How an island nation's geography shaped one of the world's most enduring spiritual traditions The Land That Gave Birth to a Religion Japan is a nation of remarkable natural abundance. Surrounded entirely by sea, with two-thirds of its land covered in forest, and blessed with hot springs and clean water sources across much of the country, Japan's environment is extraordinary by any global standard. For most of its history, the Japanese people sustained themselves through agriculture and fishing — two ways of life with one critical thing in common: both are completely at the mercy of nature. Heavy rains, typhoons, and flooding could devastate a harvest. A stormy sea meant no fish. Too much sun, too little rain — every shift in the weather carried consequences for survival. In this context, the rhythms of nature were not background scenery. They were life itself. It was from this intimate, dependent relationship with the natural world that Shinto — Japan's in...