In Japan it is called Shintoism.

The word "Shinto" means literally "the way of the gods," and the letter of its name is a true exponent of the spirit of the belief.

For its scriptures are rather an itinerary of the gods' lives than a guide to that road by which man himself may attain to immortality.

Thus with a certain fitness pilgrimages are its most noticeable rites.

One cannot journey anywhere in the heart of Japan without meeting multitudes of these pilgrims, with their neat white leggings and their mushroom-like hats, nor rest at night at any inn that is not hung with countless little banners of the pilgrim associations, of which they all are members.