Part 27: Kokutai no Hongi – Loyalty and Patriotism

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 text states:

“Our country is established with the emperor, who is a descendant of Amaterasu Ōmikami, […]. For this reason, to serve the emperor and to receive the emperor’s great august will as our own is the rationale of making our historical ‘life’ live in the present; and on this is based the morality of the people.”

The aim is to revive a historical way of life where the people surrender their individuality to follow the emperor’s will, which is an extension of Amaterasu’s divine will. The text critiques individualism, framing it as a misunderstanding of the relationship between the individual and the nation. It explains:

“An individual is an existence belonging to a state and its history that forms the basis of his origin and is fundamentally one body with it…. Our relationship between sovereign and subject is by no means a shallow, horizontal relationship, such as [one] implying a correlation between ruler and citizen, but is a relationship springing from a basis transcending this correlation and is that of ‘dying to self and returning to [the] One,’ in which the basis is not lost.”

To be Japanese, according to this section, means to willingly follow the divine emperor without question and sacrifice individuality for the greater good of society. This concept is referred to as living according to the “Way of Loyalty.”

Kokutai no Hongi – Filial Piety

In the section on Filial Piety, the traditional ancestor cult is redefined as a national institution. The text explains:

“In our country, filial piety is a Way of the highest importance. Filial piety originates with one’s family as its basis and, in its larger sense, has the nation as its foundation. The direct object of filial piety is one’s parents, but in its relationship with the emperor finds a place within loyalty.”

Here, the people’s relationship with the emperor is framed as an extension of their familial relationships. Family ties form the foundation of the nation, and the text shifts the focus from individual relationships within the family to the collective duty owed to ancestors and, by extension, to the nation.

The text describes family bonds as transcending love and rooted in reverence and devotion to shared ancestry:

“A family is not a body of people established for profit, nor is it anything founded on such a thing as individual or correlative love. Founded on a natural relationship of begetting and being begotten, it has reverence and affection as its kernel and is a place where everybody, from the very moment of his birth, is entrusted with his destiny. The life of a family in our country is not confined to the present life of a household of parents and children but, beginning with the distant ancestors, is continued eternally by the descendants.”

This view connects the family to the past, emphasizing that familial loyalty binds society and ensures its continuity. The idea of familial loyalty, present in both kokugaku and kokutai ideologies, is central to Japan’s civil religion.

Loyalty and Filial Piety as One

The text argues that Japan uniquely combines family loyalty with loyalty to the nation, creating a “great family” centered on the imperial household. It distinguishes Japan from other Asian nations with similar familial values:

“The true characteristics of filial piety in our country are its perfect conformity with our national polity by heightening still further the relationship between morality and nature. Our country is a great family nation, and the imperial household is the head family of the subjects and the nucleus of national life…. In China, too, filial duty is important, and they say that it is the source of a hundred deeds. In India, too, gratitude to parents is taught. But their filial piety is not of a kind related to or based on the nation. Filial piety is a characteristic of Oriental morals; but it is in its convergence with loyalty that we find a characteristic of our national morals, and this is a factor without parallel in the world.”

This framing positions Japan as exceptional, a recurring theme in the nation’s civil religion. By tying the widely accepted practice of ancestor worship to the state and emperor, the government reinforces loyalty to the nation as a natural extension of existing beliefs.

Significance for Civil Religion

Kokutai no Hongi serves as a tool to align traditional values, such as filial piety, with the government’s desired ideology of loyalty to the emperor and nation. The text seeks to connect the people’s existing practices, like ancestor worship, to the civil religion promoted by the state. By presenting Japan as a unified “great family” with the emperor at its head, the text strengthens the civil religion’s narrative that loyalty to the emperor is both a sacred and natural duty. Through this linkage, the government effectively merges individual devotion to family with collective devotion to the nation, deepening the reach and influence of civil religion across society.

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