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Old August 19th, 2008, 08:26 PM

VedalkenBear VedalkenBear is offline
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Default Re: Not so thematic methinks

Quote:
but a lot of Japanese and Chinese mythos gods and spirits are of Hindu origins
Out of curiosity, do you have a source for this? As far as I know, very little is known of 'pure' Shinto belief due to the Japanese penchant for syncretism combined with the fact that written language was introduced to Japan hand-in-hand with Buddhism around 500 AD.

Further, Shinto zinzya is normally translated into English as 'shrine' and not 'temple'. Even moreso, every depiction of multiarmed 'spirits' that I can think of offhand in Japanese religious settings is actually Buddhist, not Shinto.

Since my information seems to be quite different than yours, I would be grateful if you could provide sources for your statements so that I can check to see if my understanding is correct. My own source is the Japanese curriculum in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at Ohio State University.
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