Yoshida Kanetomo Shinto Philosopher

Yoshida Kanetomo (1435 – 1511) was a Shinto priest who developed a unified Shinto mythology, saved Shinto as a separate entity from Buddhism, and founded Yoshida Shintō.

Yoshida Kanetomo came from a family steeped in the Shinto tradition. His father, Yoshida Kanena, was the Provisional Senior Assistant Director of Divinities (jingi gon no taifu). He followed the family path, progressing through the Department of Shinto Affairs, an imperial bureaucracy in the ritsuryō system, and holding several offices and ceremonial posts. Eventually, he went further, creating a unique and lasting contribution to Shinto by founding Genpon-Sōgen Shinto (Shinto of the Original Founder, also known as Yuiitsu or Yoshida Shintō). He made claims that this Shinto was transferred to him by the kami (gods) Tenshō Daijin (Amaterasu ōmikami, the sun goddess) and Amenokoyane no mikoto (keeper of the divine mirror in charge of divine affairs, the ancestral god of the Nakatomi clan, and Fujiwara no Kamatari, the founder of the Fujiwara clan). 

At that time Shinto and Buddhism had become closely intertwined. In Shinto beliefs kami (gods) are everywhere in nature and are very important in everyday life. Japanese Buddhists theorized that the kami were in reality Buddhist gods or Buddhas and that kami are part of the Buddhist pantheon of deities. These Buddhists thinkers posited that Buddhism is primary to Shinto. Not to be outdone, in the Kamakura Period Shinto theorists held that it was Shinto that came first and Buddhism second. Yoshida Kanetomo instead argued that Shinto should be completely separated from Buddhism. He is considered to have saved Shintoism from complete submersion into Buddhism.

Kanetomo built a shrine called Taigengū Saijōsho (Ceremonial Site and Shrine of the Great Origin) on Mt. Yoshida (just east of Kyoto) to be the center of the kami pantheon. He claimed to the emperor that the Divine Treasures of the Grand Shrines of Ise had come to his shrine, making him the head of Shinto and giving him authority to issue kami titles, certify priestly functions, and kami ranks. He wrote extensively on Shinto and his works helped Shinto develop a more systematic belief system that had been missing from Shinto until then.

His teachings took hold around the time of the Ōnin War, attracting many samurai and courtiers. After his death in 1511, Yoshida Shintō also known as Yuiitsu Shintō (“One-and-only Shintō”) became a very powerful Shinto sect, continuing through the Edo Period, and influenced Neo-Confucian thinkers to create a Neo-Confucian Shinto doctrine.