Japanese religion Beliefs, Percentage, Shinto, Buddhism, & Pie Chart
As the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery preserve, exhibit, and interpret Asian art in ways that deepen our understanding of Asia, America, and the world. Committed to preserving, exhibiting and interpreting exemplary works of art, the museum address broad questions about culture, identity, and the contemporary world. As Asia becomes ever more important on the world’s stage, the need to understand its diverse cultures and rich history becomes increasingly important. We at The Met want to do our part to make Asia more accessible by celebrating the ways in which the past continues to inform and enrich the present. The ancient and refined traditional culture of Kathmandu, for that matter in the whole of Nepal, is an uninterrupted and exceptional meeting of the Hindu and Buddhist ethos practiced by its highly religious people. It has also embraced in its fold the cultural diversity provided by the other religions such as Jainism, Islam, and Christianity.
Achaemenid period
The word Shintō, which literally means “the way of kami” (generally sacred or divine power, specifically the various gods or deities), came into use in order to distinguish indigenous Japanese beliefs from Buddhism, which had been introduced into Japan in the 6th century ce. Shintō has no founder, no official sacred scriptures in the strict sense, and no fixed dogmas, but it has preserved its guiding beliefs throughout the ages. There are enough people in all three categories in the four East Asian societies we surveyed – Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – to allow for detailed analysis of each group. In all these places, lifelong Buddhists consistently report engaging in religious practices and holding religious beliefs at significantly higher rates than former Buddhists do.
Highlights of Himalayan Art
The theorists of Sannō Shintō—also called Tendai Shintō—interpreted the Tendai belief in the central, or absolute, truth of the universe (i.e., the fundamental buddha nature) as being equivalent to the Shintō concept that the sun goddess Amaterasu was the source of the universe. Buddhistic Shintō was popular for several centuries and was influential until its extinction at the Meiji Restoration. Shintō consists of the traditional Japanese religious practices as well as the beliefs and life attitudes that are in accord with these practices. Shintō is more readily observed in the social life of the Japanese people and in their personal motivations than in a pattern of formal belief or philosophy.
Nāstik (Heterodox Indian)
After an initial period of resistance on the part of Shintō priestly families and conservative aristocrats, Buddhism gradually captured the Japanese. Many scholars, priests, nuns, and ecclesiastical artists were welcomed from China and Korea. The relatively rapid expansion of Buddhism in Japan was largely due to the support it received from the court. Islam is the second-largest religion in South Asia, with more than 650 million Muslims living there, forming about one-third of the region’s population.
We hope the selections here will awaken an understanding of the art, culture, and history of Asia and inspire a wider audience to discover the creative expression in works both ancient and modern. As artworks are always alive and changing, so too an art collection is a living organism, constantly growing and building on its strengths. This selection provides a broad survey of the breadth and depth of our collection, yet it cannot be comprehensive. Our museum—with more than 18,000 artworks dating from 6,000 years ago to today—is vastly richer than what is represented on these pages.
Among the oppressed peasantry, many apocalyptic messianic movements arose, attracting men and women with incantation, faith healing, and the promise of this-worldly benefits. The religion of the early Yamato clans was a form of polytheistic nature worship, in which each clan (uji) also venerated its own special deity (ujigami). Among all the clan deities, Amaterasu, the deity of the imperial clan, held a special position of honour.
- Opposed to Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyu (), who is personified as a destructive spirit and the adversary of all things that are good.
- In his version, he sought to «imitate, however imperfectly, those rhetorical and rhythmical patterns which are the glory and the sublimity of the Koran» (p. 25).
- This painting is not the only piece of Edo-period art that depicts romantic connections between a lady and an octopus.
His idols were Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh – revolutionaries in modern art – and their influence can be glimpsed in his bold and idiosyncratic brushwork in both ink and other mediums. Tan, who was an autodidact in Chinese ink, created distinctive paintings that exude an effervescent, child-like spark while skirting at the edge of what some might perceive as juvenile. Rather than seek a spirit of liveness in his birds and fish, Tan preferred the harsh line, rendering his creatures comically and endearingly flat. Fresh from representing Singapore at the Venice Biennale in 2024, Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui returns home in 2025 with Seeing Forest, an exhibition which delves into the vital possibilities of the secondary forest. Engage with voices from Bay Area communities and share your thoughts on the future of museum collections. An intimate look at a modern master whose work revitalized traditional Chinese ink painting.
The close affiliation of Buddhism and the court resulted in the involvement in political intrigues of rich and powerful monks. The daring attempt of the priest chancellor Dōkyō to usurp the throne failed, but the incident illustrates the power of the Buddhist hierarchy of 8th-century Japan. The caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic instance of social classification based on castes. Similarly, 11% of adults in Taiwan and 10% in Vietnam were raised outside Buddhism but now identify as Buddhist. But religious identification in the region is undergoing a remarkable amount of change.
Some 96% of Cambodian Buddhists favor basing the law on Buddhist dharma, and 86% of Malaysian Muslims support making sharia the official law of the land. In five of the six countries surveyed, nearly all adults still identify with the religion in which they were raised. Only in Singapore do a sizable share of adults (35%) indicate their religion has changed during their lifetime. Across South and Southeast Asia, countries have very different religious makeups, yet there are commonalities in how they practice and think about religion, according to a new Pew Research Center report. Major East Asian religions, including Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Shinto, shamanism, and ancestor worship, shaped cultural values and social structures before 1200. These Asian Art belief systems influenced governance, art, and community life across China, Korea, and Japan, creating lasting legacies.
In addition to the major religions discussed above, numerous localized spiritual practices are found throughout Asia. Animism, for example, is particularly common among some ethnic minorities of South and Southeast Asia. Mystical shamanism remains characteristic of numerous North and Central Asian peoples, and shamanistic cults are also found in South Korea and Japan. Shintō encompasses the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of the Japanese people. Although among some practitioners that tradition has absorbed the influences of other belief systems, such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, its fundamental principles linking sacred power, ritual observance, and imperial nationhood remain unique to Japanese culture. Jains are mostly found in India but are increasingly found throughout the world.15 Jains have significantly influenced and contributed to ethical, political and economic spheres in India.