines and stuff because I realized the weather was just too shitty to get a start on the mountains that day. Dad wouldn't even get out of the car except for lunch lmao. By the end of the day, it was hailing, so I can't really blame him.

The next leg of our trip will be in another post because I'm almost out of images in this one, but here's a couple more photos of Hijiori Onsen.

And two more for this round, we did get lost trying to get out of the caldera (...lmao) and broooo when I tell you my dumb ass was like "dad we are for SURE gonna get kamikakushi'd out here"

Tell me this doesn't feel like the beginning of a Miyazaki movie lmao.

(we lived, bitch!!! must've been all those sacred baths.)

[tenjin-no-shinja]

Hoshida Myōkengū

One of my all time favorite shrines in Japan, it's one of the few examples of a shrine that has maintained its Shinbutsu Shūgō heritage, where you can see places to pray to the Buddhas alongside the Kami.  It also has a strong link to Onmyōdō.  

The main gosaijin are: Ame no Minakanushi no Kami, Myōken Bosatsu, and Chintaku Reifujin-sama.

Getting to the Main Worship Space requires hiking up a huge mountain so you get great views and good exercise, and the shrine itself is built on top of a meteorite site. 

The Official Webpage of Hoshida Myōkengū says:

"According to the legend of this shrine, during the Heian period, during the Kōnin era (810-824) of Emperor Saga, when Kobo Daishi came to Katano, he entered the lion's cave at Shishikutsuji Kisshoin Temple and recited the secret teachings of Buddha's Eye and Mother, and seven stars (the Big Dipper) fell from the heavens and split into three parts before falling to the earth. This legend remains in the area to this day, and it is said that the stars fell in three places: in the Star Forest to the east of Takaokayama along the Hoshida Boji River, in the grounds of Kohoshizan Korinji Temple in Hoshidakan, and in the grounds of this shrine. Later, Kobo Daishi himself visited the site of this shrine, where he called himself "Myoken of the Three Lights, Seiiwa, Shoshin", and it was enshrined as "the sacred mountain of the unique beauty of the North Star Myoken Bodhisattva" and "the famous mountain where the treasure house of gods and Buddhas, the shadows of the heavenly gods and good spirits, come together".

[x]

Due to this connection with the Big Dipper and Polaris, the shrine has a tradition of Guardian Stars (守護星), as I was born in Heisei 10, my Zodiac is the Tiger, and my primary guardian star is Rokuzonjō (禄存星) with my secondary star (based on gender) being Mukokujō (武曲星). The shrine has statues dedicated to each star and you can go to each and pray there while reciting their mantras.  For example my two stars mantras are

禄存星

オン　ハラタギャ　ウン

武曲星

オン　キャトロ　ウン

They also had a lot of beautiful natural areas like this waterfall :)

Of course the shrine items themselves are also stunning.  I got a goshuincho for my roommate, and Ofuda and a prayer book for my friend. Of course I went back later and got myself a goshuincho cause of how stunning they were. 

[singular-yike]

A long time ago, a book about Shinto I read mentioned something about "warrior priests". I sorta gave up researching them after the shrine they were associated with in the book pulled up no results on English google (forgot it's name, but apparently there's an American branch of it that has way more documentation than the Japanese branch I was trying to look into, but this ain't about that shrine).

The concept of a warrior priest intrigues me, as a fan of media where Shinto priests fight, so could you tell me what you know of them?

I'll be completely honest, I've never heard of Shinto priests that also acted as warriors before this. So I was a bit lost as to what to do here.

However, I do know of the much, much more famous Buddhist warrior monks, called sōhei (僧兵 lit. "monk soldiers"), which I originally planned to use as my answer.

Fortunately, it is in the middle of researching them that I believe I came across a good answer to your question, but first, let's go over some history (which I've tried my best to keep brief and relevant to our topic today).

History of Shinto and Buddhism

Shinto and Buddhism have been closely intertwined for most of Japan's history. In fact, for a good part of it, most people would've understood them as a single system of faith, one and the same.

From our modern point of view, we call this shinbutsu-shūgō (神仏習合), the "syncretism of kami and buddhas" (syncretism being the combation different beliefs; Kami being what I usually refer to as the Shinto "gods").

It was not until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when the "Kami and Buddhas Separation Order" (神仏判然令) was decreed, that the two religions for forcefully split in twain.

Yet even still, the two were never truly and completely separated, many Buddhist temples still house small Shinto shrines, and some Shinto shrines are dedicated to Buddhist deities like any other kami.

Indeed the policy never succeeded in its goals to separate the two religions, many Japanese people still practice both and visit both shrines and temples, but what it did do was create the modern view that they are separate, independent religions.

Practices/Beliefs Under the Syncretism

Right, now we can take a look at the practices under the syncretism that lead to these "warrior priests/monks" that I mentioned prior.

To keep things brief, basically, the Shinto gods and the various Buddhist deities (Buddhas, bodhisattvas, etc.) were fused together. The "how" was never agreed upon, but the mainstream idea was the honji-suijaku theory (本地垂迹).

It suggested that Shinto gods were but local manifestations of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and that they too were not exempt from the cycle of death and rebirth, samsara.

Thus, Shinto gods needed to achieve enlightenment, nirvana, as well, just like us humans. Buddhist temples were built close to Shinto shrines so that the gods can listen to Buddhist sutras, cultivate good karma, all that good stuff.

There's a lot more too, like how Shinto gods later come to be considered the protectors of Buddhism, but the important takeaway here is that Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines slowly get fused with one another, to the point where they're basically the same thing.

Warrior Monks and Priests

It is under these syncretistic beliefs and practices that we move onto classical and feudal Japan, specifically the period from the late Heian period (794 to 1185) until the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573).

During this period, power in Japan was split between three: The imperial court, independent warrior governments, and what is called the "temple-shrine powers" (寺社勢力) (the "why" is a lot of history I really can't).

(Also do note that these are categories, not three unified powers, so all the temple-shrines didn't come together to form their own government or anything like that.)

Temple-shrines then held vast amounts of land and power, enough to compete with the other two powers for authority. A part of this competition and exertion of power is, of course, military fighting.

This fighting, on the part of the Shinto shrines, were often done by what are called jinin/jinnin (神人), low-ranking priests who did chores and odd-jobs for the shrine. Some of them where charged with guard duty, so they owned weapons and knew how to fight.

It was these people who we see join the sōhei (mentioned in the beginning) in their fighting, and we even have many records of people complaining about their violent rampages (yeah not all of these warriors were great people, in fact many weren't, but that's neither here nor there).

And there's what I believe you read about! Warrior Shinto priests, albeit low-ranking ones that were basically the odd-jobs guys. (Also worth noting is that not all jinin were warriors, some were farmers, merchants, artisans, etc.)

Ending

What I couldn't find

I should definitely add that I couldn't find anything about a specific group of jinin tied to a specific shrine.

The only two American shrines that I could find with specific ties to Japanese shrines are the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America and the Izumo Grand Shrine of Hawaii, tied to the Tsubaki Grand Shrine and Izumo Grand Shrine respectively.

However, I couldn't find anything specifically tying them to any temple-shrine powers back them, nor any specific anecdotes about their priests being warriors either.

So yeah I got nothing on that front, sorry 'bout that.

Why all the history?

In retrospect all that history really seems rather unnecessary, doesn't it? But I've already typed all that up, and it'd just be an absolute waste to delete them now.

I originally mentioned all that because I wanted to give an idea on how this could've been obscured, both to me and to anyone else, and hence the topic's obscurity these days.

Shinto was Buddhism at the time (and vice versa, in a sense), so these people who fought with Buddhist monks were simply lumped in with them, they were of one temple-shrine organisation.

There's a lot of stuff in there that you can easily pour literal lifetimes into learning about, so we can always visit some other stuff there if you're interested~.

Final Words

Good gods I crammed a lot in here.

The tricky thing is that any talk about Shinto history also kinda necessitates a basic understanding of Buddhism, so it's tough to pick out what's really needed and what can be saved for some other day.

Also I'm not nearly as good at these top-down perspective stuff, as you may have noticed, narrow topics are a lot easier to work with (though I suppose that's true for most things).

And this intersected with history quite a lot too, which is not really my thing and I'm not nearly as well versed in.

Finally please do note that I'm no expert in Japanese religion and mythology or anything. I just find it all real neat~. So please don't be surprised if any of this turns out inaccurate or straight up wrong, and do tell me I'd love to learn too~.

And that's all I believe! As usual, I hope you enjoyed~! :)

[tenjin-no-shinja]

Nyakuichi Jinja in Nishioji Kyoto, enshrines a kami associated with both Shinto and Buddhism (Shinbutsu Shūgō), called Nyakuichi Ōji, or Nyaku Ōji, who's Honji is considered to be the Eleven-Faced Kannon. Part of the Kumano Faith that spread to Kyoto and elsewhere. Many shrines after the forced separation of Shinto and Buddhism ended up changing the gosaijin (enshrined kami) to Amaterasu Ōmikami or Ninigi no Mikoto, but some like this one still enshrine the original Nyakuichi Ōji. The waters at this shrine are considered some of the best in Kyoto, and are said to bring good fortune, and success in life. Also apparently this shrine appears in the Tale of Heike which is neat.

20240908 新車購入

西大路に出て若一神社まで。

[knightofhylia-sageofthetriforce]

In this modern world connected by the internet, it is beyond easy to be spiritually eclectic. Christianity of various forms, pagan reconstruction, traditional cultural religions, you name it! However, this tends to lend itself to a few problems.

One such issue is the common sense of entitlement to practice whatever tradition we want however we want, even if it is a closed or initiatory practice. There are so many various open practices that there is no reason to enter into what is a closed or initiatory practice, unless you are allowed to join by the community it belongs to and initiated into it.

Another issue is the tendency to blend practices. For example, I’ve seen people worship Inari Ōkami, Shinto deity of harvest and prosperity and Loki, the Norse deity of chaos and trickery on the same altar. That isn’t to say that you can’t be both Shinto *and* Heathen. You absolutely can, but it is considered incredibly rude to mash these faiths into one when they are both due our full respect. How this would look would be to practice both but keep them as their own separate things. Following the laid out example, one could absolutely have both a Shinto kamidana and a Heathen altar.

There are, however, some forms of traditional syncretism. An example of this is Shinbutsu Shūgō, a syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism. This is one of my spiritual practices. A Shinbutsu approach to Tsubaki faith, praying to Sarutahiko no Ōkami and the other enshrined kami at Tsubaki Grand Shrine but also maintaining Buddhist meditation practices and views since my priest told me that was acceptable for our faith.

However, I also find myself interested in something known as Pop Culture Paganism where one may choose to revere a pantheon of gods from works of fiction, or maybe even create a pantheon of gods from the characters of a work of fiction. This is essentially what I mean when I said I am a Knight of Hylia and a Sage of the Triforce. The Legend of Zelda has influenced me to such a large degree in my life that I find myself feeling deep respect for what world building we have received and so I am forming my own path where I revere the Three Golden Goddesses and the other important figures in lore. Din, Nayru, and Farore created the world in which Hyrule exists. Goddess Hylia was entrusted with protecting the Triforce and life in the world from the demon tribe. Goddess Hylia becomes Zelda and her Chosen Hero becomes Link. I view Link as an embodiment of the Triforce of Courage and Zelda as the Triforce of Wisdom. These characters are like archetypes to follow. Ganon becomes a cautionary tale of what happens when people lust after power too greedily. Beyond these goddesses and demons, we also meet many beings in the world of Hyrule who are essentially kami of the world. The Great Deku tree, Lord Jabu-Jabu, The Light Spirits, and many more.

Here is where I reach my point—

I do my best to show each of my practices their due respect and veneration by keeping them their own separate things but this is one area where it is a bit difficult. Keeping this Hylian Faith separate from Shinto and Buddhism isn’t easy because the lore of Legend of Zelda is *heavily* inspired by Shinto and Buddhism. In that regard, this Hylian Faith almost *is* the real world faiths, but with western fantasy flavors.

So while it won’t always be easy to keep them separate, I will do so since Shinto and Buddhism are traditions thousands of years old, this Hylian Faith is something new inspired by the old. And that’s totally ok!

[thatboomerkid]

RIFT

RIFT is an obscure Discipline -- rare in the extreme, born of anguish & remorse, sharpened through tear-streaked centuries of nightly struggle against the most obscene appetites -- that allows practitioners of its weird, flagellant art-form to coalesce their Beast into a quasi-living, sentient Umbral Realm bound eternally to their shadow: a sprawling, labyrinthine nightmare-dimension.

Through this monstrous realm, the Damned may walk.

And in this place, other things -- ancient things, titanic, hungry and inhuman -- soar corpse-pale skies lit by rotting, pulsating black stars, and dive through creaking forests of twisted-iron atrocity rising from endless oceans of blood.

Rift is an updated Discipline designed for use with Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, inspired by content from A World of Darkness (First Edition, 1992).

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

If you enjoy this content and would like to see more dark, modern horror game-material by the author, the Bloodlines & Black Magic Kickstarter is going on right now.

Hugest of thanks to John Miętus for his invaluable editing-assistance and development during the creation of this fan-content.

image from here

HISTORY

In the long black centuries between the rise of the Baali from their cursed organ-pit and the ascendance of House Tremere to majestic undeath, it is known that Saulot performed innumerable private pilgrimages to far-flung, moonlit realms in an eternal, fruitless search for the enlightened state whispered of as Golconda.

Some occult scholars claim that, in desperation, the Antediluvian sat silently for several decades at the feet of Shinbutsu-shūgō masters, wreathed in holy incense, the toll of tsurigane and a coil of unending thirst: contemplating the infinite sins of his undying lineage, reflecting upon his Heaven-ordained duty to his Progenitor and seeking to divest himself of all worldly attachment.

If so, it is possible that his incalculable and fathomless meditations produced the first echo of what would come to be known in later millennia as Rift.

Whether this is truth or mere fabrication, students of esoteric history trace the first known demonstrations of the Rift Discipline to a nomadic brood of Malkavians calling themselves ‘Gaki’ -- or ‘Hungry Ghosts’ -- who hunted the Silk Road during the 8th century. These wandering, blood-drenched emperors of jade & dust claim to have been taught the technique by a wandering Far-Eastern mystic who bore a shining third eye upon his brow & spoke in koan-like riddles about the Ten-Thousand Hells awaiting the Children of Caine.

The Gaki Bloodline

Rumors persist that a true bloodline of Malkavians -- or Malkavian Antitribu -- eventually emerged from among the far-wandering Gaki coteries, and that the eerie bloodline persists into the modern nights; a minority of Gehenna researchers claim that a cabal of such creatures were active in Tokyo as recently as the 1970s, drifting silently through the long, smog-shrouded neon shadows of that vast metropolis in search of fresh-spilt blood.

If there is any truth to these claims, those of the Gaki Bloodline suffer the full Derangement weakness of their parent clan; in addition, their perceptions are twisted by their hunger: when a Gaki is down to a number of Blood Points lower than her Humanity or Path rating, her world fades into a sinister & ghostly sea of potential victims, immediate physical threats, drifting fog and the whispers of the kumonosu. During this time, she is unable to focus on any other input -- such as traffic lights, the distant sound of gunfire or whether she’s standing in an apartment, on the street or in a fetish-club -- unless she expends a point of Willpower to shake off the unreal cloak of her hallucinations for the remainder of the scene.

The Gaki possess the Bloodline Disciplines of Auspex, Obfuscate and Rift.

Elder members of the Bloodline are known to have traded extensively in ancient nights with far-voyaging Gangrel of the Silk Road, and often possess some combination of Animalism (for use in controlling the Beast), Fortitude (for use in surviving botched Courage rolls when evoking Rift) and Protean (for general use in traveling the winding paths of the world in safety).

Since that time, the Discipline has vanished and resurfaced repeatedly, passed from master to apprentice; in these Final Nights, it is as likely to be practiced by a Nosferatu neonate dwelling in the gutters beneath a methadone clinic as it is to be wielded by a salon of elder Toreador Antitrubu who make an art of their own grandiose self-destruction.

The technique is very quietly forbidden within the Camarilla, as a pair of recurring themes amongst those who practice the art-form are a fondness for Diablerie and a penchant for experimentation in Dark Thaumaturgy ... although knowledge of the art is also -- somewhat surprisingly -- kept in secret among several coteries of particularly puritanical Josian devil-hunters.

REQUIREMENTS

Rift may only be taught by another, more-experienced master of the art-form. It cannot be learned from demons, spirits or other non-Kindred tutors. It cannot be gained at Character Creation nor selected as a Caitiff Discipline or Additional Discipline (pg. 494) unless explicitly approved by the Storyteller.

Once a Kindred has a greater number of dots in Rift than she possesses in any other Discipline, she may thereafter instruct herself in the Discipline through meditation; after this time, she no longer requires a tutor.

A Kindred may only possess a total score in Rift equal to one half the total number of points of Humanity she has lost since her Embrace.

Thus, a Kindred may not gain her first dot of Rift until she has lost at least 2 points of Humanity. If she wishes to gain a second dot in Rift, she must have lost at least 4 points in Humanity.

An elder who wishes to gain her sixth dot in Rift must, therefore, have lost at least 12 points in Humanity over her long, blood-splattered unlife.

In addition, upon gaining her first dot in Rift, the practitioner of this art gains the Nightmares Flaw (pg 485). She gains no bonus points of any kind for accepting this Flaw. If she already possesses Nightmares, the novice practitioner of Rift must instead select another Mental Flaw -- such as Deep Sleeper or Lunacy -- as deemed appropriate by the Storyteller, representative of her new reality: each time she slumbers, she is pulled deep into her own Rift to experience the most grotesque of tortures at the hands of her Beast ... and all its victims.

Note that proficiency in Rift is in no way dependent upon a vampire’s current Humanity total: a vampire with a Humanity of 10 could freely learn & utilize five full dots worth of Rift, so long as she had lost at least 10 points of Humanity at some point in her past.

image from here

PHILOSOPHY

Rift is, fundamentally, about grief & regret.

It is about falling into the Abyss. It is about witnessing yourself lose the grand, shadow-draped chess-match against your own ravening Beast in a slow, ugly war of attrition. It is about shame, sorrow & self-reproach. It is about confronting your own subconscious desire to be punished for your sins, watering this garden with blood, and allowing the tangled forest of self-hatred to grow wild, dark & unchecked. It is about accepting one’s own damnation and the personal hell that comes with it, facing-down your worst fear wrought in a storm of ash & flame, and dying -- torn into a thousand screaming fragments -- over and over and over again.

It is about what awaits you in the dark, whether at the end of another blood-slick night of terror or at the final, jagged end of a squandered immortality.

On the surface, of course, Rift is about bridging the world of flesh to the nightmare realm, dancing along the weirding way between them with a twist of will & blood, flaunting the crude, limited physics of this concrete universe.

And, up to a point, it is that as well.

For these reasons, tutoring a potential student in Rift is prohibitively difficult.

For one, it is near-impossible for an instructor to gauge how much torment their would-be apprentice has already endured. Has this supplicant to the power you wield already begun to feel her soul & sanity crumble, crawling her way back up with broken fingers from the awful precipice of the gaping, blood-slick pit?

Or is she a mere pretender to such evil?

If she has not yet begun to grow her own Rift & populate the personal hell that she will soon steal-into like a thief, how do you tell an apprentice “go now, and commit atrocities, that you might regret them later?”

How do you remind her that the Beast is ever hungry, that it feasts with cold delight in the deep blackness upon those who would seek to dance around it?

Most Kindred simply do not possess the temperament to master Rift, and it is all but unknown among those who walk a Path of Enlightenment.

SYSTEM

Much like Obfuscate, Rift requires no expenditure of Vitae to activate its power. It requires concentration and cannot be used in Frenzy.

In addition, it is -- in theory -- quite a subtle power, with few obvious effects visible to the outside observer.

Any use of Rift automatically causes all mundane and electronic recording equipment within line of sight of the practitioner to glitch-out for a split-second; a video-camera cannot capture an image of hell by training on the Damned, instead recording only a few frames of static & distortion.

However, a practitioner of the Discipline must always first attempt a Courage roll whenever she channels the nightmare of her own private damnation; attempting this roll does not require an action, and the Difficulty of this roll is always equal to 4 + the level of the Discipline power to be activated.

DECLARING INTENT

Whenever a Damned chooses to activate any ability of the Rift discipline, she must specify exactly what level of the Discipline she intends to use. She cannot, for example, activate Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge and then -- once within her Rift -- decide to activate Dance of Unstable Nightmares unless she immediately attempts an additional Courage roll.

If this roll is unsuccessful, one of the following three things occurs:

the ability fails, as the Damned -- at the last moment -- draws back in terror from the eternity of suffering she has built for herself, brick by blazing & razor-wreathed brick.

the Damned may expend a point of Willpower, forcing open the gateway between worlds through sheer desperation.

the roll is a Botch, which has special rules noted below.

If the practitioner chooses to force the power of her Rift upon the unsuspecting world in this way, the effects of her Discipline are Obscene, as noted below.

A practitioner of Rift may always choose to voluntarily fail her Courage roll (no roll required), expend her Willpower and unleash her Rift in a wave of Obscenity, if she so desires.

If the Courage roll is Botched, the practitioner is consumed in a wave of horror & nightmare-flame emanating from the Rift bound to her. This deals a number of levels of Aggravated damage equal to the level of the Discipline power to be activated.

This damage may be soaked as normal (via Fortitude).

This damage is additionally reduced by one level for each religious item or icon the Damned carries; these items are destroyed utterly when the raw power of her unleashed Rift tears through her: silver crosses are deformed into unrecognizable twists of tarnish & rust, wooden prayer-beads blaze for a single moment with unholy fire before being reduced to greasy ash, and earrings emblazoned with the Sacred Heart shatter into splinters of smoking ruin with a bitter scream and a waft of brimstone.

The Damned may carry a total number of such items or icons equal to her Humanity score. These items must be worn or carried for at least 24 hours before they may be sacrificed in this way.

Note that religious items carried by the practitioner of Rift must match the faith (if any) of the Damned: atheist Kindred cannot benefit from them at all, and most creatures cannot gain the benefits of both a Star of David and a Holy Rosary at the same time.

Members of the Gaki Bloodline, famously, were the exception to that rule: true Universal Polytheists, they adorned themselves with sacred items from every culture they encountered, practicing as many good-luck & purification rituals as they could learn in an eternal mania to ward-off evil.

image from here

LEVEL ONE:

Echo of Hells: Upon activating this technique, the practitioner of Rift chooses any one creature who likewise suffers the hunger of an undying Beast; she may communicate silently with that individual for the remainder of the scene.

This creature must be within line-of-sight to the Damned for contact to be established (but see below).

All attempts to communicate with this creature are automatically successful unless the other Damned chooses to block such contact; a Howl of the Devil-Tiger Kuei-jin who speaks only Early Middle Japanese may choose to ignore the alien whispers of a Western undead channeling the screams of her Rift, but their communication otherwise surpasses all language barriers.

If the Damned chooses to communicate with a fellow practitioner of the Rift Discipline who is known intimately to her, this communication may be performed over any distance; she must know the name, face, scent, touch and taste of her partner before communication may be joined in this way.

This technique, at the Storyteller’s discretion, may be used to communicate with creatures including ghouls, as they are subject to Frenzy, as well as Black Spiral Dancers, Nephandi, Formori and Risen but it cannot -- for the most part -- otherwise be used to communicate with mortals.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, all creatures within ten feet of the chosen target hear a cacophony of discordant & hideous whispers emanating from the target for as long as your communication lasts.

Unlike more potent gifts of this Discipline, mere exposure to this technique is not enough to harm flesh.

LEVEL TWO:

Unveil Damnation: By use of this technique, the practitioner of Rift may draw another into her shadow-realm of eternal agony, if only for a moment, forcing her target to bear witness to the vampire’s private hell ... and to endure, for the space of a mortal heartbeat, its myriad torments.

This is a fully-immersive psychic onslaught: the victim cannot avoid this experience by averting her eyes, nor by covering her ears and screaming, although many creatures will instinctively attempt to do so.

ON THE TEN-THOUSAND HELLS

It is known that each Rift opens upon a different realm of perfect suffering, each uniquely tailored by the Beast of the Damned to accentuate the fear, shame, violence, frustration, guilt, trauma and horror they have endured ... and perpetuated, returned onto them a thousand-fold.

Before a player may gain any levels in the Rift Discipline, she must be able to describe to her Storyteller the basic nature of her particular damnation: one might be a breathtakingly beautiful rain-drenched forest, with a different victim of the Damned crucified upon each tree, through which she is chased in nightmare by the flaming corpses of all those she has Diablerized; another Rift might open into an endless, boiling desert of black sand, pillars of salt, coils of rusted razor-wire and pits of jagged glass shards, watched-over eternally by seven hateful, cataract bio-luminescent spheres roiling across the bruise-colored sky in a chorus of screams.

A Storyteller should work closely with her player to help detail this realm, drawing from the character’s misdeeds, phobias and failures.

This ability functions identically to the Level 2 Presence ability Dread Gaze (see page 194) with the following adjustments:

The Damned rolls Perception + Awareness to determine her success with this ability rather than Charisma + Intimidation.

This is not a Presence ability and is thus not subject to defenses such as Pavis of Foul Presence (pg. 236).

The victim of this technique may immediately attempt a Perception + Empathy roll (Difficulty equal to the practitioner’s current Willpower). If this roll is successful, she gains deep insight into the Nature, Demeanor, psychology and morality of the Rift-practitioner; at Storyteller discretion, this may give the victim an advantage against the Damned in later scenes or allow her to predict the Rift-practitioner’s next move.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, all creatures within ten feet of the intended target bear witness to the same flash of utter horror ... and are thus subject to the effect of the ability (although the Difficulty to terrify these additional targets is doubled from its base; the Damned rolls Perception + Awareness separately for each target). Each target, as normal, may attempt a Perception + Empathy roll to analyze the tormented inner psyche of the Rift-practitioner.

In addition, the initial target of this ability suffers one level of lethal damage from exposure to such horror; the Difficulty to soak this damage is equal to 2 + the level of the Discipline used (see below).

image from here

LEVEL THREE:

Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge: By use of this technique, the Damned may depart the world and physically enter her own Rift, vanishing as she steps backwards into her own shadow.

The Damned is invisible & intangible while hidden within her Rift, but she may be observed as an eerie, discolored silhouette in empty space by any outside observer scanning the area with Auspex or a similar supernatural perception ability.

She may only carry clothing, keepsakes, one-handed weapons and other small personal items with her when she steps into her Rift in this way; she may not carry other creatures with her, nor anything that requires more than one hand to hold. Any object too large, heavy or bulky to be carried across (subject to Storyteller discretion) is simply dropped at her feet in the world of the living when the Damned steps into her own Rift in this way.

Experienced practitioners of Rift can often instinctively guess what objects are too large to be carried across in this way, and are rarely surprised at being stripped of their held possessions when evoking this technique.

The Damned may choose to leave items within the realm of her private hell and retrieve them later.

At the conclusion of each turn spent in her personal hell, the Damned must succeed at a Courage roll with a Difficulty equal to her Conscience. Upon failing this roll, she returns to the night-lit world of the living. She may always choose to return of her own volition before failing this roll. Returning from her private hell does not require an action.

The Damned is always aware of what occurs directly on the other side of the veil between worlds -- in the space she previously occupied -- and may gaze out of her personal hell to observe the world beyond without any roll.

The Damned always returns to the living world in the same spot from which she departed, stepping back into the space she previously occupied.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, the depths of the practitioner’s personal hell are briefly visible for all to see as the Damned steps backwards; all creatures who witness the Damned vanish are subject to the Obscene version of the Level 2 Rift ability Unveil Damnation, as above. In addition, the Damned leaves residue from her private hell on all surfaces with which she was in-contact when this technique is activated, potentially marking the floor upon which she stood with foul rain-water, drifts of ashen rust or tiny shards of gore-caked bone, glass and ceramic tile.

The practitioner of Rift may choose a single target within her line of sight when she uses this Unveil Damnation ability to be the initial or “intended” target of the ability. She must stare directly at that single target when this technique is activated.

LEVEL FOUR:

Dance of Unstable Nightmares: When the Damned exits her Rift, she may choose to reappear in any place in the living world that she can see clearly.

Thus, she might return to the world standing atop a building visible from her previous location, but not on the other side of a locked door.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above, except that the Damned additionally brings residue from her private hell with her when she exits that hideous realm, marking her passage in two places.

LEVEL FIVE:

Call-Forth the Majestic Nightmare: When the Damned enters her Rift, an entity from deep within her Rift is pulled into the night-lit world of the living; this creature immediately occupies the space vacated by the Rift-practitioner.

This entity is the true Beast of the Damned made manifest in flesh. Its specific appearance is left to the player and her Storyteller to decide, although it is always visually identifiable as -- at least in some way -- similar to the Damned who summoned it up from her personal Wheel of Punishment. It also bears an uncanny resemblance to any creature diablerized by the Rift-practitioner.

The entity possesses statistics identical to the Damned, with the following differences:

The entity is always in Frenzy and has a Humanity of 0. If the entity ever leaves Frenzy, it immediately vanishes.

The entity gains all the benefits of Black Metamorphosis (pg 189), Horrid Form (pg. 242), The Form of the Cobra (pg. 210) or a similar physical enhancement effect (such as the Fractura ability of Striga), as chosen by the Storyteller.

The entity is not bound in any way to creatures who hold a Blood Bond over the Damned, nor is it subject to similar emotional restraint or control (as adjudicated by the Storyteller).

The entity will preferentially target anything it sees as a threat to the Damned that created it, and will always attempt to murder anything that attacks it.

Once its safety is secured, the entity turns its abhorrent attentions to the living world. The entity hates the practitioner of Rift who called it forth and seeks to cripple & disfigure all that the Damned holds dear, targeting allies & friends of the Damned if it is able (although it does not attempt to destroy them outright).

In any instance, the entity revels in utter destruction.

When the practitioner of Rift returns to the world, the entity vanishes.

Any blood consumed by the entity is wasted when it vanishes.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above, except that the nightmare entity constantly drips (or sheds) matter from the depths of the practitioner’s private hell, leaving a trail of horror as it rampages.

------

Cross the Nightmare Bridge: When the Damned chooses to enter her own Rift, as per the Level 3 technique of this Discipline, she may remain within that nightmare realm for an indefinite period of time (no Courage roll required). She must slumber, as normal, when sunlight falls on the living world beyond, and her thirst grows nightly: there is no blood to drink within the confines of her hell.

If the Damned falls into torpor while beyond the borders of her Rift, she falls backwards out of her own shadow and returns physically to the living world.

She is otherwise free to explore the boundless realm of her eternal damnation as she pleases.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

------

DEVELOPER’S NOTE:

Unlike the majority of Disciplines, Rift allows access to two distinct Level 5 powers. Access to these two different abilities is treated identically to Elder Disciplines such as Karmic Sight and Mirror Reflexes (pg. 140-141).

------

image from here

LEVEL SIX:

Distend & Evacuate the Nightmare Hoard: By use of this technique, the Damned may deposit any inanimate object held in-hand into her Rift; the object seemingly vanishes, like a card disappearing in a display of slight-of-hand. Only an object that might be transported via Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge may be relocated into the depths of a private hell in this way.

The Damned may likewise draw-forth any object deposited into her private hell.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, the item enters or exits the Rift in a wave of unhealthy matter from the depths of nightmare, dripping bits of a private hell into the waking world. An item drawn from the Rift in an Obscene way radiates palpable, toxic waves of this energy, and deals 1 level of Lethal damage to any creature (except the Damned) touching it within the next minute. The Difficulty to soak this damage is equal to 2 + the level of the Discipline used (see below).

-----

Sinister Winds of Unstable Nightmare: By use of this technique, the Damned may choose to deposit any waking-world object held within her private hell in a location she can see. Targeting a particularly specific location with the object -- such as ‘the small space between my opponent’s glasses and his eyes’ -- when the object emerges requires a Perception + Occult roll, Difficulty 7.

Obscene: As Distend & Evacuate the Nightmare Hoard, above.

LEVEL SEVEN:

Covetous Eyes of the Nightmare Thief: By use of this technique, the Damned may deposit any unattended inanimate object within her line of sight into her Rift. Only an object that might be transported via Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge may be relocated into the depths of a private hell in this way.

Obscene: As Distend & Evacuate the Nightmare Hoard, above.

Doorway Out of Hell: By use of this technique, the Damned may establish a permanent physical exit from her Rift into the living world, usable only by her. This portal requires only a moment to establish: the Damned must touch an open, bounded doorway or archway of any kind -- such as a torii gate or a closet door in the home of her ghoul -- and expend a permanent Willpower. The Damned may always choose to exit her Rift through this doorway, rather than returning to the world at the spot she entered her private hell, or at a point in space within line of sight (as per Dance of Unstable Nightmares).

This doorway may not be used to enter the Rift.

The Damned may posses a total number of doorways out of her Rift equal to her Humanity or Path rating. The Damned may dismiss any doorway she has created at any time, from any location, without effort.

Obscene: If this technique is enacted as Obscene, the enchanted doorway leaks hideous drifts of matter & energy from the depths of the practitioner’s personal hell; this miasma marks the area around the doorway, twisting the local environment into something eerie, nightmarish and haunted. Any living creature that dwells within the area surrounding the doorway must succeed at a Willpower roll (Difficulty 7) at the end of each 24 hour period or gain a temporary Derangement; these Derangements stack. All Derangements gained in this way fade when the mortal spends at least 24 hours outside of the environment surrounding the doorway. If this Willpower roll is botched, the Derangement is permanent.

LEVEL EIGHT:

Pull of Nightmare: By use of this technique, the Damned can forcibly draw an unwilling creature into her Rift as she enters; the Damned must first touch the target, requiring a Dexterity + Athletics or Brawl roll if this action is performed in combat. A creature touched by the practitioner when she steps into her own nightmare realm may oppose this pull with a Willpower roll (Difficulty 7); her successes are opposed by the practitioner’s Manipulation + Brawl roll (Difficulty equal to the target’s Humanity or Path rating + 2).

A creature pulled into the practitioner’s Rift in this way is immediately exposed to the effects of a targeted Unveil Damnation; she can attempt to push herself out of the Rift (Willpower roll, Difficulty 6) at the end of each round spent within the nightmare realm. The Difficulty of this Willpower roll decreases by one at the end of each round. If the victim botches a Willpower roll of this type, she gains a permanent Derangement.

The victim is otherwise trapped in a hostile alien environment, alone with the Rift-practitioner. The victim is not aware of what occurs on the other side of the veil between worlds and cannot gaze out of hell to observe the world beyond.

If the Damned chooses to exit her private hell, the victim is immediately shunted back the world of the living. The Damned may choose to deposit the victim in any legal location for her to exit the Rift: she might dump the victim through a Doorway Out of Hell or in any location visible from her current position.

The Damned may choose to exit the Rift in a different location, and she may choose to send her victim back early at any time as a free action.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

Fling Wide the Embrace of Hell: By use of this technique, the Damned may allow a willing entity access to her private hell. She must expend a point of Willpower while touching her ally; the two may then enter her Rift together. A creature pulled into the practitioner’s Rift in this way is immediately exposed to the effects of a targeted Unveil Damnation.

The Damned may choose, when she returns to the living world, to leave her ally behind -- within the Rift -- for any length of time, although the nightmare realm does not contain the necessary resources to sustain life: it lacks potable water and edible food, among other amenities.

A living creature held in the Rift must succeed at a Willpower roll (Difficulty 7) at the end of each 24 hour period or gain a temporary Derangement; these Derangements stack. All Derangements gained in this way fade when the mortal spends at least 24 hours outside of the Rift. If this Willpower roll is botched, the Derangement is instead permanent.

A creature brought into the Rift can only be subsequently removed from the Rift by the Damned who brought her in; the visitor must be touching the Damned when the Rift-practitioner exits back to the living world.

The Damned may have a total number of visitors dwelling within her Rift equal to her Humanity or Path rating.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

image from here

LEVEL NINE:

Imprison Within Eternal Nightmare: Whenever the Damned successfully draws a target into her private hell via Pull of Nightmare, the effect is permanent: the victim does not automatically exit the nightmare-realm when the Damned returns to the world of the living, nor does she receive any additional Willpower rolls to push herself free.

The victim may only exit the Rift when the Damned chooses to release her.

Rumors persist, of course, of powerful rescue-parties successfully invading the Rift of a Methuselah, but these tales are likely just that: mere legend.

The Damned may have a total number of prisoners caught within her Rift equal to her Humanity or Path rating.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

Manifest the Atrocity-Leviathan: The Rift of a true ancient is vast, containing multitudinous continents of horrors, hung like pulsating iridescent tumors in an ever-shifting constellation of depravity, sadism and self-hatred, laced-through with vast coils of razor-wire & city-sized shards of ichor-drenched obsidian.

Things -- unholy and undying things, born under no sane stars, armored and adorned with horrid & fleshy scribbles of frothing-mad blasphemies -- begin to breed in the shadowed places beneath that kaleidoscope of rotting, rust-caked punishment-houses. By means of this technique, such a monstrosity may be briefly loosed upon the living world.

This ability functions identically to Call Forth the Majestic Nightmare except that the entity summoned-up, rather than possessing statistics identical to the Damned, is something more terrible still.

It is left to the Storyteller’s discretion as to what terror of flesh or spirit could possibly prove more dangerous than an insane 4th-Generation vampire backed into a corner, but the Storyteller is advised to use her most wicked imagination in crafting such a cataclysm ... and not to shy away from true cosmic horror.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

Rift is an updated Discipline designed for use with Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, inspired by content from A World of Darkness (First Edition, 1992).

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

If you enjoy this content and would like to see more dark, modern horror game-material by the author, the Bloodlines & Black Magic Kickstarter is going on right now.

Hugest of thanks to John Miętus for his invaluable editing-assistance and development during the creation of this fan-content.

[sonxflight-a2]

three questions: how old are you, when was the last time you bathed, and what is your religion

☯Two Lies One Truth ☯

“Way too old, what kind of question is that and Shinbutsu-shūgō.”

[pens-swords-stuff]

Hi! You were still answering to questions about Japanese people? I have a Japanese side character in my contemporary WIP, who has moved to Europe in adult age, so I have a question about Japanese living abroad. To my knowledge both Shintoism and Buddhism are very commonly practiced in Japan? So I was just wondering, are they also common among Japanese who don't live in Japan? Or maybe just one or the other? Thank you! :)

Shintoism and Buddhism are extremely common, yes. I myself practice Shinbutsu-shūgō, a syncretism of Buddhism and Shintoism. Me and my parents live abroad in America.

There are people that may exclusively practice one or the other, but I believe that the vast majority practice Shinbutsu-shūgō. We go to both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines for whatever is appropriate, or what we want to visit at the time. Many people have Buddhist altars and Shinto decorations in their home — my grandma has them both in her living room.

One of the really important things to understand about Shinbutsu-shūgō is that there is massive cultural significance as well. The way we practice isn’t the same as the way people from other religions tend to practice — it’s done a lot more casually, and it’s embedded into our culture. Synonymous, even. A lot of Japanese holidays have religious and cultural significance, for example. And people don’t always know if it’s religious, because it’s just something we do.

My impression of other religions such as Christianity is that it’s done a lot more formally than how we do it — this is just a personal observation however, and I don’t know if that’s a hard fact.

I’d say that there are a lot of Japanese people who are Shinbutsu-shūgō even if they don’t live in Japan. While I’m sure people may convert to other beliefs, the Buddhism/Shintoism traditions, beliefs and values are ingrained into Japanese culture, history and folklore in general. Because of this, I’d say that it’s very likely that Japanese people living outside of Japan will be a part of this religion and will continue to be, whether it’s consciously done or not, if they haven’t decided to look into and convert to other beliefs.

And like I said, it’s not a very formal method of practice so there’s often not a whole lot you have to do deliberately. Me and my family usually celebrate Hinamatsuri and New Years — but ever since I moved to college I haven’t done anything special for the former. Any other traditions are done when we’re in Japan, and it’s not particularly urgent.

API Heritage Month Q&A

[cookinguptales]

watching a lecture on shinbutsu shūgō and cross-stitching a stardew valley project while listening to the rain

so, y'know, really livin' life on the wild side this friday night lmao

[grandalchemistpt]

Yeah, that whole "Religions can't coexist" is a PAINFULLY eurocentric, and christian-centric specifically, view.

I can even give an example of just how wrong it gets!

(WARNING: INCOHERENT RAMBLING BENEATH THE CUT)

The example takes us to japan, where, for several centuries, Shinto and Budhism got heavily syncreticized, to the point that their merger, Shinbutsu-shūgō, was de-facto the only organized religion in japan until the Meiji Era.

Shinto and Budhism got so close at one point, in fact, that the early Meiji government went as far as to pass legislation forcefully seperating the two. AND EVEN THAT FAILED IN KEEPING THEM APART.

Like, look at this!

Not all studies agree on the exact stats, but it is painfully obvious that there is significant overlap (which tends to make the usual survey's data a freaking mess. Ask if someone does shinto rituals, you get 80% yes. Ask if someone IS shinto, and it drops to 30 to 40%.)

There is even a saying to describe how extreme the syncreticism gets. "Born Shinto, Married Christian, Die Budhist". (Because, yeah, they added protestant marriage rites to the mix since the 90's.)

Not to say all religious coexistence is necessarily syncreticist, and some religions aren't gonna like the "Will It Blend?" attitude to religious relations, but if two religions have been together so long that their followers cannot be differenciated without either one of them being superceded by the other, you know the environment can't be one of outright hostility, and it serves as decisive proof that the "religious coexistence is impossible" argument is PURE, UNDILUTED BULLSHIT.

Why dont Christians observe Passover? The Exodus is a pretty big deal in Christianity?

(Also wanted to know if you knew about mormons magical submarines and glowing rocks)

As far as I'm aware, because it would be active supersessionism. I'd ask a jewish person for more information.

Yes I know about the Jaredite Submarines and the mormon silmarils.

[wisdomnohokora]

I went to the Honolulu Museum of Art today and visited their galleries for the first time in years. One of the fondest memories I have with my late grandmother was going on trips to the Academy. Out of all the pieces in particular, grandma used to say I loved this Guanyin or Kannon statue the most. According to her I would sit on the bench in front of the statue and talk to him (this is a now less common masculine depiction of the deity) every time we visited. Seeing him again made for a very nice reunion. Aside from this Bodhisattva I also re-discovered a statue of Aizen Myō’ō the Wisdom King who transforms sexual desire into spiritual enlightenment and has been adopted by the Japanese LGBTQ+ community as a guardian god. I also found three Shintō Kami-sama; two unnamed deities and Sōgyō Hachiman-sama. These hinoki statues were carved between the 9th and 13th centuries when Buddhist influence spread with shinbutsu-shūgō and shrines began using art to depict their gods. The two statues wearing the tate-eboshi (立烏帽子) hats are the unnamed Kami-sama and the bald statue is Hachiman-sama. It was so great to be able to see all of them. #honolulumuseumofart #homa #museum #art #japanese #statues #shinbutsushūgō #shintō #kami #kamisama #buddhism #gods #kannon #guanyin #aizenmyōō #deities #sundayfunday #hachiman (at Honolulu Museum of Art) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQpGhUsH5PW/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thesakeexplorer]

Chiyonomatsu Nara no shinbutsu shūgō no sake Yoshimura-shuzō, Uda-shi Nara The brewer here explained how he took yeast found at a shrine and the recipe from documents found at a temple to create this sake, the name of which means 'training of the gods and buddhas of Nara'. The rice is polished only to 95%, and the resulting sake is very sweet, rich, and acidic. He said he just makes it for fun because he's afraid to sell in stores for fear that customers will think they'd gotten a bad bottle. I think that says more about the bland tastes sake drinkers have in Japan rather than the quality of the product. Anyway, this is a deep rich gold color with aromas of baked apple, freshly steamed rice, and custard. Forward sweetness with rich umami and firm but lively acidity. Rich lingering finish with retronasal aroma of sweet apple. Best well-chilled, where the sweetness is supressed and acidity keeps it clean. I actually enjoyed it straight, but at 17% ABV it was made lighter and fresher by a splash of carbonated mineral water. Drink as a dessert wine, or with sweeter foods like squash, potato, rich delicacies like sea urchin or organ meat. 9.5🍶/10 #japan #nihonshu #japanesesake #saketasting #tastingnotes #sakereviews #chiyonomatsu #uda #nara #日本酒 #千代の松 #宇陀市 #奈良県 (at 芳村酒造株式会社本社営業部) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIf_xeZg__P/?igshid=lsfo6o7yiurs

[zenkoisworld]

#nihon #japan #kamakura #kamakurajapan #япония🇯🇵 #камакура #日本 #鎌倉 #zeniaraibenten #銭洗弁財天 #神社 Храм Дзениарай Бензайтен Угафуку (Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Jinja), широко известный как Дзениарай Бентен, является синтоистским храмом в Камакура. Несмотря на свои небольшие размеры, это второе по популярности место в Камакура, после Цуругаока Хатиман-гу. Zeniarai Benzaiten популярен среди туристов, потому что воды источника в его пещере, как говорят, способны умножить вымытые в нем деньги. Объектом поклонения является синкретический ками, который соединяет традиционный дух под названием Ugafukujin (宇 賀 福神) с буддийской богиней индийского происхождения Сарасвати, известной в японском языке как Бензайтен. Храм является одним из меньшинств в Японии, где до сих пор наблюдается слияние местных религиозных верований и иностранного буддизма (так называемое shinbutsu shūgō), которое было нормальным до реставрации Мэйдзи (конец 19-го века). Zeniarai Benzaiten раньше был внешней массой Yazaka Daijin Агигаяцу (八 坂 大 神), но стал независимым в 1970 году под своим нынешним названием. https://www.instagram.com/p/B70sAHviIdb/?igshid=1ipf44ys7kf78

[marsjapanmantasvenskunas]

Shinto

Shinto, also known as Shintoism or kami-no-michi, is a religion originating from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners Shintoists, although adherents rarely use that term themselves.

Shinto is polytheistic and revolves around the kami ("gods" or "spirits"), supernatural entities believed to inhabit all things. The link between the kami and the natural world has led to Shinto being considered animistic and pantheistic. The kami are worshiped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests who oversee offerings to the kami and the provision of religious paraphernalia such as amulets to the religion's adherents. Other common rituals include the kagura ritual dances, age specific celebrations, and seasonal festivals. These festivals and rituals are collectively called matsuri. A major conceptual focus in Shinto is ensuring purity by cleansing practices of various types including ritual washing or bathing. Shinto does not emphasize specific moral codes other than ritual purity, reverence for kami, and regular communion following seasonal practices. Shinto has no single creator or specific doctrinal text, but exists in a diverse range of localized and regionalised forms.

Belief in kami can be traced to the Yayoi period (1000 BCE to 300 CE), although similar concepts existed already during the Jōmon period (see Ko-Shintō), but their veneration was more simplistic than in later periods. At the end of the Kofun period (300 to 538 CE), Buddhism entered Japan and influenced kami veneration. Through Buddhist influence, kami came to be depicted anthropomorphically and were situated within Buddhist cosmology. Religious syncretisation made kami worship and Buddhism functionally inseparable, a process called Shinbutsu-shūgō. The earliest written tradition regarding kami worship was recorded in the eighth-century Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. In ensuing centuries, Shinbutsu-shūgō was adopted by Japan's Imperial household. During the Meiji era (1868 to 1912 CE), Japan's leadership expelled Buddhist influence from Shinto and formed State Shinto, which they utilized as a method for fomenting nationalism and imperial worship. Shrines came under growing government influence, and the Emperor of Japan was elevated to a particularly high position as a kami. With the formation of the Japanese Empire in the early 20th century, Shinto was exported to other areas of East Asia. Following Japan's defeat in World War II, Shinto was formally separated from the state.

Shinto is primarily found in Japan, where there are around 80,000 public shrines; the country's shrine organization claims 113 million adherents. Shinto is also practiced elsewhere, in smaller numbers. Only a minority of Japanese people identify as religious, although most of the population take part in Shinto matsuri and Buddhist activities, especially festivals, and seasonal events. This reflects a common view in Japanese culture that the beliefs and practices of different religions need not be exclusive. Aspects of Shinto have also been incorporated into various Japanese new religious movements.