A Shinto priest performs a ritual at an altar. Leo Laporte/flickr, CC BY-NC-SAAmerican Kit Cox, 35, works as an electrical engineer and enjoys biking and playing piano. But what some might ...

TOKYO — The head priest of a prominent shrine in Tokyo was ambushed and killed with a samurai sword, apparently by her brother, who then took his own life, police said Friday.

A Shinto priest blessed a life-size RX-78F00 — Japan’s latest Gundam replica — just before Bandai Namco completed its assembly on Yumeshima Island in Osaka City on Wednesday. A video shows the priest ...

Alternatively, “Shrine Shinto” oversees about 80,000 shrines throughout Japan. For its part, “Folk Shinto” includes divination, spirit possession, and shamanic healing.

1 / 3 Show Caption + Several Shinto priests and members from the Association of Shinto Shrines visit the Otakebi Torii during a tour of Camp Zama, Japan, Nov. 9, 2023.

Shinto was enthusiastically promoted by Japan's militaristic rulers, who stressed that the emperor was a divine being, directly descended from the gods who had given birth to the Japanese islands.

He is now with the Association of Shinto Shrines, to which virtually all Shinto organizations and their 21,000 priests belong. Like many priests, he hesitates to call Shinto a religion.

With the internet's help, Shinto, the ancient religion of Japan, is experiencing a mild upturn. 'We see more people coming here,' said a priest at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. 'We see more weddings ...