Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the path traversed by Buddhism, and what form it has taken root in Japan's mythological world. Most of the past studies about the phenomenon of shinbutsu shugo (combination of kami cults and Buddhism) have laid emphasis on the doctrine or the system, and few have researched the matters concerned with the minds of its believers. This paper will study what this combination of kami and buddha has meant at the deepest level of the human spirit, namely, the relation of consciousness and existence. The ideal persons introduced in Japanese myths are people who are associated with kami. Their common characteristics are intense emotions (corresponding to the ability to write waka poems) and a strong hold on life (=a fear of death). Motoori Norinaga described these characteristics with the concept of "magokoro." Buddhism appeared to Japanese as contributing ideas that could reinterpret the internal aspects of mythological persons with its new wisdom, make the understanding deeper, and complement other aspects. These perceptions toward Buddhism seem to have helped to establish it in Japan as a religion indispensable to the sprits of kami-worship.
