RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY HISTORY
ON SHINTO’S SACRED BOTANY
WHEN MYTHS SPEAK ABOUT LONG FORGOTTEN PASTS mart y bors ot t i In modern Shinto, the indigenous belief system of Japan, plants are considered to have a connection with the divinities. Some plants are thought to have the ability to channel supernatural powers, others are used for their purifying properties, and many more are considered to be vessels for the gods. The history of plants in Shinto closely follows a progressive increase in the complexity of the role of plants in wider religious thought, influenced by philosophies imported from the Asiatic continent. Shinto is a highly syncretic system of belief, in which the autochthonous animism was continually reshaped over the centuries by elements stemming from Buddhism, Confucianism, Onmyodo (a Yin and Yang esoteric thought), and many other philosophical and religious ideas. Shinto, in its modern form, is the result of more than fifteen centuries of syncretism, and the redevelopment of concepts to better fit the needs of society. This article aims to trace an idea of what Shinto was like in its earliest form and how it came to be structured as an institutional religion. In order to do that, I will present two plants important in Shinto lore and rituals: the sacred branch of sakaki, used in purification rites, and the cryptomeria tree (Fig. 1), by which gods are thought to descend from their celestial home, the Takamagahara plain 高天原 .
The Sacred Branch of Sakaki, Cleyera Japonica Sakaki 榊 , the etymology of which literally means the tree ( 木 ) of gods ( 神 ), Fig. 1 A45 cryptomeria tree