Shinto

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

Shinto → 1 branch

Branch
Scripture of Shinto

The Kojiki & Nihon Shoki.

The age of the gods written down — myth, genealogy, and the birth of the islands.

LanguageOld Japanese and classical Chinese
Composed712 and 720 CE
What it holdsCreation, the age of the kami, and the imperial line
How it is usedNot liturgy but memory — the reference the shrines stand on
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720) were commissioned by the imperial court and are chronicles rather than scripture: they contain the creation myths, the age of the gods, and the descent of the imperial line from Amaterasu, and that last part was their political purpose. Shinto has no revealed text, no founder, and no equivalent of a Bible — the chronicles are the tradition's mythological memory rather than its authority, and shrine practice runs largely independent of them.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
T The devas — gods, and beside the point. Buddhism · figure Meet them →
Life is everywhere, and it is graded. Jainism · core tenet Go deeper →
T The jinn. Islam · figure Meet them →
Everything is qi. Taoism · core tenet Go deeper →
Six creations, six guardians. Zoroastrianism · core tenet Go deeper →

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