shintô is not ahistorical, but instead has continuely evolved over its lifetime.

The shintô practiced today is not the shintô your grandfathers practiced, and it will not be the shintô your grandchildren will practice.

shintô has been subjected to multiple medieval and modern rescripts, as it was reinterpreted to support the prevailing power structures of the time.

In point of fact, while these rescripts may have been used to shape modern shintô, they do not define shintô; shintô exists independent of them in the practices of the common people.