1435-1511
Yoshida Kanetomo
Yoshida Kanetomo, of the hereditary divination house that served the court, did something no one had done: he presented Shinto as a system with its own doctrines, lineage, and initiations, equal to Buddhism and Confucianism and prior to both. His One-and-Only Shinto inverted the old fusion, teaching that the kami are the original ground and the buddhas their traces. From his base at the Yoshida Shrine in Kyoto his house claimed authority over shrines across the country, licensing their priests for two centuries.