This is part 3 of my series on Shinto as a civil religion, you can find the other parts here.
The Meiji Restoration was one of the biggest upheavals of Japanese culture in 200 years when it occurred in 1868. At the beginning of the 1800s, the Americans, the British and the Russians started to demand that Japan lift its trade embargo. They wanted Japan to start trading with them. After 200 years of isolation, it was becoming increasingly clear, that the price had been technology. Japan was hopelessly behind when it came to military technology. This was demonstrated most directly when the three countries moved their fleets closer and closer to Japan’s borders. The pressure from the outside became so great, that in the end, the shogun signed trading treaties with Russia, England, and USA. These treaties obviously favored the occupying countries. Because of this they became known among the Japanese as “the Unfair Treaties”. The whole situation created great tension among the citizens of Japan. The pressure was especially palpable among the ruling Daimyo (kind of like governors in the modern USA, but they had private armies). The result was the overthrowing of the ruling elite and the reinstatement of the emperor as head of state. He still didn’t have any real power to rule. Instead, the winning team established a two-chamber system. One chamber took care of “worldly” things, while the other’s mission was to restructure the ritual system that the court was following (based on Shinto). This was only temporary; when the emperor could practice the rituals himself, it was to be dissolved.
With this new system, came new laws and practices. One of the first was the separation of Shinto and Buddhism.
If you have any comments or questions please write to me here, or on my Instagram!
Sources
Beasly, W.G. The Meiji Restoration. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California: 1972.
Hardacre, Helen. Shinto: a History.
Leave a Reply