State Shinto

has been called the state religion of the Empire of Japan. The term was not used until after World War II and in a broad sense is used to classify those Shinto ideals, rituals and institutions created by the government to promote the divinity of the emperor and the uniqueness of Japan ("kokutai"). [Kodansha, Encyclopedia of Japan]

History

In the late Edo period, numerous scholars of "kokugaku" believed that Shintō could become a unifying agent to center the country around the Emperor while a process of modernization was undertaken. After the Meiji Restoration, the new imperial government needed to rapidly modernize the polity and economy of Japan, and the Meiji oligarchy felt that those goals could only be accomplished through a strong sense of national unity and cultural identity.

In 1868, the new Meiji government established a government bureau, the nihongo|Shintō Worship Bureau|神祇事務局|Jingi Jimukyoku to oversee religious affairs and to administer the government-ordered separation of Buddhism from Shintō. In 1871, all Shintō shrines throughout Japan were declared to be property of the central government, were assigned an official rank within a hierarchy and received a subsidy for their upkeep. Shrines were divided into twelve levels with the Ise Shrine (dedicated to "Amaterasu", and thus symbolic of the legitimacy of the Imperial family) at the top.

Furthermore, all citizens were required to register as a parishioner of their local shrine, and each parishioner of a local shrine was automatically also a parishioner of the Ise Shrine. This was a major reverse from the Edo period, in which families were required to register with Buddhist temples, rather than Shintō shrines.

In 1872, an nihongo|Office of Shintō Worship|神祇官|Jingikan was established to develop and promote new government-centered rites of worship, and all Shintō priests officially became government employees. Thus, from a legal perspective, State Shintō was not a religion and its values came under the heading of moral instruction rather than religious teaching. [Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japanese Religion, p. 30.]

This concentrated on the more important shrines; folk Shintō practices were mostly left unmolested and various fringe Shintō movements dating from the Edo period were allowed to continue under the rubric Sect Shintō.

In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education was issued, and students were required to ritually recite its oath to "offer yourselves courageously to the State" as well as protect the Imperial family. The practice of emperor worship was further spread by distributing imperial portraits for esoteric veneration. All of these practices, used to fortify national solidarity through patriotic centralized observance at shrines, gave pre-war Japanese nationalism a tint of mysticism and cultural introversion. [Hall, Japan From Prehistory to Modern Times, p. 328.]

Article 28 of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan reaffirmed the privileged position of Shintō, but also guaranteed freedom of religion “within limits not prejudicial to peace and order and not antagonistic to their duties as subjects”. In practice, this meant that religious groups were required to receive government approval and that their doctrines and rituals came under government scrutiny. [Kasza, The State and the Mass Media in Japan, p. 68.]

During World War II, the government used State Shintō to encourage patriotism and to support efforts towards militarism. Noted figures in government, including Kuniaki Koiso, Heisuke Yanagawa, Kiichirō Hiranuma and Prince Kan'in Kotohito, participated in public rituals modeled after ancient ceremonies to foster a sense that supporting the war was a sacred duty.

State Shintō officially came to an end after the surrender of Japan. [Neary, The State and Politcs in Japan, p. 45.] On 1 January 1946, Emperor Shōwa issued a statement, sometimes referred to as the "Ningen-sengen" , in which he quoted the Five Charter Oath of Emperor Meiji and announced he was not an "akitsumikami". The Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers ordered the separation of the government from religious affairs during the occupation of Japan, and separation of church and state was incorporated into the 1947 Constitution of Japan. However in practice this is sometimes overlooked.Fact|date=September 2008

References

*cite book
last = Agency for Cultural Affairs
first = Gregory J
year = 1972
title = Japanese Religion, A Survey
publisher = Kodansha International
id = ISBN 0870114670
*cite book
last = Breen
first = John
year = 2000
title = Shinto in History
publisher = RoutledgeCurzon
id = ISBN 0700711724
*cite book
last = Hall
first = John Whitney
year = 1971
title = Japan From Prehistory to Modern Times
publisher = Charles Tuttle & Company
id =
*cite book
last = Hardacre
first = Helen
year = 1991
title = Shinto and the State, 1868-1988
publisher = Princeton University Press
id = ISBN 0691020523
*cite book
last = Holton
first = Daniel Clarence
year = 1984
title = The Political Philosophy of Modern Shinto: A Study of the State Religion of Japan
publisher = AMS Press
id = ISBN 0404159370
*cite book
last = Kasza
first = Gregory J
year = 1984
title = The State and the Mass Media in Japan, 1918-1945
publisher = University of California Press
id = ISBN 0520082737
*cite book
last = Neary
first = Ian
year = 2005
title = The State and Politcs in Japan
publisher = Polity
id = ISBN 0745621341

Notes