I have taught an introductory English-language course to religions in Japan for several years making use of available online resources. The course provides both home and exchange students with a cursory overview of religions in Japan, their history, and their present status, and presents some wider issues related to the study of religions in Japan. Because I was immersed in them, I assumed that the online resources I used are widely known. It had never crossed my mind to write about them for The Digital Orientalist. However, I was forced to question this assumption when exploring the Resource Guide for Japanese Studies and Humanities in Japan and discovered numerous projects and resources across Japanese studies that I was not previously aware of. In this article, I offer a simple description of some of the online resources that I use in my classes on Shinto with notes on how I employ them. I do not mean to claim that these are the best online resources for teaching about Shinto (after all, the best tools is a definition relative to one’s aims). I have found each to be highly effective when used in English-language courses for those with little to no knowledge of the religion.
