Domestic shrine with figures of 66 Shinto and Buddhist deities
Lacquered wood, Japanese, 19th century
Since the sixth century, Shintoism and Buddhism have had a
difficult co-existence in Japanese culture. Each has been banned at
some point by rulers obsessed with the other. In domestic life,
worship of these gods often centres on concrete rewards on Earth
rather than in the afterlife, and petitions often request physical
healing as well as financial or personal success.