> Shinto has been reduced to consist almost exclusively of ritual,
I really don't think this is true, or rather: it is a view shaped by biased expectations of how a "real" religion should look like, namely like the Abrahamic ones.
Shinto always was a religion of rituals that aim to gain some measure of control over a chaotic world.
>with little belief for gods,
That is definitely untrue - Shinto is all about gods. Just not omnipotent big-G Gods. Shinto Kami are approachable spirits of nature and places, who might grant you a boon if you do the right things and it is in their realm of responsibility.
>souls, or the afterlife.
Yes, Shinto does not have a concept of "soul" and doesn't concern itself much with an afterlife (that's why Japanese people get Buddhist funerals) - but why would it absolutely have to?
I really don't think this is true, or rather: it is a view shaped by biased expectations of how a "real" religion should look like, namely like the Abrahamic ones.
Shinto always was a religion of rituals that aim to gain some measure of control over a chaotic world.
>with little belief for gods,
That is definitely untrue - Shinto is all about gods. Just not omnipotent big-G Gods. Shinto Kami are approachable spirits of nature and places, who might grant you a boon if you do the right things and it is in their realm of responsibility.
>souls, or the afterlife.
Yes, Shinto does not have a concept of "soul" and doesn't concern itself much with an afterlife (that's why Japanese people get Buddhist funerals) - but why would it absolutely have to?