View source for State Shinto

{{short description|Imperial Japan's use of the Shinto religion}}
{{good article}}
[[File:Japanese government small-face-value paper money 50 Sen (Yasukuni Shrine) - front.jpg|300px|thumb|Empire of Japan's 50 [[Japanese yen|sen]] banknote, featuring Yasukuni Shrine]]
{{Shinto}}
{{nihongo|'''State Shintō'''|国家神道 or 國家神道|Kokka Shintō}} was [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]]'s ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of [[Shinto]].<ref name=Fridell />{{rp|547}} The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for [[Kannushi|priests]]<ref name="Shibata" /><ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}}<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}} to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as a [[Deity|divine being]].<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|8}}

The State Shinto ideology emerged at the start of the [[Meiji era]], after government officials defined freedom of religion within the [[Meiji Constitution]].<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|115}} Imperial scholars believed Shinto reflected the historical fact of the Emperor's divine origins rather than a religious belief, and argued that it should enjoy a privileged relationship with the Japanese state.<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|8}}<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}} The government argued that Shinto was a non-religious moral tradition and patriotic practice, to give the impression that they supported [[Freedom of religion|religious freedom]].<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}}<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}} Though early Meiji-era attempts to unite Shinto and the state failed,<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|51}} this non-religious concept of ideological Shinto was incorporated into state bureaucracy.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|547}}<ref name="Sakamoto">{{cite book|last1=Sakamoto|first1=Koremaru|title=Kokka Shinto taisei no seiritsu to tenkai|date=1993|publisher=Kobunda|location=Tokyo|pages=165–202}}</ref> [[Shinto shrine|Shrines]] were defined as patriotic, not religious, institutions, which served state purposes such as honoring the war dead;<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|91}} this is known as [[Secular Shrine Theory]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=均 |first=新田 |date=2020-08-10 |script-title=ja:加藤玄智の国家神道観 |trans-title=Genchi Kato's view of state Shinto |url=https://kogakkan.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&page_id=13&block_id=21&item_id=274&item_no=1 |journal=Religious Law Research ({{lang|ja|宗教法研究}}) |language=ja |issue=14 |pages=199–230 |access-date=2022-08-01 |archive-date=2023-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520175342/https://kogakkan.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&page_id=13&block_id=21&item_id=274&item_no=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The state also integrated local shrines into political functions, occasionally spurring local opposition and resentment.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}} With fewer shrines financed by the state, nearly 80,000 closed or merged with neighbors.<ref name=Hardacre />{{rp|98}}<ref name=":0" />{{rp|118}} Many shrines and shrine organizations began to independently embrace these state directives, regardless of funding.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|114}} By 1940, Shinto priests risked persecution for performing traditionally "religious" Shinto ceremonies.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|25}}<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|699}} Imperial Japan did not draw a distinction between ideological Shinto and traditional Shinto.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|100}}

[[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers|US military leaders]] introduced the term "State Shinto" to differentiate the state's ideology from traditional Shinto practices<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|38}} in the 1945 [[Shinto Directive]].<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|38}} That decree established Shinto as a religion, and banned further ideological uses of Shinto by the state.<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|703}} Controversy continues to surround the use of Shinto symbols in state functions.<ref name="Shibata" />{{rp|428}}<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|706}}<ref name="Loo" />

== Origins of the term ==

Shinto is a blend of indigenous Japanese folk practices, beliefs, court manners, and spirit-worship which dates back to at least 600 CE.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|99}} These beliefs were unified as "Shinto" during the [[Meiji era]] (1868–1912),<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|4}}<ref name=Nakai>{{cite journal|last1= Nakai|first1=Kate Wildman|title=A New History of Shinto, and: Rethinking Medieval Shintō. Special issue of Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie (16) (review)|journal= Monumenta Nipponica|date=1 January 2012|volume=67|issue=1|pages=159–64|doi= 10.1353/mni.2012.0014|s2cid= 162188210}}</ref> though the {{Nihongo|Chronicles of Japan|日本書紀|[[Nihon Shoki]]}} first referenced the term in the eighth century. Shinto has no fixed doctrines or founder, but draws instead from creation myths described in books such as the [[Kojiki]].<ref name="Ono" />{{rp|9}}

The December 15, 1945 "[[Shinto Directive]]" of the United States General Headquarters introduced the "State Shinto" distinction when it began governing Japan after the Second World War. The Shinto Directive (officially the "Abolition of Governmental Sponsorship, Support, Perpetuation, Control and Dissemination of State Shinto") defined State Shinto as "that branch of Shinto (''Kokka Shinto'' or ''Jinja Shinto'') which, by official acts of the Japanese government, has been differentiated from the religion of Sect Shinto (''Shuha Shinto'' or ''Kyoha Shinto'') and has been classified a non-religious national cult."<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|41–42}}<ref>GHQ of the Allied Powers (1960). Translations and Official Documents: [https://web.archive.org/web/20141219183832/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/3229 "The Shinto Directive"], ''Contemporary Religions in Japan'' 1 (2), 85–89</ref>

The "State Shinto" term was thus used to categorize and abolish Imperial Japanese practices that relied on Shinto to support nationalistic ideology.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|133}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|title = State Shinto in the Lives of the People: The Establishment of Emperor Worship, Modern Nationalism, and Shrine Shinto in Late Meiji|journal = Journal of the American Academy of Religion |date = 2005-12-01 |pages = 1077–1098 |volume = 73 |issue=4 |doi= 10.1093/jaarel/lfi115 |first= Susumu |last= Shimazono}}</ref>{{rp|97}} By declining to ban Shinto practices outright, [[Constitution of Japan|Japan's post-war constitution]] was able to preserve full freedom of religion.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|133}}

==Definitions==
[[File:Meiji-tenno_among_kami_and_emperors.JPG|thumb|300x300px|This 1878 engraving by [[Toyohara Chikanobu]] (1838–1912) visually presents the central tenet of State Shinto (1871–1946). This Shinto variant asserted and promoted belief in the divinity of the Emperor, which arose from a genealogical family tree extending back to the first emperor and to the most important deities of Japanese mythology.]]

The definition of State Shinto requires distinction from the term "Shinto", which was one aspect of a set of nationalist symbols integrated into the State Shinto ideology.<ref name=Fridell>{{cite journal|last1=Fridell|first1=Wilbur M.|title=A Fresh Look at State Shinto|journal=[[Journal of the American Academy of Religion]]|date=1976|volume=XLIV|issue=3|pages=547–561|doi=10.1093/jaarel/XLIV.3.547}}{{ODNBsub}}</ref>{{rp|547}}<ref name=Woodard>{{cite book|last1=Woodard|first1=William|title=The Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945–1952, and Japanese Religions|date=1972|publisher=EJ Brill|location=Leiden|page=11}}</ref> Though some scholars, such as Woodard and Holtom,<ref name=Woodard /><ref name=Holtom /> and the Shinto Directive itself, use the terms "Shrine Shinto" and "State Shinto" interchangeably, most contemporary scholars use the term "Shrine Shinto" to refer to the majority of Shinto shrines which were outside of State Shinto influence, leaving "State Shinto" to refer to shrines and practices deliberately intended to reflect state ideology.<ref name=Fridell />{{rp|547}}

===Interpretations===
[[File:Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur.jpg|thumb|Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur, at their first meeting, at the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo, 27 September 1945]]
Most generally, State Shinto refers to any use of Shinto practices incorporated into the [[Japanese nationalism|national ideology]] during the Meiji period starting in 1868.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|100}} It is often described as any state-supported, Shinto-inspired ideology or practice intended to inspire national integration, unity, and loyalty.<ref name="Beckford">{{cite book |editor-last1=Beckford |editor-first1=James A. |editor-last2=Demerath |editor-first2=N.J. III |title=The SAGE handbook of the sociology of religion |date=2007 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=London |isbn=9781446206522}}</ref>{{rp|700}} State Shinto is also understood to refer to the state rituals and ideology of [[Imperial cult|Emperor-worship]], which was not a traditional emphasis of Shinto<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|699}} — of the 124 [[List of Emperors of Japan|Japanese emperors]], only 20 have dedicated shrines.<ref name="Ono">{{cite book|last1=Ono|first1=Sokyo|last2=Woodward|first2=Walter|title=Shinto, the Kami way|date=2003|publisher=C.E. Tuttle|location=Boston, Ma.|isbn=9780804835572|edition=1.}}</ref>{{rp|80}}

"State Shinto" was not an official designation for any practice or belief in Imperial Japan during this period. Instead, it was developed at the end of the war to describe the mixture of state support for non-religious shrine activities and immersive ideological support for the [[Kokutai]] ("National Body/Structure") policy in education, including the training of all shrine priests.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|100}} This permitted a form of traditional religious Shinto to reflect a State Shinto position without the direct control of the state.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|100}} The extent to which Emperor worship was supported by the population is unclear, though scholars such as Ashizu Uzuhiko, Sakamoto Koremaru, and Nitta Hitoshi argue that the government's funding and control of shrines was never adequate enough to justify a claim to the existence of a State Shinto.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Keene" />{{rp|118}} The extent of popular support for the actions categorized as "State Shinto" is the subject of debate.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|94}}

Some contemporary Shinto authorities reject the concept of State Shinto, and seek to restore elements of the practice, such as naming time periods after the Emperor.<ref name="Earhart">{{cite book|last1=Earhart|first1=H. Byron|author1-link=H. Byron Earhart|title=Religion in the Japanese experience: sources and interpretations|date=1974|publisher=Dickenson Pub. Co.|location=Encino, Calif.|isbn=0822101041|edition=3rd|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/religioninjapane0000earh}}</ref>{{rp|119}} This view often sees "State Shinto" purely as an invention of the United States' "Shinto Directive".<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|119}}

==Shinto as political ideology==
{{Main|Secular Shrine Theory}}
"Religious" practice, in its Western sense, was unknown in Japan prior to the Meiji restoration.<ref name="Isomae" /> "[[Religion]]" was understood to encompass a series of beliefs about faith and the afterlife, but also closely associated with Western power.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|55–56}} The Meiji restoration had re-established the [[Emperor Meiji|Emperor]], a "religious" figure, as the head of the Japanese state.<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|8}}

Religious freedom was initially a response to demands of Western governments.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|115}} Japan had allowed [[Mission (Christianity)|Christian missionaries]] under pressure from Western governments, but viewed Christianity as a foreign threat.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|61–62}} The state was challenged to establish a suprareligious interpretation of Shinto that incorporated, and promoted, the Emperor's divine lineage.<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|8}}<ref name="Zhong">{{cite journal|last1=Zhong|first1=Yijiang|title=Freedom, Religion and the Making of the Modern State in Japan, 1868–89|journal=Asian Studies Review|date=March 2014|volume=38|issue=1|pages=53–70|doi=10.1080/10357823.2013.872080|s2cid=143649480|issn=1035-7823}}{{subscription required|via=[https://ebsco.com EBSCO]'s Academic Search Complete}}</ref>{{rp|59}} By establishing Shinto as a unique form of "suprareligious" cultural practice, it would be exempted from Meiji laws protecting freedom of religion.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}}<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|117}}

The "State Shinto" ideology presented Shinto as something beyond religion, "a unity of government and teaching ... not a religion."<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|66}} Rather than a religious practice, Shinto was understood as a form of education, which "consists of the traditions of the [[Imperial House of Japan|imperial house]], beginning in the age of gods and continuing through history."<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|66}}

[[File:Yasukuni 1st Torii 20060122.jpg|thumb|A torii gate at Yasukuni shrine]]
Scholars, such as Sakamoto Koremaru, argue that the "State Shinto" system existed only between 1900 and 1945, corresponding to the state's creation of the [[Bureau of Shrines]]. That bureau distinguished Shinto from religions managed by the [[Bureau of Shrines and Temples]], which became the [[Bureau of Religions]].<ref name=":0" />{{rp|547}} Separated through this state bureaucracy, Shinto was distinguished from Buddhist temples and [[Christianity in Japan|Christian]] churches, which were formulated as religious. This marked the start of the state's official designation of Shinto shrines as "[[Secular Shrine Theory|suprareligious]]" or "non-religious".<ref name=":0" />{{rp|547}}<ref name="Sakamoto" />

State Shinto was thus not recognized as a "state religion" during the Meiji era.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maxey|first1=Trent E.|title=The "greatest problem": religion and state formation in Meiji Japan|date=2014|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=978-0674491991|page=19}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Josephson|first=Jason Ānanda|title=The Invention of Religion in Japan|year=2012|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226412344|page=133}}</ref> Instead, State Shinto is considered an appropriation of traditional Shinto through state financial support for ideologically aligned [[Shinto shrine|shrines]].<ref name="Keene">{{cite book|editor-last1=Keene|editor-first1=Donald|editor-last2=Tsunoda|editor-first2=Ryusaku|editor-last3=de Bary|editor-first3=Wm. Theodore|title=Sources of Japanese tradition|date=2006|publisher=Columbia Univ. Press|location=New York|isbn=9780231139182|edition=2nd }}</ref>{{rp|118}}<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|700}}

State Shinto combined political activism and religious thought to take actions thought by its adherents to bring the country together during and after the nadir of [[Japanese feudalism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bellingham |first1=David |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/27192394 |title=Myths and Legends |last2=Whittaker |first2=Clio |last3=Grant |first3=John |publisher=Wellfleet Press |year=1992 |isbn=1-55521-812-1 |location=Secaucus, New Jersey |pages=181 |oclc=27192394}}</ref>

==Implementation of Shinto ideology==

The Empire of Japan endeavored, through education initiatives and specific financial support for new shrines, to frame Shinto practice as a patriotic moral tradition.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}} From the early Meiji era, the divine origin of the Emperor was the official position of the state, and taught in classrooms not as myth, but as historical fact.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|64}}<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|122}} Shinto priests were hired to teach in public schools, and cultivated this teaching, alongside reverence for the Emperor and compulsory class trips to shrines.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}} State Shinto practitioners also emphasized the ritual aspect as a traditional civic practice that did not explicitly call on faith to participate.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}}

By balancing a "suprareligious" understanding of Shinto as the source of divinity for both Japan and the Emperor, the state was able to compel participation in rituals from Japanese subjects while claiming to respect their freedom of religion.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}} The state was thus able to enshrine its place in civic society in ways religions could not. This included teaching its ideological strand of Shinto in public schools,<ref name="Shibata">{{cite journal|last1=Shibata|first1=Masako|title=Religious education reform under the US military occupation: The interpretation of state Shinto in Japan and Nazism in Germany|journal=Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education|date=September 2004|volume=34|issue=4|pages=425–442|doi=10.1080/0305792042000294814|s2cid=218558269|issn=0305-7925|via=EBSCO}}{{subscription required}}</ref> including ceremonial recitations to the Emperor and rites involving the Emperor's portrait.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}}

In 1926, the government organized the {{Nihongo3|Religious System Investigative Committee|宗教制度調査会|Shūkyō Seido Chōsakai}} and then the {{Nihongo3|Shrine System Investigative Committee|神社制度調査会|Jinja Seido Chōsakai}}, which further established the suprareligious "Shintogaku" ideology.<ref name=Isomae>{{cite book|last1=Isomae|first1=Jun'ichi|title=Religious Discourse in Modern Japan: Religion, State, and Shintō|date=2014|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004272682}}</ref>{{rp|147}}

To protect this non-religious distinction, practices which did not align with state functions were increasingly prohibited. This included preaching at shrines and conducting funerals. The use of the symbolic [[torii]] gate was restricted to government-supported shrines.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nitta|first=Hitoshi|title=Shintō in History: Ways of the Kami|year=2000|publisher=Shintō as a 'Non-Religion': The Origins and Development of an Idea|isbn=0700711708|editor=John Breen|chapter=Religion, Secularity, and the Articulation of the 'Indigenous' in Modernizing Japan|page=266}}</ref> As religious rituals without state functions were restricted, practitioners were driven underground and frequently arrested.<ref name="TeeuwenBreen" />{{rp|16}} Alternative Shinto movements, such as [[Oomoto|Omotokyo]], were hampered by the imprisonment of its priests in 1921.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|24}} The status of separation of so-called "State Shinto" shrines changed in 1931; from that point, shrines were pressured to focus on the divinity of the [[Hirohito|Emperor Hirohito]] or shrine priests could face persecution.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|25}}<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|699}}

Some intellectuals at the time, such as Yanagita Kunio, were critics of Imperial Japan's argument at the time that Shinto was not religious.<ref name="TeeuwenBreen">{{cite book|last1=Teeuwen|first1=Mark|last2=Breen|first2=John|title=A new history of shinto|date=2010|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell (an imprint of John Wiley & Sons)|location=Chicester|isbn=9781405155168}}</ref>{{rp|15}} In 1936, the Catholic Church's [[Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples|Propaganda Fide]] agreed with the state definition, and announced that visits to shrines had "only a purely civil value".<ref>{{cite book|last=Nakai|first=Kate Wildman|title=Kami Ways in Nationalist Territory|year=2013|publisher=Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften|isbn=978-3-7001-7400-4|editor=Bernhard Scheid|chapter=Coming to Terms With 'Reverence at Shrines'|pages=109–154}}</ref>

== State control of shrines ==
{{Main|Institute of Divinities}}
{| class="wikitable floatright" style="border-spacing: 2px; border: 1px solid darkgray;"
|+ Table: Government spending on shrines<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|24}}
! align="center" |Year
! align="center" |Shrine<br />payments<br />(Yen)
! align="center" |% of annual<br />budget
|-
| 1902||1,071,727||0.43
|-
| 1907||510,432||0.08
|-
| 1912||358,012||0.06
|-
| 1917||877,063||0.11
|-
| 1922||4,191,000||0.29
|-
| 1927||1,774,000||0.1
|-
| 1932||1,373,000||0.07
|-
| 1937||2,297,000||0.08
|-
| 1942||2,081,000||0.02
|-
| 1943||6,633,000||0.05
|-
| 1944||1,331,000||0.01
|}

Though the government's ideological interest in Shinto is well-known, there is debate over how much control the government had over local shrines and for how long.<ref name=":0" /> Shrine finances were not purely state-supported.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|114}}<ref name="Sakamoto" /> Shinto priests, even when state-supported, had tended to avoid preaching on ideological matters until the establishment of the [[Institute of Divinities]] in 1940.

In 1906, the government issued a policy to limit its financial support to one shrine per village.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|98}} This state supported shrines that followed its specific guidelines for funding, and encouraged unfunded shrines to become partners with the larger shrines. As a result of this initiative to consolidate Shinto beliefs into state-approved practices, Japan's 200,000 shrines had been reduced to 120,000 by 1914,<ref name=":0" />{{rp|118}} consolidating control to shrines favorable to the state interpretation of Shinto.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|98}}

In 1910, graduates of state-run Shinto schools, such as [[Kokugakuin University]] and [[Kogakkan University|Kougakkan University]], were implicitly allowed to become public school teachers.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|23}} A greater number of better-trained priests with educations at state-supported schools, combined with a rising patriotic fervor, is believed by some to have seeded an environment in which grassroots Emperor worship was possible, even without financial support for local shrines.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|113}}<ref name=":0" />

In 1913, official rules for Shrine priests — {{Nihongo||官国幣社以下神社神 職奉務規則|Kankokuheisha ika jinja shinshoku hömu kisoku}} — specifically called upon "a duty to observe festivals conforming to the rituals of the state."<ref name=":0" />{{rp|114}} Some shrines did adopt State Shinto practice independent of financial support from the government.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|114}}<ref name="Sakamoto" /> Several Shrine Associations advocated for support of "State Shinto" directives independently, including the Shrine Administration Organization, the Shrine Priest Collaboration Organization, and the Shrine Priest Training Organization.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|114}}

In 1940, the state created the [[Institute of Divinities]], which expanded control over state shrines and expanded the state's role. Up to that point, individual priests had been limited in their political roles, delegated to certain rituals and shrine upkeep, and rarely encouraged Emperor worship, or other aspects of state ideology, independently.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|97}}<ref name="Sakamoto" /> No shrine priest, or member of the [[Institute of Divinities]], had previously sought public office, which some scholars, such as Sakamoto, suggest is evidence of the state's use of Shinto to its own ends, rather than the Shinto priest's attempt to achieve political power.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|97}}<ref name="Sakamoto" />

==Ideological origins==
{{Main|Fukko Shinto|Kokugaku}}
[[File:Portrait of Atsutane Hirata.jpg|thumb|300px|Portrait of Atsutane Hirata, hanging scroll]]
Scholar Katsurajima Nobuhiro suggests the "suprareligious" frame on State Shinto practices drew upon the state's previous failures to consolidate religious Shinto for state purposes.<ref name=Okuyama>{{cite journal|last1=Okuyama|first1=Michiaki|title="State Shinto" in Recent Japanese Scholarship|journal=Monumenta Nipponica|date=2011|volume=66|issue=1|pages=123–145|doi=10.1353/mni.2011.0019|s2cid=201793308|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/monumenta_nipponica/v066/66.1.okuyama.html|url-access=subscription}}{{subscription required|via=[[Project MUSE]]}}</ref>{{rp|126}}<ref name=Nobuhiro>{{cite book|last1=Nobuhiro|first1=Katsurajima|title=Iwanami tetsugaku, shisō jiten, s.vv. 国家神道.|date=1998}}</ref>

[[Kokugaku]] ("National Learning") was an early attempt to develop ideological interpretations of Shinto, many of which would later form the basis of "State Shinto" ideology.<ref name="Hardacre">{{cite book|last1 = Hardacre|first1 = Helen|title = Shintō and the state, 1868–1988|date = 1991|publisher = Princeton University Press|location = Princeton|isbn = 9780691020525|edition = 1st paperback print.}}</ref>{{rp|66}} Kokugaku was an [[Edo period|Edo-period]] educational philosophy which sought a "pure" form of Japanese Shinto, stripped of foreign influences — particularly Buddhism.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|28}}

In the Meiji era, scholar [[Hirata Atsutane]] advocated for a return to "[[Kokugaku|National Learning]]" as a way to eliminate the influence of Buddhism and distill a nativist form of Shinto.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|16}} From 1868 to 1884, the disciples of Atsutane, along with other priests and scholars, lead a "Great Promulgation Campaign" advocating a fusion of nationalism and Shinto through worship of the Emperor. There had been no tradition of absolute obedience to the Emperor in Shinto since the early state-formation period, prior to the introduction of Buddhism.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|119}} This initiative failed to attract public support,<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|119}}<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|42}} and intellectuals dismissed the idea.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|51}} Author [[Fukuzawa Yukichi]] dismissed the campaign at the time as an "insignificant movement".<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|119}}

Despite its failure, Atsutane's nativist interpretation of Shinto would encourage a later scholar, {{ill|Ōkuni Takamasa|ja|大国隆正}}. Takamasa advocated control and standardization of Shinto practice through the "[[Department of Divinities|Department of Divinity]]".<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|18}} These activists urged leaders to consolidate diverse, localized Shinto practices into a standardized national practice, which they argued would unify Japan in support of the Emperor.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|17}}

The state responded by passing the {{nihongo|''Kami and Buddhas Separation Order''|神仏判然令|Shinbutsu Hanzenrei}} in 1868 and pursuing a policy of [[Haibutsu kishaku]] to remove Buddhist influence<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Josephson |first=Jason Ānanda |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/812924947 |title=The Invention of Religion in Japan |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-41235-1 |location=Chicago |pages=150–152 |oclc=812924947}}</ref> and re-establishing direct imperial control of the [[Department of Divinities|Department of Divinity]] ("jingikan") in 1869.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|17}}<ref name=":0" />{{rp|112}} This government bureaucracy encouraged the segregation of [[Kami]] spirits from Buddhist ones, and emphasized the divine lineage of the Emperor from the Sun Goddess, [[Amaterasu]].<ref name=":0" />{{rp|112}} This action sought to reverse what had been a [[Shinbutsu-shūgō|blending of Buddhist and Shinto]] practices in Japan.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}} That department was unsuccessful, and demoted to the [[Ministry of Divinities]].<ref name=":0" />{{rp|113}} In 1872, policy for shrines and other religions was taken over by the [[Ministry of Religion (Japan)|Ministry of Religion]].<ref name=":0" />{{rp|113}} The Ministry intended to standardize rituals across shrines, and saw some small success, but fell short of its original intent.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|113}}

===National Teaching===
In calling for the return of the [[Department of Divinities]] in 1874, a group of Shinto priests issued a collective statement calling Shinto a "National Teaching". That statement advocated for understanding Shinto as distinct from religions. Shinto, they argued, was a preservation of the traditions of the Imperial house and therefore represented the purest form of Japanese state rites.<ref name=Hardacre />{{rp|66}} These scholars wrote,

{{Blockquote|text=National Teaching is teaching the codes of national government to the people without error. Japan is called the divine land because it is ruled by the heavenly deities' descendants, who consolidate the work of the deities. The Way of such consolidation and rule by divine descendants is called Shinto.|author=Signed by various Shinto leaders, 1874|source=Source material<ref name=Keene />{{rp|122}}}}

Signatories of the statement included Shinto leaders, practitioners and scholars such as Tanaka Yoritsune, chief priest of [[Ise Grand Shrine|Ise shrine]]; Motoori Toyokai, head of [[Kanda Shrine|Kanda shrine]]; and Hirayama Seisai, head of a major tutelary shrine in Tokyo.<ref name=Hardacre />{{rp|68–69}} Nonetheless, this concept of Shinto as a "National Learning" failed to take hold in most popular conceptions of Shinto.<ref name=Hardacre />{{rp|73}}

=== Great Promulgation Campaign ===
{{Main|Taikyo Proclamation|Kyodo Shoku|Taikyo Institute}}
The Bureau of Shinto Affairs attempted to standardize the training of priests in 1875.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|58}}<ref name=":0" /> This created a division between state actors and local priests, who disagreed over the content of that standardized training. This debate concerned which kami, or spirits, to include in rituals— particularly, whether state kami should be included.<ref name=":0" /> This debate marked the rise of the Ise sect, which was open to a stronger state presence in Shinto, and the Izumo sect, which was not.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|58}}<ref name=":0" /> The Izumo sect advocated for recognition of the god [[Ōkuninushi]] as an equal to Amaterasu, which had theological consequences for emperor-worship. This debate, the "enshrinement debate", posed a serious ideological threat to the Meiji era government.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|58}}

A result of the enshrinement debate was that the [[Home Ministry|Ministry of the Interior]] concentrated on distinctions of "religion" and "doctrine", stating that "Shinto rituals (''shinsai'') are performed by the state whereas religious doctrines (''kyōhō'') are to be followed by individuals and families."<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}} Through this logic, Shinto rituals were a civic responsibility which all Japanese subjects were expected to participate in, whereas "religious" Shinto was a matter of personal faith and subject to freedom of religion.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}} This debate marked an early failure in crafting of a unified national Shinto practice, and led to a sharp decline in both state grants to Shinto shrines and to the appointment of Shinto priests to government positions.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|98}} This was the beginning of [[Secular Shrine Theory]] which explained the obligations unrelated to belief, and segregation [[Sect Shinto]] or groups based on beliefs.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023|reason=Hopefully will get a citation soon.}}. The [[Home Ministry|Ministry of Home Affairs]] took responsibility for shrines in 1877, and began to separate Shinto religious practices from indoctrination.<ref name="Zhong" />{{rp|59}} In 1887, the Ministry stopped financial support for most shrines, aside from select Imperial shrines tied to state functions.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|113}}

=== Yasukuni Shrine ===
{{Main|Yasukuni Shrine}}
[[File:Yasukuni Shrine 2012.JPG|thumb|300px|Yasukuni Shrine]]
In 1869 [[Yasukuni Shrine]] was first built under the name {{nihongo|''Tōkyō Shōkonsha''|東京招魂社|"shrine to summon the souls"}}.<ref>Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1963). ''The Vicissitudes of Shinto,'' pp.&nbsp;118–134.</ref>

It was originally not used often. For example in the [[Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874)|1874 Japanese invasion of Taiwan]] in which only 12 people were enshrined in [[Yasukuni Shrine]].<ref name=":03">{{Cite web |date=2013-08-21 |title=How Japan Honors Its War Dead: The Coexistence of Complementary Systems |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a02402/ |access-date=2022-09-11 |website=nippon.com |language=en |archive-date=2022-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911204532/https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a02402/ |url-status=live }}</ref><!-- From [[Shokonsha]] -->

However following the 1877 [[Satsuma Rebellion]], the Emperor had 6,959 souls of war dead enshrined at Tōkyō Shōkonsha.<ref name="nippon0821a">{{cite web |last=Hiyama |first=Yukio |date=21 August 2013 |title=How Japan Honors Its War Dead: The Coexistence of Complementary Systems |url=http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a02402/ |access-date=26 December 2013 |publisher=Nippon.com |archive-date=26 December 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131226101950/http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a02402/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1879, the shrine was renamed ''Yasukuni Jinja.'' The name ''Yasukuni'', quoted from the phrase「{{lang|zh-Hant|吾以靖國也}} in the classical-era Chinese text ''[[Zuo Zhuan]]'' (Scroll 6, 23rd Year of Duke Xi), literally means "Pacifying the Nation" and was chosen by the [[Meiji Emperor]].<ref>{{cite web |script-title=ja:基礎からわかる靖国神社問題】Q 戦前、戦後 どんな役割?|trans-title=[Understanding the Yasukuni Shrine issue from the basics] Q: What was its role before and after the war?|url=http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/feature/fe6700/fe_ya_05060901.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060831144856/http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/feature/fe6700/fe_ya_05060901.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=2006-08-31 |access-date=2007-01-30 |publisher=[[Yomiuri Shimbun]] |language=ja}}</ref><!-- From [[Yasukuni Shrine]] -->

Around this time, the state began to assign shrines with meanings rooted in patriotic nationalism; including a network of shrines dedicated to soldiers killed in battle. These assignments had no connection to the history of these local shrines, which led to resentment.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|120}}

In contemporary times, the shrine has become a [[Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine|controversial symbol]] for [[Japanese nationalism|Japanese nationalists]].<ref name="Loo" /><ref name="ForeignAffairs">{{cite journal|title=How to solve a problem like Yasukuni|journal=Foreign Affairs|date=March 2007|volume=86|issue=2|pages=88–89|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=24151465&site=ehost-live|access-date=9 January 2016}}{{subscription required|via=ebsco.com EBSCO]'s Academic Search Complete}}</ref> While many citizens of various political persuasions visit the site to honor relatives killed in battle, whose kami (spirits) are said to be enshrined there, so too are the kami of several [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East|class-A war criminals]]. These criminals were enshrined in a secret ceremony in 1978, which has raised the ire of Japanese [[Pacifism|pacifists]] and the international community.<ref name="ForeignAffairs"/>

No Emperor has visited the shrine since, and visits by [[Prime Minister of Japan|prime ministers]] and government officials to the shrine have been the subject of lawsuits and media controversy.<ref name="Ravitch">{{cite journal|last1=Ravitch|first1=Frank|title=THE JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER'S VISITS TO THE YASUKUNI SHRINE ANALYZED UNDER ARTICLES 20 AND 89 OF THE JAPANESE CONSTITUTION.|journal=Contemporary Readings in Law & Social Justice|date=2014|volume=6|issue=1|pages=124–136|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=97217822&site=ehost-live|access-date=9 January 2016|issn=1948-9137}}{{subscription required|via=ebsco.com EBSCO]'s Academic Search Complete}}</ref>

==In acquired and occupied territories==
[[File:Japanese Empire (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|300px|The Empire of Japan at its peak territorial holdings, in 1942]]
[[File:Hirohara Jinja's Haiden.jpg|thumb|[[Hirohara Shrine|Hirohara Jinja]]'s ''shamusho'' remains as the last Shinto shrine structure still intact in [[Southeast Asia]] after World War II]]
As the Japanese extended their territorial holdings, shrines were constructed with the purpose of hosting Japanese ''kami'' in occupied lands. This practice began with [[Naminoue Shrine]] in [[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]] in 1890.<ref>[http://k-amc.kokugakuin.ac.jp/DM/auth/dl-media;jsessionid=78EC0F1A0310FACEDE5B14F000047F74?data_id=57798&data_no=57798&version=0&mime_type=application/pdf&filename=EOS091126D.pdf  List of ''Kankokuheisha'' (官国幣社), p. 3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710201148/http://k-amc.kokugakuin.ac.jp/DM/auth/dl-media;jsessionid=78EC0F1A0310FACEDE5B14F000047F74?data_id=57798&data_no=57798&version=0&mime_type=application%2Fpdf&filename=EOS091126D.pdf |date=2019-07-10 }}; retrieved 2016-11-18.</ref> Major shrines built across Asia included [[Karafuto Shrine]] in [[Sakhalin]] in 1910 and [[Chōsen Jingū|Chosen Shrine]], [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea]], in 1919; these shrines were designated just under [[Ise Grand Shrine|Ise Shrine]] in national importance.<ref name= "Picken">{{cite book|last1=Picken|first1= Stuart D. B.|title=Sourcebook in shinto : selected documents|date=2004|publisher= Praeger|location=Westport, CT |isbn= 978-0-31326432-0}}</ref>{{rp|111}} Other shrines included [[Syonan Jinja|Shonan Shrine]] in [[Japanese occupation of Singapore|Singapore]], San'a Shrine in [[Hainan|Hainan Island]] ([[China under Japanese rule|China]]), Nankai Shrine in [[Japanese occupation of Hong Kong|Hong Kong]], [[Japanese Shrine]] in [[Kolonia]], [[Federated States of Micronesia]], Akatsuki Shrine in [[Ho Chi Minh City|Saigon]], the Hokoku Shrine in [[Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies|Java]]<ref name="Picken" />{{rp|112}} and the Yorioka Shrine in [[Japanese occupation of British Borneo|Sarawak]].

The Japanese built almost 400 shrines in [[Shinto in Korea|occupied Korea]], and worship was mandatory for Koreans.<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|125}} A statement from the head of the Home Office in Korea wrote about the shrines in a directive: "...they have an existence totally distinct from religion, and worship at the shrines is an act of patriotism and loyalty, the basic moral virtues of our nation."<ref name="Keene" />{{rp|125}}<ref name= "Holtom">{{cite book|last1=Holtom|first1= Daniel Clarence|title=Modern Japan and Shinto Nationalism: A Study of Present-day Trends in Japanese Religions|date=1963|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|page=167}}</ref>

By 1937, more than 500,000 [[Jingu Taima]] shrines had been set up across households in [[Shinto in Taiwan|Taiwan]]. Out of the 68 approved places of worship, 38 were constructed between 1937 and 1943. Schools and organizations were ordered to worship there.<ref name="taiwanpedia">{{Cite web |last=Tsai |first=Chintang |date=2011 |title=Kominka Movement |url=http://taiwanpedia.culture.tw/en/content?ID=3803 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130731160817/http://taiwanpedia.culture.tw/en/content?ID=3803 |archive-date=31 July 2013 |access-date=25 August 2013 |website=Encyclopedia of Taiwan}}</ref>

In [[Manchukuo|Manchuria]], The Japanese conducted scholarly research on the local folk religion and built 366 Shrines,  although without trying to impose Shinto on the native populations as it was the case in Korea and Taiwan, as the Manchurian State was conceived as a spiritually autonomous nation. while in the rest of the Chinese territory occupied by the Japanese, it is estimated that there are at least 51 shrines.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

At least fifteen State Shinto shrines were established in the [[South Seas Mandate]] in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Shinto was primarily practised by Japanese settlers, but also by indigenous populations.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://lir.byuh.edu/index.php/pacific/article/view/2297/2223|title=State Shinto in Micronesia During Japanese Rule, 1914-1945|first=Donald R.|last=Schuster|journal=Pacific Studies|volume=5|issue=2|year=1982|page=22|archive-date=2024-02-05|access-date=2024-02-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205052247/https://lir.byuh.edu/index.php/pacific/article/view/2297/2223|url-status=live}}</ref> The shrine at [[Jabor (Marshall Islands)|Jabor]] on [[Jaluit Atoll]] in the [[Marshall Islands]] was reportedly the easternmost shrine in the Japanese Empire.{{sfn|Schuster|1982|p=23}} There were seven shrines built in the [[Mariana Islands]], while other shrines were built on the more remote islands of [[Kosrae]], [[Chuuk State|Truk]], [[Pohnpei|Ponape]], [[Yap]] and [[Lamotrek]].{{sfn|Schuster|1982|p=23}} The largest shrine in the mandate territories was the [[Nan'yō Shrine]] in [[Palau]], with its [[Japanese settlement in Palau|significant Japanese population]]. It was located on the outskirts of [[Koror]] and dedicated in 1940.{{sfn|Schuster|1982|p=27}}

During the Second World War, Shinto shrines were built across Southeast Asia as Japan expanded southwards. Countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, [[Federated Malay States|Malaya]], and Indonesia witnessed the presence of Shinto shrines due to the imposition of State Shinto. In Indonesia alone, 11 shrines were constructed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=中島 |first1=三千男 |last2=津田 |first2=良樹 |last3=稲宮 |first3=康人 |date=2019-03-20 |title=旧オランダ領東印度(現インドネシア共和国)に建てられた神社について |trans-title=On shrines built in the former Dutch East Indies (now Republic of Indonesia). |url=https://kanagawa-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/12706 |journal=非文字資料研究センター News Letter |language=ja |issue=41 |pages=17–23 |issn=2432-549X |archive-date=2023-09-27 |access-date=2023-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927102312/https://kanagawa-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/12706 |url-status=live }}</ref> Infamously was [[Chinnan Shrine]] in [[Malang]], [[Java]], which stood as the southernmost Shinto shrine in Asia<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Inamiya |first1=Yasuhito |url=https://www.kokusho.co.jp/np/isbn/9784336063427/ |title=非文字資料研究叢書2 「神国」の残影 |last2=Nakajima |first2=Michio |date=November 2019 |publisher=Kokusho Publishing Association (国書刊行会) |isbn=978-4-336-06342-7 |language=ja |trans-title=Remnants of "Sacred Country" {{!}} Photographic Records of Sites of Overseas Shrines |access-date=2023-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801155416/https://www.kokusho.co.jp/np/isbn/9784336063427/ |archive-date=2023-08-01 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Hirohara Shrine]] in Medan, being the last still standing Shinto shrine in Southeast Asia.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |title=スマトラ.メダンにある日本の歴史遺産 紘原神社 - 「老人タイムス」私説 |url=https://blog.goo.ne.jp/bagus_2006/e/cc1381a7995a54876d386294b62930f4 |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=goo blog |language=ja}}</ref>
==Post-war==
{{Conservatism in Japan}}
On 1 January 1946, [[Hirohito|Emperor Shōwa]] issued a statement, sometimes referred to as the [[Humanity Declaration]], in which he quoted the Five Charter Oath of Emperor Meiji, announced that he was not an ''Akitsumikami'' (a divinity in human form) and that Japan was not built on myths.<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|39}} The [[Occupation of Japan|U.S. General Headquarters]] quickly defined and banned practices it identified as "State Shinto", but because the U.S. saw freedom of religion as a crucial aspect of post-war Japan it did not place a full ban on Japanese religious ceremonies involving the Emperor.<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|702}} [[Douglas MacArthur|General Douglas MacArthur]] and the State Department sought to maintain the authority of the Emperor to avoid "lasting resentment" among the Japanese people during the occupation and reconstruction of Japan.<ref name="Shibata" />{{rp|429}}<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|702}}

The Shinto Directive stated it was established to "free the Japanese people from direct or indirect compulsion to believe or profess to believe in a religion or cult officially designated by the state" and "prevent a recurrence of the perversion of Shinto theory and beliefs into militaristic and ultranationalistic propaganda".<ref name="Earhart" />{{rp|39}}

Today, while the Imperial House continues to perform Shinto rituals as "private ceremonies", participation and belief are no longer obligatory for Japanese citizens, nor funded by the state.<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|703}}

Other aspects of the government's "suprareligious" enforcement of Shinto practices, such as school trips to Shinto shrines, were forbidden.<ref name="Shibata" />{{rp|432}} Many innovations of Meiji-era Shinto are present in contemporary Shinto, such as a belief among priests that Shinto is a non-religious cultural practice that encourages national unity.<ref name="Hardacre" />{{rp|161}}

=== Controversies ===
Controversy has emerged during the funerals and [[Shinto wedding|weddings]] of members of the Japanese Imperial Family ([[Imperial House of Japan]]), as they present a merging of Shinto and state functions. The Japanese treasury does not pay for these events, which preserves the distinction between state and shrine functions.<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|703}}

The [[Association of Shinto Shrines]] is politically active in encouraging support for the Emperor,<ref name="Beckford" />{{rp|706}} including campaigns such as distributing [[amulet]]s from [[Ise Shrine]].<ref name="Breen">{{cite journal|last1=Breen|first1=John|title=Resurrecting the Sacred Land of Japan: The State of Shinto in the Twenty-First Century|journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies|date=1 July 2010|doi=10.18874/jjrs.37.2.2010.295-315|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2217777591.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220221606/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2217777591.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 February 2016|access-date=3 January 2016|doi-access=free|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}</ref> Ise Shrine was one of the most important shrines in State Shinto, symbolizing Amaterasu's presence and connection to the Emperor.<ref name="Loo">{{cite journal|last1=Loo|first1=Tze M.|title=Escaping its past: recasting the Grand Shrine of Ise|journal=Inter-Asia Cultural Studies|date=September 2010|volume=11|issue=3|pages=375–392|doi=10.1080/14649373.2010.484175|s2cid=144103233|issn=1469-8447}}{{subscription required|via=ebsco.com}}</ref> In contrast, the Meiji-era [[Yasukuni Shrine]] is frequently the target of State Shinto controversies, mostly owing to its enshrinement of [[Yasukuni Shrine Controversy|Japanese war criminals]].<ref name="Loo" />

Conservative politicians and nationalist interest groups continue to advocate for returning the Emperor to a central political and religious position, which they believe will restore a national sense of unity.<ref name="Shibata" />{{rp|428}}<ref name=Okuyama />

==See also==
* [[Kokutai]]
* [[Emperor of Japan]]
* [[Positive Christianity]]
* [[Shinto sects and schools]]
* [[Yasukuni Shrine Controversy|Yasukuni Shrine controversy]]
* [[Statism in Shōwa Japan]]
* [[Nippon Kaigi]]
* [[Secular Shrine Theory]]
* [[State religion]]
* [[Religion in politics]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{State Shinto}}
{{Conservatism}}
{{JapanEmpireNavbox}}
{{Religion and politics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:State Shinto| ]]
[[Category:Japanese nationalism]]
[[Category:Government of the Empire of Japan]]
[[Category:Shinto]]
[[Category:Kokkashugi]]
[[Category:Conservatism in Japan]]
[[Category:History of Shinto]]
[[Category:Shinto in Japan]]