Abstract
The policy of separating Shinto and Buddhism (shinbutsu bunri) that was forced at the beginning of Meiji period has drastically changed the Japanese religious environment. The former state could be described as shinbutsu shugo (Shinto-Buddhist syncretism), but this description contains considerable difficulty. The reason may lie in a difference of recognition concerning both terms. The former (Separation) is based upon modern and "scientific" recognition (monothetic classification), but the latter (Syncretization) may be based on a different recognition. The anthropologist Rodney Needham proposed the term "polythetic classification." Could we understand shinbutsu shugo (Syncretization) as polythetic classes? We examine the historical categories of ji-sha (templeshrine complex) and ken-mitsu (exoteric and esoteric complex) which the historian Kuroda Toshio proposed, as polythetic classes. Finally we point out that both categories consist of polythetic classes, and are still influencial among various religious folk practices.
