Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c222IR // #c222Synthesis

They discovered that whether Nature-gods or Man-gods they were nothing more than avatars or incarnations of the various Buddhas.

— In our words · Source: Shinto: The Ancient Religion of Japan (William George Aston)

[Use when]

When a new system wants to win without a fight, watch for reclassification — the old gods survive by becoming avatars of the new ones.

[Why it matters]

The mechanism of religious conquest by absorption — Buddhist missionaries did not refute Shinto's gods, they reclassified them as local forms of Buddhas, producing Ryobu Shinto.

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