Religious syncretism in Japan

thumb|Kitsune|Foxes sacred to Shinto kami Inari, a [[torii, a Buddhist stone pagoda, and Buddhist figures together at Jōgyō-ji, Kamakura]] Shinbutsu-shūgō (, "syncretism of kami and buddhas"), a.k.a. the Shinbutsu-konkō (, "jumbling up" or "contamination of kami and buddhas"), is the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism that was Japan's main organized religion up until the Meiji period. Beginning in 1868, the new Meiji government approved a series of laws that separated Japanese native kami worship, on one side, from Buddhism which had assimilated it, on the other.

thumb| practitioners (Shugenja) in the mountains of Kumano, Mie ([[Kōshō Tateishi)]] thumb|upright|Statue of En no Gyōja, the founder of . [[Kamakura period, c. 1300–1375, Kimbell Art Museum.]] thumb|upright|Stairs on the way to Ōminesan-ji, the holy site of '' thumb|upright|Acala|Fudō Myōō silk scroll from [[Daigo-ji (Kyoto), a major Shingon temple and site]] thumb|upright|Zaō Gongen'', a key deity in , in Kinpusen-ji Temple

is a syncretic, monotheistic, New Thought Japanese new religion that has spread since the end of World War II in Asia. It emphasizes gratitude for nature, the family, ancestors and, above all, religious faith in one universal God. Seichō no Ie is the world's largest New Thought group. By the end of 2010 it had over 1.6 million followers and 442 facilities, mostly located in Japan, Brazil, and the United States.

thumb|300 px|Tsurugaoka Hachimangū-ji in an old drawing. In the foreground the shrine-temple's Buddhist structures (not extant), among them a pagoda, a belltower and a [[niōmon. The shrine (extant) is above.]] Until the Meiji period (1868–1912), the were places of worship composed of a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine, both dedicated to a local kami. These complexes were born when a temple was erected next to a shrine to help its kami with its karmic problems. At the time, kami were thought to be also subjected to karma, and therefore in need of a salvation only Buddhism could provide. Havi