Shintō Shrines and Secularism in Modern Japan, 1890–1945

From the late eighteenth century to WWII, shrine Shintō came to be seen as a secular institution by the government, academics, and activists in Japan (Isomae 2014; Josephson 2012, Maxey 2014). However, research thus far has largely focused on the political and academic discourses surrounding the dev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Religion in Japan
Main Author: Shimizu, Karli (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2017
In: Journal of Religion in Japan
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Kashihara Jingū / Secularism / Kokka-Shintō / Modernity / History 1890-1945
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AF Geography of religion
AG Religious life; material religion
BN Shinto
KBM Asia
KCD Hagiography; saints
TJ Modern history
TK Recent history
Further subjects:B Religion secularism Shintoism modernization nation-state center-periphery
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:From the late eighteenth century to WWII, shrine Shintō came to be seen as a secular institution by the government, academics, and activists in Japan (Isomae 2014; Josephson 2012, Maxey 2014). However, research thus far has largely focused on the political and academic discourses surrounding the development of this idea. This article contributes to this discussion by examining how a prominent modern Shintō shrine, Kashihara Jingū founded in 1890, was conceived of and treated as secular. It also explores how Kashihara Jingū communicated an alternate sense of space and time in line with a new Japanese secularity. This Shintō-based secularity, which located shrines as public, historical, and modern, was formulated in antagonism to the West and had an influence that extended across the Japanese sphere. The shrine also serves as a case study of how the modern political system of secularism functioned in a non-western nation-state.
ISSN:2211-8349
Contains:In: Journal of Religion in Japan
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00602006