One day several years ago, the author of this new book on Shinto took an early stroll through the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine. After "feeling the connectedness associated with Shinto," he was accosted by two uniformed groundskeepers who solemnly bowed and, in polite Japanese, thanked him for his visit and the respect he had shown.
Later he began to think about this encounter. Their expressions of gratitude were offered because he was a foreigner -- none of the Japanese there had been thanked. They also had little to do with the feelings that Shinto had lent the author during his visit. Perhaps the keepers saw in him an endorsement of their own political agenda.
He would like to have explained this to them. "I'm just using this place as an entry point to access reality as a whole," he would have said. "Don't assume my actions were in any way a political statement related to the Yasukuni controversy. My Shinto-related behavior was strictly existential, not essentialist."