Quotes and Sayings

15 Great Japanese Shinto Quotes, Sayings, and Proverbs

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We hope you find our wise and life-enhancing Shinto quotes and sayings to help you live a harmonious life and fill yourself with the highest purity.

Shinto is an indigenous religion of Japan and came into prominence in the late 8th century.

Kami, the Japanese word for God and spirit, is the object of worship in Shintoism.

If you visit the Shinto Shrines in Japan, you will find majestic gates at the entrance made of wood or stone known as Tori.

These gateways symbolize the pathways or boundaries which lead to Kami, where seekers pray to ward off evil spirits from their lives.

Japanese people see Shinto more as a way of life rather than a belief or ritual. Hence Shinto has coexisted for centuries with Buddhism in Japanese culture.

The four assertions of Shinto are preserving tradition through family, love, and respect for nature, teaching physical cleanliness as a way of life, and worshiping and honoring Kami through matsuri festivals.

We hope you find our handpicked Shinto quotes collection insightful.

Best Shinto Quotes and Sayings

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Japanese mind is synonymous with Shinto mind.
– William Gleason

Shinto lies at the root of the whole of Japanese culture.
– Rene Grousset

The inside of a house or apartment after decluttering has much in common with a Shinto shrine, a place where there are no unnecessary things, and our thoughts become clear.
– Marie Kondo

The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.
Socrates

Shinto is essentially a religion of gratitude and love.
– W.G. Aston

Sincerity is the single virtue that binds divinity and man in one.
– Shinto Jingishoju

Shinto is a way that is practised every morning and evening, in the acts of daily life, by every individual from the emperor to the common people there is nothing within human life that does not belong to Shinto.
– Watarai Nobuyoshi

Buddhism Shinto Quotes and Sayings

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A mirror has a clean light that reflects everything as it is. It symbolizes the stainless mind of the kami, and at the same time is regarded as a sacred symbolic embodiment of the fidelity of the worshipper towards the kami.
– Sokyo Ono

The nature of Shinto speaks to our human nature. Shinto speaks to us, to something in us which is deep and permanent.
– Donald Richie

To be fully alive is to have an aesthetic perception of life because a major part of the world’s goodness lies in its often unspeakable beauty.
– Yukitaka Yamamoto

Even the wishes of a small ant reach heaven.
– Japanese Proverb

For Shinto, at root, is a religion not of sermons but of awe: which is a sentiment that may or may not produce words, but in either case goes beyond them.
– Joseph Campbell

Retribution for good or ill is as sure as the shadow after substance.
– Unknown

Go to any Shinto temple in Japan and you’ll see it: a simple stand from which hang hundreds of wooden postcard-size plaques with a colorful image on one side and, on the other, densely scribbled Japanese characters in black felt-tip pen, pleas to the gods for help or succor.
– Hanya Yanagihara

Shinto is still, in a manner of speaking, the soul of Japan, and even young westernised Japanese who take no part in its manifold ritual, are conditioned, as their parents and grandparents were, by its fundamental characteristics.
– Shinichi Nagai

Famous Shinto Quotes on Life and Death

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We hope you found our short Shinto Quotes helpful.

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