- Shinto has no founder or founding date.
- When the Japanese people and Japanese culture became aware of themselves, Shinto was already there.
- In 1603 the Tokugawa shogunate was founded in Edo (Tokyo), and contact between Shinto and Confucianism was resumed.
- Shinto became political by the 8th century when Yamato writers ascribed divine origins to the imperial family and so claimed legitmacy for rule.