Part 11: National Rituals

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 supposed to be temporary, and after it had achieved its goal, it would be closed down. Okuni Takamasa declared that the council’s goal was to uphold loyalty to the family and the state. This sat well with the former samurai, who chaired the council because believed in this before being appointed to the council. Okuni and his followers wished to reach the ideal of tenno shinsai (empirical performance of the rituals). When this goal had been achieved the council’s job was over.

The capital was moving from Kyoto to Tokyo, and so the ritual complex of the new palace was still unfinished. Because of this, the emperor had to travel to Kyoto to perform the rituals. He had taken over the ritual performance when he came of age in 1868. The performance of his first ritual happened at the mythological emperor Junmu’s grave. It included the military leaders swearing an oath of loyalty to the emperor. At the same time, the emperor declared Seisei Itchi (Unity of religion and government) to his predecessors. None of these aspects were typical of the emperor’s coming-of-age ritual and had been added.

During the move of the Meiji Emperor and his family to Tokyo, all traces of Buddhism were erased from the royal family. The new ritual complex no longer contained any kind of Buddhist artifacts. These were instead given to the Senyuji temple, where the old emperors were buried. Besides this, all members of the royal family who were monks had to recede their religious oaths and stop practicing Buddhism. The tradition of naming temples chokugansho (places of royal worship) was also ended. Instead, the imperial regalia became more visible to the people. These are historical objects said to have been handed down to the first emperor from Amaterasu (The Shinto sun goddess). They consist of a mirror, a jewel, and a sword. The mirror stayed in the ritual complex, but the sword and the jewel would travel with the emperor whenever he left the palace for more than a day. This use of the imperial regalia could be an attempt at giving the emperor more authority through his divine lineage or an attempt to give Shinto more authority through its association with the royal family. At this time in history, it was most likely the latter. Especially because Shinto had only just gotten its own identity from Buddhism and so needed to build its separate authority. The emperor already had authority and wouldn’t need an almost newly established religion to support his rule.

In 1873 the ritual calendar of the royal family became standardized and in 1878 more rituals were added. Among the rituals were rituals of the solstices and rituals for farming as well as other date-specific rituals, such as a New Year’s ritual. The people were now asked to take part in these national rituals by worshipping the kami the emperor’s ritual focused on. The most important rituals were centered on the previous emperors and the ancestors. All these rituals were divided into highest, middle, and lowest and based on the classification more or less ministers would be present. With the standardization of the ritual calendar, the Jingikan fulfilled its goal and became a ministerium instead of a government chamber.

The standardization of Shinto rituals performed by the court and the people and the declaration of Saisei Itchi was a confident step towards a top-down civil religion. By making the emperor the main performer of the national rituals and at the same time the leader of the nation, sanctifies the state. The connection between religion and the state is the foundation for a civil religion. There is a very clear attempt at giving Shinto more authority by connecting it very closely with the emperor. Seeing as the emperor is already an authoritative figure in the eyes of the people, his religion gains this same authority. So through the empirical ritual complex, the emperor’s use of the imperial regalia and the focus on performing Shinto rituals in unison, all were a part of giving Shinto its own identity and authority with the Japanese people.

The empirical regalier and the emperor himself are together with Shinto the foundation for State Shinto. At the same time, the emperor is the state leader, and through his sanctity and Shinto the nation itself becomes sanctified. This connection is seen in a letter sent to the government after the Jingikan closed down.

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