I'm going to be running the L5R RPG soon (again), while I wait to hear if FFG's going to release a 5th Edition.

One thing I might be doing with this edition is drawing it closer to Japan - focussing more on Shintoism, and making 'evil' be a human thing and less of a supernatural force. What does this mean for the Shadowlands? It's an imbalance, the creatures of the Shadowlands act like they do, because they're acting according to their nature - not because they're evil. I know Rokugan was built by blending a lot of legends, not just Japanese ones, but I think, for a samurai game, I want to focus more on the concept of bushido, the balance of nature, and the precepts of Shintoism.

This means, probably, I'm going to completely remove the Taint as an active, evil, corrupting force. Instead, it is a risk you get from performing unclean acts in a region which is tainted by the Shadowlands. If you go into the Shadowlands, and you act with virtue and purity, the taint can't touch you.

We'll see.

That sounds very interesting. It'd be fascinating to hear how it shakes out in play.

How do you feel about the more Buddhist-influenced parts of the game (Insight, Void, etc)? Shinto and Buddhism often tend to go together in modern conceptions of Japan but at their core they're very different spiritual concepts.

I'm a registered Shinto practitioner, and have been studying Shinto for a bit over twenty years now, so that's what I'm most familiar with.

As for Buddhism? I'm ... not a fan. But I take a 'live and let live' approach to the faith. I'll accept Shinseism as Rokugan's equivalent to Buddhism, and probably go with that, but there's going to be a divide between Shinseism and Shintoism - the 'shugenja' are going to be more akin to shrine priests and shrine maidens, rather than the actual shugenja of Japanese history (which were effectively Buddhist mountain folk), or perhaps in some cases closer to onmyouji. We'll see how it goes.

I've been told by actual Buddhists priests in Japan and at least one scholar of Japanese religion that prior to the late 19th century Shintoism and Buddhism were not clearly seperate religions in Japan, but rather existed in a single syncretic belief system. I thought seperating them was a more modern phenomenon (and therefore the concepts of both being conflated in L5R may have been perhaps unintentionally similar to feudal Japan), but am I mistaken on this?

They didn't start together, and for a time there was even conflict between the two faiths when Buddhism was brought in from China, but the Imperial Court helped to smooth things over. Now, admittedly I'm oversimplifying this. But even back then you had some split between Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Shrines got converted into temples, sure, but there were still a difference between rituals.

And that's something to remember. Temples are Buddhist, shrines are Shinto. I'll be using that in my game, too. Shinseism is mostly going to be a temple thing. Miko and Shugenja will be using shrines, monks will be using temples.