Shinto

Tradition·Founding date unrecorded·est. ~100 million ritual participants, loosely held

Shinto → 1 branch

Branch
Story of Shinto

The descent, and the three things.

Amaterasu sends her grandson Ninigi down onto a peak in Kyushu with a mirror, a sword and a curved jewel, and the imperial house descends from him. Between 1890 and 1945 this was taught in Japanese schools as history. The regalia still exist, no one alive has seen the mirror and the jewel, and the accession rite still uses them.

Where it is toldKojiki and Nihon Shoki; taught as fact in schools until 1945
Who appearsNinigi no Mikoto, Amaterasu, and the mirror, sword and jewel
What it teachesThat the sun's grandson came down onto a mountain in Kyushu carrying three objects, and that his descendants are the imperial line — the claim on which the modern Japanese state was built and then rebuilt without it
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Ninigi no Mikoto, grandson of Amaterasu, descends from heaven onto Mount Takachiho in Kyushu, sent to rule the newly transferred land and carrying the mirror, the sword and the curved jewel — the three regalia. His great-grandson is Jimmu, counted as the first emperor. Between 1890 and 1945 this genealogy was taught in Japanese schools as historical fact, the national foundation day of 11 February was calculated from it, and the doctrine of an unbroken imperial line descended from the sun goddess was central to state ideology and to the war. The occupation required the Emperor's 1946 statement disavowing the claim to divinity. The regalia themselves still exist as objects: the mirror is held at Ise, the sword at Atsuta, and replicas travel with the emperor. No one alive has seen the mirror or the sword; they were presented, wrapped and unopened, at the 2019 accession, which was performed and paid for in a way that has been challenged in Japanese courts as a breach of constitutional separation.

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