Shinto Views of the Afterlife
Unlike many religions, one does not need to publicly profess belief in Shinto to be a Shintoist. Whenever a child is born in Japan, a local Shinto shrine adds the child's name to a list kept at the shrine and declares him or her a "family child." After death an ujiko becomes a "family spirit", or "family kami." One may choose to have one's name added to another list when moving and then be listed at both places. Names can be added to the list without consent and regardless of the beliefs of the person added to the list. However, this is not considered an imposition of belief, but a sign of being welcomed by the local kami, with the promise of addition to the pantheon of kami after death. Those children who die before addition to the list are called "water children," and are believed to cause troubles and plagues. Mizuko are often worshipped in a Shinto shrine dedicated to stilling their anger and sadness.
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Because Shinto has co-existed with Buddhism for well over a millennium, it is very difficult to untangle Shinto and Buddhist beliefs about the world. Though Buddhism and Shinto have very different perspectives on the world, most Japanese do not see any challenge in reconciling these two very different religions, and practice both. Thus it is common for people to practice Shinto in life yet have a Buddhist funeral. Their different perspectives on the afterlife are seen as complementing each other, and frequently the ritual practice of one will have an origin in the other. The Shinto view of the afterlife is ambiguous. Normally anything to do with death gets turned over to Buddhism, so there really hasn't been much incentive to define it more clearly.
The Soul
Custom dictates that a few decades after a person's death, their memorial tablet is thrown away and replaced with a pebble, and the collected pebbles from generations of doing this ritual represent the family guardian. This seems to suggest that people believe some sort of link is broken at that point - either that the soul finally leaves this world, or that it loses its individuality and becomes part of the guardian spirit. Shinto lore suggests the soul has multiple sections that can act and move around independently, so it may be that different parts have different afterlives - one being reincarnated, one becoming a guardian, etc.
The Dark Land and the High Plain of Heaven
The Dark Land is only described once, in the tale of the death of Izanami. It is described as basically a giant underground cavern, inhabited by monsters, and with its own gods that even Izanami has to obey. The High Plain of Heaven isn't described in much detail, either, but references are made to Amaterasu's palace, a cave, and the Milky Way as a river. It seems to be basically a mirror image of the world below it.
World-Class Religions and their views:
- Atheism
- Christian
- Catholic
- Judaism
- Islam
- Buddhist
- Zoroastrianism
- Hinduism
- Shinto
- Confucianism
- Jainism
- Taoism
- Sikhism
- Bahá'í
