re: #103 Aceofwhat?

not Shinto?

Oops, missed this question.

They’re always Shinto. Shintoism in Japan is pretty indelibly tired up with being Japanese. But you can be a Zen Buddhist and still follow Shinto traditions as well.

They were very explicitly Zen Buddhist, though obviously a corruption of any decent philosophy or theology of that belief. It’s just another example of a religion being perverted to serve secular ends.