Shinto art. The art used in the worship of Shinto deities *kami 神. The term does not include architecture, but does include painting, sculpture and craft objects. There is a wide range of Shinto art: ritual utensils, saigu 祭具 or saiki 祭器, shrine treasures *shinpō 神宝, other shrine possessions including mirrors *mishōtai 御正体 or *kakebotoke 懸仏, ornaments and banners, festival carts and palanquins *mikoshi 御輿. The term covers much painting, including pilgrimage paintings *sankei mandara 参詣曼荼羅, scroll paintings of the origin of a shrine engi emaki 縁起絵巻, festival hanging scrolls and screens *sairei-zu 祭礼図, devotional hanging scrolls, and maps e-zu 絵図. There is also a great deal of sculpture, including images of Shinto deities *shinzō 神像 and of their Buddhist identities *honjibutsu 本地仏, as well as miscellaneous items such as relic containers *sharitō 舎利塔 and votive plaques *ema 絵馬.
Most of these categories of items are not limited to Shinto pieces and stylistically are studied along with comparable secular or Buddhist art. For example, an engi emaki is stylistically related to other picture scrolls *emaki 絵巻 of the same period more closely than to other Shinto art, even if its content elucidates the history of a shrine. Also, a sculpture of the Buddhist equivalent of a kami cannot be distinguished from a Buddhist image unless it has an inscription or it is known that the image was used in the worship of a kami. By contrast, a sculpture of the Shinto form of a kami may not use the artistic conventions associated with Buddhist sculpture.
It is believed that in early times the Japanese worshipped natural objects such as rocks, trees and waterfalls, without using buildings or images, and that the making and use of images in worship derived from Buddhism. Extant sculptures of kami, both in their form as kami and as Buddhas, date from the late 8th to 9th century. The first instance of making an image is believed to be that recorded in Tado jingūji garan engi shizaichō 多度神宮寺伽藍縁起資財帳 (Record of Properties of the Associated Temple of Tado Shrine), compiled in 801, which relates the story of the priest Mangan's 満願 conversion of the kami of Tado to Buddhism in 763 and his subsequent portrayal of the kami in a sculpture. Thus, this artistic development appears to have occurred well after the introduction of Buddhism in the mid 6th century.
Extant paintings are much more recent than sculptures, dating from the Kamakura period, although there are records of paintings of kami from earlier times which have not survived. The earliest records of devotional paintings of the landscape of shrines *miya mandara 宮曼荼羅 appear in the third quarter of the 12th century, and fine paintings associated with shrine cults, particularly *Kasuga mandara 春日曼荼羅, *Sannō mandara 山王曼荼羅 and *Kumano mandara 熊野曼荼羅 survive from the Kamakura period and later. Paintings of these and other shrine cults were used in the shrines' associated temples as symbols of the protection of the kami as well as by devotees and confraternities of devotees kō 講. The history of the shrines was recorded in scrolls, just like the history of Buddhist temples. The Kasuga Gongen genki-e 春日権現験記絵 (Illustrated Scrolls of the Kasuga Gongen Miracles, 1309, Imperial Collection), is a particularly long and lavish example of this type of painting.
From the 12th century, it becomes clear that shrines were seen as paradises, both in their own right and as Buddhist paradises or gates to Buddhist paradises. Red, white and green corridors and gates, like the Chinese palaces seen in Buddhist paintings, were added to a number of shrines, such as lwashimizu Hachimangū 石清水八幡宮 and Kasuga Taisha 春日大社. This idea lies behind the production of shrine paradise paintings such as the Kasuga jōdo mandara 春日浄土曼荼羅. Paintings of the welcome of the deceased (see *raigō-zu 来迎図) particularly by *Amida 阿弥陀 or *Jizō 地蔵 also may be set in the landscape of particular shrines.
Of particular importance in the history of Shinto art is the separation of Shinto and Buddhism, shinbutsu bunri 神仏分離 that occurred in 1868. All Shinto shrines were required to present their history to the government and remove Buddhist images and paraphernalia. Establishments which were thoroughly mixed had to choose whether they were Shinto or Buddhist. Sites dedicated to the ascetic practices of shugendō 修験道 sites were badly damaged. Even shrines that today are quite purely Shinto once were accompanied by Buddhist temples, and purely Buddhist temples by Shinto shrines. Destruction of Buddhism in general accompanied the separation, and buildings, art and documents were destroyed. Shrine and temple buildings were also moved. In the destruction and confusion, much Shinto art was destroyed or moved. Shinbutsu bunri and the rise of nationalism in the first half of the 20th century have made the understanding of this art particularly difficult.