section_path: Beliefs/Cosmology and afterlife
section_name: Cosmology and afterlife
paragraph_text: Cosmology and afterlife
  
  In Shinto, the creative principle permeating all life is known as musubi, and is associated with its own kami. Within traditional Japanese thought, there is no concept of an overarching duality between good and evil. The concept of aki encompasses misfortune, unhappiness, and disaster, although it does not correspond precisely with the Western concept of evil. There is no eschatology in Shinto. Texts such as the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki portray multiple realms in Shinto cosmology. These present a universe divided into three parts: the Plane of High Heaven (Takama-no-hara), where the kami live; the Phenomenal or Manifested World (Utsushi-yo), where humans dwell; and the Nether World (Yomotsu-kuni), where unclean spirits reside. The mythological texts nevertheless do not draw firm demarcations between these realms.
  
  Modern Shinto places greater emphasis on this life than on any afterlife, although it does espouse belief in a human spirit or soul, the mitama or tamashii, which contains four aspects. While indigenous ideas about an afterlife were probably well-developed prior to Buddhism's arrival, contemporary Japanese people often adopt Buddhist afterlife beliefs. Mythological stories like the Kojiki describe yomi or yomi-no-kuni as a realm of the dead, although this plays no role in modern Shinto. Modern Shinto ideas about the afterlife largely revolve around the idea that the spirit survives bodily death and continues to assist the living. After 33 years, it then becomes part of the family kami. These ancestral spirits are sometimes thought to reside in the mountains, from where they descend to take part in agricultural events. Shinto's afterlife beliefs also include the obake, restless spirits who died in bad circumstances and often seek revenge.