The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2230 page)

 
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(Jap., etymology uncertain; perhaps ‘forbid-rope’), in
Shinto
, a sacred rope stretched before the presence of a
kami
or around a sacred area. It is often used to mark off sacred areas for special rites, and it encircles sacred objects such as trees or rocks. It may be used also in private homes.

 
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Shim‘on
:

see
SIMEON
.

 
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(Jap.). Syncretism of
Shinto
and Buddhism. The
Tendai
school formulated Sann
-ichijitsu Shinto and the Shingon school,
Ry
bu Shint
, approximately at the end of the Heian period. The merger of Buddhism with Shinto, however, goes back to the Nara period. The earliest appearance of
jinguji
, a Buddhist temple associated with a Shinto shrine, was in the early part of the 8th cent. When the great image of the
Buddha
(
Daibutsu
) was made, the Buddhist priest Gy
ki visited the
Ise
shrine, and the
kami
of the Usa Hachiman in Kyushu was enshrined in the compound of the Todaiji Temple. In 781 the Buddhist title of
bosatsu
(
bodhisattva
) was conferred on the kami of the
Hachiman
, and since then, this kami has been known as Hachiman Daibosatsu.
The union of Buddhism and Shinto was done on the basis of a
Mah
y
na
doctrine,
honjisuijaku
, which explains the relation of the Absolute Buddha to the Historical Buddha. Aided by this doctrine, the theory assumes that the Japanese kami are Buddhas/Bodhisattvas who reveal themselves for the sake of sentient beings.