Its major tenets are worship of nature and of the dead (animism), and also emphasizes an extended understanding of and respect for the lives, souls, and gods of one's ancestors, conceiving of these things as the essence of life, and whose material substance it is possible to know; it also views existence as divided between the Tokoyo (the spiritual world, the realm of gods, heaven and hell) and the Utsushiyo (this world, the realm of human beings), and also affirms the existence of Kinsokuchi, places where gods dwell (within whose hallowed borders one may not enter), as well as barriers that prevent crossing between the realms, and the efficacy of prayers and fortune-telling (shamanism), including in the determining of government policy, and finally in the creation of a mythology of the world and of human beings.
その要素は自然崇拝・精霊崇拝（アニミズム）または、その延長線上にある先祖崇拝としての命・御魂・霊・神などの不可知な物質ではない生命の本質としてのものの概念や、常世（とこよ・神の国や天国や地獄）と現世（うつしよ・人の国や現実世界）からなる世界観と禁足地や神域の存在とそれぞれを隔てる端境とその往来を妨げる結界や、祈祷・占い（シャーマニズム）による祈願祈念とその結果による政（まつりごと）の指針、国の創世と人の創世の神話の発生があげられる。