I have read claims that the "native religion of Japan" that is nowadays referred to as Shinto is largely a modern invention, a recent bricolage cobbled from ancient mythological literature and local folk beliefs chiefly to be put at the service of a nation-building effort centered around emperor-worship. How would you rate that statement? If true, are contemporary practitioners of Shinto aware of that fact? Would a 19th-century kami-worshipping Japanese peasant likely describe themself as a Shintoist?