Quotes and notes from John K Nelson, “A year in the life of a Shinto shrine".
The practitioners of Shinto hope that anything we can see or since that is full of power, mysterious, marvelous, uncontrolled, strange, or simply beyond our abilities of comprehension is what constitutes the commie. Therefore, to translate the word as "god "or "deity "is not quite what the Japanese, from ancient times till now, have in mind. P.27
Then suddenly dawned on me – so this is what Shinto holes is divine! Not a text of dubious miracles or what someone maybe said or a particular structure but the actual phenomena of the world itself. P.26
It began an appeal to citizens in need of strength, look, health, new opportunities, a spouse, first pregnancy, protection from sickness and natural disasters, and the perseverance necessary to rebuild shattered lives. We can imagine the comfort of visits to the shrine must have provided at the time – to come from a shantytown structure or damage dwelling (90% of the cities buildings received some damage from the bond) into a green enclave of large trees, and there have a drink of pure Springwater before and after asking for blessings. A visitor then could clearly see how the shrine have been spared instruction, with its hundred-year-old gates and three sanctuaries still stately and elegant in their function of providing housing for the commie. All of these impressions must have been like going to meant for the scorched soles of the people. As the city rebuilt, the priests from Suwa Shrine or the civil presence out in the neighborhoods, consecrating land and purifying existing structures of the death and suffering that had so recently filled them. People saw again how the shrine could be an elemental pivot for so many stages of their lives, and how everything from the food the age to the buildings they lived within, from natural forces impossible to understand to the kitchen fire merrily heating water for tea, all had some aspect of Shinto tradition as a higher, broader, or subtler point of reference. P.23
(In 1614) frequent harassment by Christian urban guerrillas and the lack of a powerful personality to guide development kept the idea of the central shrine little more than an idea. P.17
No primitive society is so unempirical as to expect to cause rain by dancing a rain dance; the very fact that the ritual has been properly conducted is enough to alter or alleviate those socially generated tensions underlying the enactment in the first place. Subsequent rainmaking rituals may have to be held if no rain is immediately forthcoming, but to say that a ritual's efficacy depends entirely on some change in the atmosphere or environment overlooks the social dimension of ritual. P.36
As chief priest Uesugi will elaborate upon later, the local Kami are familiar to the populace, invoking feelings of intimacy not possible but the sun goddess, Amaterasu, to be imposed in their midst. All Kami, likewise all men and women, are considered to be related to each other in the broadest sense as well as in a metaphorical vein: all are traveling together upon a course linking growth, development, creativity, and improvement. It is in the best interest of both humans and the Kami to be on friendly, "speaking" terms in the marvelously varied world they share. P.33
Each Kami of a specific place naturally has a special characteristic that, somewhat surprisingly, may or may not directly reflect some aspect of the actual economic base of the community. … As to how Kami that at first seem "foreign" to their local community got there, one must remember the considerable political turmoil that has characterized Japan for centuries, and how often lands and protective deities changed hands. One should also note that there are myths of Kami traveling from one area to another, and that wandering preachers (hijiri), whose expertise was really challenged by locals, also spread beliefs. P.30
But even before the precedent for divine ancestry of the imperial clan was established, smaller, less powerful clans hand formed kinship groups that worshipped their own deities. Until roughly the end of the Heian period (1192), the function of these Kami was to protect and nurture the community, the ujiko. They became the most important Kami of the recently emerged pantheon simply because they were so localized. Any problem with the community, any inspiration of its members (as in prayers for a good rice crop) and any joy or feeling of gratitude for blessings received were taken before the "Kami of the people", and the ujigami, where ritual specialists were in place to ensure the transmission of local concerns to the "heavenly" sphere. P.28-29
The principal Kami of Suwa Jinja—Suwa-no-Kami, Morisaki, and Sumiyoshi—are, in the words of Chief Priest Uesugi, "points of access to the more encompassing powers of Amaterasu." Think of the tributaries of a great river system, he suggests, like the Nile or the Mississippi, and perhaps it will be easier to see how the Kami specific to a local shrine, even one as large as Izumo or Meiji, all lead and connect the worshipper to the more pervasive currents of power which are supposedly beyond the scope of human comprehension. P.29
To use the Kojiki as a guide, Amaterasu herself is but an intermediary for a number of Heavenly Kami (whom we never meet in any for other than by this name), whom she must obey. Confused? No doubt you have a Japanese would be too if he or she ever thought about it. P.29