Shintoism                                                      The Shinto religion was started in the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) of Japanese history. The Tokugawa "Enlightenment" inspired a group of people who studied kokugaku, which roughly translated means "nativism," "Japanese Studies," or "Native Studies." Kokugaku's intent was to recover "Japanese character" to what it was before the early influences of foreigners, especially the Chinese. Some of these influences include Confucianism (Chinese), Taoism (Chinese), Buddhism (Indian and Chinese), and Christianity (Western European). The kokugakushu ("nativist") …showed first 75 words of 599 total…

…showed last 75 words of 599 total…and their ideas. Many active Christians were killed. In 1912 the Japanese got religious freedom.         In 1990 the number of followers for religions in Japan are :Shintoists -112,200,000, Buddhists - 93,400,000, Christians - 1,422,000, and others - 11,412,000. Therefore, about 120 million people adhere to 2 or more religions at the same time. Works Cited "Shinto" http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/Shinto.html. Online. 5         June 1995. Hishida, Miki. "Religions in Japan." 15 Dec 1995. Online posting:         http://naio1.kcc.hawaii.edu/miki/JReligions.html. Internet.