“Shinto forms the bedrock layer of the multilayered, syncretic religious and philosophical belief system of Japan … In Shinto, the line between man and nature is not sharply drawn … ‘man was treated as an integral part of the whole, closely associated and identified with the elements and the forces of the world about him.’”

“Although ‘Shinto has slipped into a background role in modern Japan’ (Reischauer, 1988, p. 208), the truth is that ‘however deeply buried under the layers of later culture, the old conceptions have lived and operated until the present time.’” (Roger J. Davies, pg. 39, 41, 46, 47)

During an early morning walk, I found myself in the middle of a wedding ceremony. The book Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations by Roger J. Davies has provided me with the knowledge to piece my trip and project together, and it led me to discover that the wedding ceremony was a traditional Shinto wedding. According to the book, “ceremonial purification rites were part of the Shinto tradition from its ancient beginnings,” That purification of both the physical and the spiritual was deemed essential to produce a “pure mind.” In accordance with Shinto weddings, the ceremony follows a regimented traditional structure to honor the sanctity of Shinto beliefs.