Notoriously boring

This is part 30 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the Allied forces occupied the country. One of their first actions was to have the Japanese emperor renounce his divine status in a speech to the…

This is part 29 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. Kokutai no Hongi was an influential text widely read and known throughout Japan. It was used in education and emphasized that individualism had no place in the Japanese social ethos. Instead, the Japanese…

This is part 28 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. Kokutai no Hongi emphasizes the historical presence of harmony in Japanese society, portraying it as the foundation of the nation’s development and achievements. According to the text, this harmony is absent in countries…

This is part 27 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. In Kokutai no Hongi, loyalty to the emperor is presented as the fundamental purpose of life for Japanese citizens. This loyalty is tied to the emperor’s divine lineage and Japan’s historical identity. The…

This is part 26 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. In 1937, the Japanese Ministry of Education published Kokutai no Hongi (The Fundamentals of Our National Polity). Initially printed in 300,000 copies, the text sold over 2 million copies by 1945. Its primary…

This is part 25 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. With the Ise Reformation in 1868, a ranking system for Shinto shrines was established. Among the ranks was the designation of “Special Shrine,” reserved for honoring historical loyalists to the emperor and soldiers…

This is part 24 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. Religious Freedom Religious freedom was introduced in Japan with the Meiji Constitution in 1889, guaranteed under Article 28, which states: “Japanese subjects shall, within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not…

This is part 23 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. Tokutomi Soho was not the only figure to use the media as a tool for spreading civil religion. On May 26, 1940, the national newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun published an article titled A Policy…

This is part 22 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. After World War II, Tokutomi Soho was arrested as a Class-A war criminal for his role in promoting support for the war. Although he spent two years under house arrest, he was ultimately…

This is part 21 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. After the Mukden Incident and the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the League of Nations deemed Japan’s actions in China a “threat to peace” under Article 11. In 1932, a commission concluded…

This is part 20 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. So far, we have examined examples of top-down civil religion, where the Japanese government successfully propagated a national ideology. However, as seen in the discussions of kokugaku (national learning) and kokutai (national essence),…

This is part 19 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. As mentioned earlier, The Imperial Rescript on Education was distributed to every school in Japan, along with a portrait of the emperor. These items were treated as sacred and stored in designated areas…

This is part 18 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. Published around the same time as The Imperial Rescript on Education, The Extended Meaning was a widely circulated interpretation of the rescript’s significance for Japan. The text begins by positioning Japan as the…

This is part 17 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. The introduction to The Imperial Rescript on Education is written in a highly formal style, with prominent use of personal pronouns to give the impression that the text was authored by the emperor…

This is part 16 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan’s education system was structured around the class system. Schools for the samurai class were exclusive, while other educational options were available for lower classes. The length and quality…

This is part 15 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. Kato Genchi was one of the most prominent Shinto scholars of the 20th century. In 1921, he was appointed as a lecturer at Tokyo Imperial University, where he taught Shinto studies. Later, in…

This is part 14 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. In 1889, the leaders of the Meiji Restoration completed what became known as the Meiji Constitution. Article 3 of the constitution states: “The sacred Throne was established at the time when the heavens…

This is part 13 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. In 1868, the Meiji Emperor sent a letter to the Japanese people, expressing his concern about how distant the imperial family had become from the public during the Tokugawa period. However, he framed…

This is part 12 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. In 1873, after the Council of Gods was turned into a government ministry, a group of Shinto priests sent a letter to the Japanese government. They called for the Council of Gods to…

This is part 11 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. The new Meiji government was a two-chamber system. It had a worldly chamber called the Dojakan (State Council) and the Jingikan (Council of the Gods), which was a religious chamber. The Jingikan was…

This is part 10 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the rest of the series here. The Great Promulgation Campaign was an attempt by the Japanese government to start a state religion. The campaign lasted from 1870 to 1875 when it was handed over to the Ise Shrine. Before…

This is part 9 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the other parts here. At the same time as Shinto’s separation from Buddhism, other changes were made to Shinto’s ritual practices. The reformation started in 1868, but really took off after Urata Chōmin became appointed to Jingikan (Chamber of…

This is part 8 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the other parts here. Shinron: “Introduction” In the introduction of Shinron, we get a great view of how Aizawa sees the world. With the emperor as a direct descendant of Amaterasu, Japan is the head and shoulders of the…

This is part 7 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the other parts here. The word Kokutai is translated to national politics or national structure. The term was first used by Aizawa Seishisai (1782-1863). He was a Confucian scholar of the Mito school, which focused on isolationism, nativism, and…

This is part 6 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the other parts here. The genre of Kokugaku which starts with Hirata Atsutane and his later followers Sato Nobuhiro and Okuni Takamasa would speak of “The Divine Age”. “The Divine Age” was a time when the Japanese lived after…