Shintoism The Shinto religion was started in the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) of Japanese history. The Tokugawa “Enlightenment” inspired a group of people who studied kokugaku, which roughly translated means “nativism,” “Japanese Studies,” or “Native Studies.” Kokugaku's intent was to recover “Japanese character” to what it was before the early influences of foreigners, especially the Chinese. Some of these influences include Confucianism (Chinese), Taoism (Chinese), Buddhism (Indian and Chinese), and Christianity (Western European). The kokugakushu (“nativist”) focused most of their efforts on recovering the Shinto reli