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This week, I'm going to recommend Inventing Japan by Ian Baruma.

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and he does make some really interesting points along the way.

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Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, Episode 85, The Way of the Gods, Part 1.

This week, we'll be talking about one of the most interesting historical phenomenon in Japan.

With perhaps the exception of the imperial family, nothing else I can think of provokes so much disagreement over issues as fundamental as what it means, when it comes from, or even what it is.

This week, we're going to start our discussion of Shinto.

First, we need to talk about what we mean when we use that word.

For most of its history, the loose collection of folk traditions and practices collectively

termed Shinto have lacked any central doctrine or liturgy.

Thus, if you're going off a definition of what counts as a religion based on the Western

experience of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, based on the Western experience of Islam, Christianity, and

Judaism, or even the Eastern experience of Buddhism, you'd be inclined to say that Shinto is not a

religion, it's a folk practice of some kind. Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest

...