Japan is a nation of 8 millions deities （１） 2017/08/18
It is a difficult question what is religion. It is also difficult to define religion. Everybody has his image about religion but it expands in a wide range.
For some foreigners it is difficult to understand Japanese culture and religion which have their own peculiar background. They find it strange that there are only few Japanese who believe in monotheism such as Christianity, Judaism or Muslim. They sometime consider Japanese as people of no religious faith.
However we have 8 millions deities in Japan. We do not believe in monotheism but we find deities at everywhere in everything at any time.
Basically Japanese, from ancient time to until today, have been appreciating and respecting Nature and it’s blessing. That is the original and basic concept of Shinto, Japanese peculiar religion.
Because we admire and believe in Nature, we find deities at any place like mountains, ocean, rivers, patty fields, buildings, towns, villages and so on. Or we have deities of animals, fishes, birds and so on. We always respect and thank for familiar mountains, ocean around the hometown and lovely horses and dogs with which we live together.
We consider there must be deity in the mountain which is always so friendly and helpful for us. We have a deity of our own hometown and we have a deity of our own clan. And finally we have 8 millions deities in Japan.
