Shinto Diet

The Shinto religion dates back to 500 BC. It is a faith practiced mainly by the Japanese and espouses the wonder of any natural thing as the cornerstone of its tenets. Those who practice the Shinto religion also believe in the curative powers of a diet rooted in the five elements of Shinto purification: water, salt, fire, sake and sand.

Identification

• Rice has long been a staple in the Shinto diet, which has extended into the traditional diet of the Japanese as a whole. Other staples in the Shinto diet include sake, seaweed, fruits and vegetables. For a millennium meats, including fowl and fish, were not widely seen in the Shinto diet due to the reverence of all living things observed in the faith.

Features

• Mochi, a tender rice cake, is the most easily identifiable item in the Shinto diet, and is made at many of the traditional annual Shinto festivals, like Haru Matsuri or Shinko-sai. Rice is steamed over a long period of time, rendering a gelatinous, almost doughy, substance which is pounded over several hours to create an enormous flattened dough. The dough is cut into small discs and filled with a sweetened bean paste and served at room temperature.

Function

• Each grain of rice in the Shinto faith symbolizes the soul of one person. Mochi, then, symbolizes the convergence of millions of souls. The diet of the Shinto is simply one element helping to comprise a tapestry of belief that everything in the physical world is connected and that everything in this world is to be revered and respected for simply existing. Unlike Christianity or Islam, Shinto has no founder or holy book. Its tenets and rituals have been passed from generation to generation, which has contributed greatly to being centralized almost exclusively in Japan.