Let me know your thoughts and explain. thanks!
My Dad is Buddhist (西本願寺) and my Mom is Shinto (practices everyday). I'm not religious at all.
It clicked when I first heard the Buddhist monk in Ashina say "If the old lord falls...will we still get paid?" and then after the siege he says: "namu amida butsu...nobody would put their life on the line for free".
Now I wouldn't say it's the "only" theme, there's so many different obvious themes and lore including Immortality, Greed, Stagnation, Bushido, Tawara toda (
俵藤太) (...giant centipede), Tale of the Heike, etc etc but I don't see a lot of discussion of Shinto vs Buddhism as the overarching theme. I saw a lot of Buddhist teachings that integrates with Shinto but also divides them through out the game. The shrines and Torii gates were the biggest factors that I noticed. You'll notice the divide when you enter the
Torii gate when you enter the Ashina Depths and also before you go to Sunken Valley along with the wedding cave.
Let's begin with Ashina Castle/Hirata: Usually samurai armor or drawings of Samurais are in their shrines. When Ashina runs out of "salt", it really means they're straying away from
祓い "Harae". An important ritual used in Shinto. Before we go to a funeral, my mom uses
salt to ward off unwelcome spirits.
Senpou temple, Gun Fort, Bodhisattva Valley, Poison pool: Usually have Buddhist statues placed outside or in their shrines, some are broken, forgotten about, covered in cobwebs.
After you enter a Torii gate to the divine palanquin known as a
Mikoshi at the wedding cave and "pray" and go up the giant rope
shimenawa, there's no more Buddhism after that point. Although, you still have to defeat the "True" corrupted monk and last centipede of the game. The giant waterfall is pouring "pure" water to the ground.
Fountainhead palace is where the
神 "kami" spirits and purification in Shinto exist without Buddhism. Of course there's enemies in that area cause it would be pointless to have him wander around and do nothing but they're elements of nature, lightning, fishes, enemies are alien shinto
kannushi priest or Onna-bugeisha (
女武芸者) from Japanese history/folklore.
On the other end of Shinto, The worst place to be was Mibu Village. It was basically a representation of
land of the dead or Yomi. The difference from Buddhism and going to hell and a chance of
reincarnating, You never reincarnate in Shinto if you have too much impurity but end up
here for good and decompose. While the Torii gate separates the normal world from the sacred, it's all on the same surface except for the Gods, they live at
Takamagahara.
Some shared ideas of Buddhism into Japanese lore, the Big white snake was originally a Hindu
story adapted to Japanese
shinto and
mythology called Benzaitennyo (弁才天女) regarding fertility. Lots of little Shinto
shrines appear before the snake at Underbridge Valley, and also there's Torii-looking gates in the cave after the gun fort along the cave to the bridge that will collapse and also noted in the Herb Catalog regarding a bride.
The monks worshiping Buddha is like the Dried Serpennt Viscera sitting idle on the Goddess shrine while Shinto (God of the Land) is the Fresh Serpent Viscera looks like a beating heart of a living spirit.
The divide and connection becomes clear when it's only a locked door that divides the Infested Buddhist monks that can't enter the temple of the Divine Child. Although the monks have a larger temple with massive Buddhist statues vs the small Shinto
shrine (no buddhist statues, painting of deities/goddess) that the divine child resides in, example of
shinto shrine. To me it means, you can't enter from an infested or corrupt mind set. The only way to get to her is through the mindset of Shinto. You need to know the basics of "hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil" but the 4th one exemplifies Shinto, as it is invisible
messenger or "kami" exist and noted wearing a white cloth on their head similar to what the divine child wears when you finish the return ending . Like Shinto, there is no founder, religious texts, or doctrine but it exist. Once you are able to acknowledge that, then you can speak to the Divine child.
Demon of Hatred (
Resentment) was a classic example of what is known as (
怨み) Urami in Shinto, holding a grudge and its considered impurity later turns into a
god of fire (Buddhist).
Finally (for now), the Lotus Flower is strongly tied to Enlightenment and Buddhism but leads into Shinto. The Lotus flower and Ape can survive in the impure waters because it survives from the water drops coming from Fountainhead Palace. The story of the "Malcontent" is a Shinto belief or vengeful spirit that lives in both in Guardian Ape and the Sculptor
(onryo or
御霊信仰 ) Even if the ape or sculptor reincarnates a million times to try and do good karma, the onryo will never go away, even if you kill the centipede, the headless ape returns to life. We know that the sculptor's partner King Fisher dies to the Ape but at what cost? Only the Shichimen warriors knows as they carry the evil spirits with them. It's when you kill the evil spirits, you can get the malcontent ring and put an end to the Ape. When the sculptor turns into Demon, it's caused by carving the Buddha's and seeing rage. It's coming from an internal spirit "onryo" and not necessarily the Buddha. The sculptor mentions that as you "go on killing, will eventually become Shura" assuming that the onyro can get into the mind or spirit of anyone and the statues of Buddha in this case are acting more as vessels for spirits to transfer in and out of. In Shinto, spirits "kami" can manifest in people, rocks, rivers, animals, and even the Buddha. They can possess more than one thing and all things must be purified.
(DS3 Spoilers)
In Dark Souls 3. I thought the ending in DLC when Filianore was about fertility and the large egg was cracked as it was an end to life or faith. There was also a good insight by
Vaati. I thought it had to do more with life or fertility. In Sekiro, she offers rice to Kuro and at end the "return ending" gets pregnant, from a Shinto perspective, Sekiro was just a messenger of
rice/fertility (稲荷大神).
Another element that I thought might have had elements of Shinto in DS3 was te Chloranthy ring but might have been lost in translation with the
Sakaki plant and
Chloranthy but that's for another time.
Thanks for reading, it's kinda long and still doing a lot of research and editing on this post but the game was a lot fun and hope you enjoyed it.
*edit Thanks for the Gold! Praise the Sun \[T]/ - ありがとうございました (Arigatou-Gozaimashita - Thank you!)
