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Notes
This paper is a revised and expanded version of a presentation given on 8 June 1998 at the French Senate (Palais du Luxembourg) as part of the symposium “La naissance de la modernité au Japon” [The Birth of Modernity in Japan], organised by the Centre for Japanese Studies at Inalco. I would like to thank Mieko Macé, Ninomiya Masayuki, Pascal Griolet and Emmanuel Lozerand for their careful reading of this text.
When Empress Dowager Shōken Kōtaigō 昭憲皇太后 died on 11 April 1914, it was decided that she should receive the same rites as her husband. This joint honouring of an empress and her imperial husband can only be explained as mirroring the tradition of the Western royal courts. To my knowledge, it was unprecedented in Japan.
Note that Meiji jingū is not a mausoleum; Emperor Meiji’s tomb is located in Fushimi, Kyoto.
Naitō Masatoshi, Mato edo no toshikeikaku (Tokyo: Yōsensha, 1996), 207.
Translator’s note: According to Meiji jingū itself, 3 million people visited the shrine during the first 3 days of 2017. http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/english/highlights/1.html
The Meiji Constitution (Dai Nihon teikoku kenpō 大日本帝国憲法), promulgated on 11 February 1889. Railways: the first line from Tokyo to Yokohama opened in 1872; the Tōkai-dō line linking Tokyo to Kobe was completed in 1889. Electricity: the Tokyo Electric Company (Tokyo Dentō Gaisha 東京電燈会社) was founded in 1883 and an electric lighting system was installed in Tokyo in 1888.
Leaflet available at the shrine. See also Anzu Motohiko and Umeda Yoshihiko (eds), Shintō jiten (Osaka: Hori Shoten, 1968).
Similar wording can be found in poem 1050, book 6, of the Man’yōshū 万葉集: O-Yashima / the dominion under heaven / Of our Sovereign / a god in living flesh […]. 明津神吾皇之天下八嶋之中尓 (後略). Aki-tsu-kami waga oho-kimi-no ame no shita yashima no uchi ni. English translation taken from The Manyoshu: The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation of One Thousand Poems, trans. William Theodore De Bary (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969). For more information on the origins of the modern use of this expression, see Yamamoto Shichihei, Arahitogami no sōsakushatachi (Tokyo: Bungei shunjū, 1983).
For an overview of the Shintō schools of the era, see Kiyohara Sadao, Shintō shi
(Tokyo: Kōseikaku,1942), 266–92. For a more detailed study see Nishida Nagao, Nihon shintō shi kenkyū (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1981).
Figures taken from Shūkyō nenkan Heisei gonen-hen 宗教年鑑平成5年編 [Directory of Religions, 1993], produced by the Agency for Cultural Affairs [Bunka-chō] (Tokyo: Gyōsei, 1994).
Sect Shintō currently consists of 80 religious groups established during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. New Religion Shintō accounts for 48 groups established more recently. Based on Shūkyō nenkan Heisei gonen-hen, 62–75.
Yoshida Shintō, which appeared during the Muromachi period, became the quasi-official Shintō, serving as representative for the Magistrate of Temples and Shrines (jisha bugyō 寺社奉行), a kind of minister for religions within the bakufu. Since the 1665 Shosha negi kannushi hatto 諸社禰宜神主法度 (Regulations Governing Shintō Shrines, Senior Priests and Other Shrine Functionaries), all Japanese shrine priests had to request a permit (shintō saikyo-jō 神道裁許状) from the Yoshida house, the head member of which carried the title Jingi Kanryō Chōjō 神祇管領長上 (Head of Shrine and Kami Affairs).
Although it was less actively involved with the authorities, this school benefited from the restored prestige of the imperial house and the mass popular pilgrimages to the Ise shrines.
Interpretation of native Japanese divinities by Tendai Buddhism. It began with monks worshipping the deities of Mount Hiei (Hiei-zan 比叡山), where Saichō 最澄 (767-822), the founder of the Tendai sect, had lived since the establishment of the capital at Heian-kyō. The shrine dedicated to him, Hie Taisha 日吉大社, celebrated Sannō Gongen 山王権現 (the Mountain King Avatar) until the Meiji Restoration.
Tenkai engaged in a bitter dispute with Bonshun 梵舜 (1552–1623), of the Yoshida house, in order to secure this right. Bonshun was the brother of Yoshida Kanemi 吉田兼見 (1535–1610), the man who successfully organised the deification of Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉 (1536–1598).
The Chiyo motokusa 千代もとくさ, also known as the Kana shōri 仮名性理, is attributed to Fujiwara Seika 藤原惺窩 (1561–1619), one of the first Confucian scholars in modern Japan. He wrote: “What in China is called the Way of the Sages and in Japan the Way of the Gods differ in name but not in spirit”. もろこしにしては儒道といひ、日本にては神道といふ名はかはり、こころは一つなり。Quoted in Kishimoto Yoshio 岸本芳雄, Shintō nyūmon – Shintō to sono ayumi 神道入門-神道とそのあゆみ (Tokyo: Kenpaku-sha, 1982), 49–50.
The name suika shintō 垂加神道 was later given to the Shintō school founded by the Confucian scholar Yamazaki Ansai 山崎闇斎 (1618–1682) after he received the teachings of the “Yoshida tradition” (Yoshida shintō-den 吉田神道伝) in 1671. See Yamazaki Ansai, Suikashago 垂加社語, in Kinsei shintō ron – Zenki kokugaku 近世神道論-前期国学, ed. Taira Shigemichi and Abe Akio (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten 岩波書店, 1972), 119–28.
These shrines have no appointed head priest. The rites celebrated there are not overseen by any higher authority (as long as public order is respected) and instead reflect local customs.
In the same way that Jean-Pierre Vernant speaks of “the religion of the Greeks”.
The word does appear in the Nihon shoki 日本書紀 (720) but always in relation to Buddhism. It was never used during the Nara and Heian periods when the rites offered to the heavenly and earthly gods (jingi 神祇) were codified.
Kuroda Toshio, “Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion”, Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 7, no. 1 (1981): 1–21.
Sugawara Shinkai, Sannō shintō no kenkyū 山王神道の研究 (Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1992).
This commonly used term is useful when referring to the official form of Shintō from the Meiji period until 1945; however, it appears to date back only to the Japanese translation of the Shintō Directive (Shintō shirei 神道指令), issued on 15 December 1945 by the Allied occupation forces. This directive ordered that all ties between the state and Shintō be immediately severed. See Murakami Shigeyoshi, Kokka shintō to minshū shūkyō 国家神道と民衆宗教, (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1982), 70–72. Yamaguchi Teruomi, for his part, considers Katō Genchi to have coined the notion of State Shintō when he distinguished kokka-teki shintō 国家的神道 (state Shintō) from shūkyō-teki shintō 宗教的神道 (religious Shintō) in 1935. Yamaguchi Teruomi, Meiji kokka to shūkyō 明治国家と宗教 (Tokyo: Tokyo daigaku shuppan kai, 1999), 2.
Pierre-Étienne Will, Leçon inaugurale au Collège de France de la chaire d’histoire de la Chine moderne, Collège de France, no. 115 (1992); republished as “Chine moderne et sinologie”, Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, no. 1 (Jan-Feb 1994): 7–26.
Haga Tōru (ed.), Bunmei toshite no Tokugawa Nihon (Tokyo: Chūō kōron-sha, 1993).
Ōishi Shinzaburō and Nakane Chie (eds), Edo jidai no kindai-ka (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1991). English translation: Tokugawa Japan. The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan, trans. Conrad Totman (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1990).
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (London: Routledge, 1992). Available online at: https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/podzim2013/SOC571E/um/_Routledge_Classics___Max_Weber-The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism__Routledge_Classics_-Routledge__2001_.pdf
Ibid. “Authors Introduction”, XXVIII–XXXII. Cited by Will, “Chine moderne et sinologie”, 12.
Loup Verlet, La malle de Newton (Paris: Gallimard, 1993); Jean-Paul Auffray, Newton ou le triomphe de l’alchimie (Paris: Le Pommier, 2000). Auffray stresses the fundamental unity of Newton’s work.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 38.
See for example Bunmei ron no gairyaku 文明論の概略 by Fukuzawa Yukichi 福沢諭吉 (1834–1901), published in 1875; English translation by David A. Dilworth and G. Cameron Hurst III, An Outline of a Theory of Civilization (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009). For more on the term kaika, see Maruyama Masao, Kōza Gendai rinri 11 講座現代倫理11, (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1959), reprinted in Maruyama Masao shū 8 丸山真男集8 (Toyko: Iwanami shoten, 1996), 70.
See for example Sonoda Minoru 薗田稔, Shintō no sekai 神道の世界 [The World of Shintō] (Tokyo: Kōbun-dō, 1998). Chapter 6 is titled “Shizen to toshi wo chōwa-suru o-yashiro” 自然と都市を調和するお社 [The Shrine that Restores Harmony Between Nature and the City].
Mieko Macé, “Le chinois classique comme moyen d’accès à la modernité – la réception des concepts médicaux occidentaux dans le Japon des XVIIIe et XIXe siècle”, Daruma - Revue d’études japonaises, no. 4 (autumn 1998): 102, footnote 2, quotation of an 1892 speech given by Ishiguro Tadanori (1845–1941), founder of the Japanese Army’s medical corps. Japanese intellectuals such as Takano Chōei and Watanabe Kazan may have used the same expression 50 years earlier, in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Motoori Norinaga stressed the importance of the “ancient way” (kodō 古道), meaning the primeval way, as expressed (according to certain National Learning scholars) in Ancient Shintō (ko-shintō 古神道).
The vast majority of emperors receiving rites at a shrine were only given this mark of respect after Meiji; for those venerated prior to the Restoration, the process was extremely long.
François Macé, “Les rites d’avènement au Japon : la création d’une tradition”, Cipango - Cahiers d’études japonaises, no. 1 (January 1992): 13-34, and “Yoshida Kanemi (1535–1610) et la modernité du shintō. Le Yoshida shintō”, in Japon pluriel II - Actes du deuxième colloque de la société française des études japonaises, ed. Jean-Pierre Berthon and Josef Kyburz (Arles: Philippe Picquier, 1998), 213–20. As discussed earlier in this paper, the post-modern deification of the emperor obviously poses the problem of his status as sovereign.
The personnel from the domains that helped bring about the restoration, in particular Tsuwano.
Although the principle of political and religious unity claimed to have ancient roots, the expression only gathered strength during the Nanboku-chō – or Northern and Southern Courts – period, in particular with Edo-period thinkers such as the Confucianist Yamaga Sokō山鹿素行 (1622–1685) or with philosophers combining Confucian and Shintō concepts, like Yamazaki Ansai 山崎闇齋 (1618–1682). The idea was later championed by scholars from the Mito school and of course by those hoping to revive Ancient Shintō (ko-shintō).
Gaston Renondeau, “Le shintō d’État”, in Histoire des religions III, Encyclopédie de la Pléiade, ed. Henri-Charles Puech (Paris: Gallimard, 1976), 511–19.
Higashi Yoriko, Norinaga shingaku no kōzō - kakōsareta shindai 宣長神学の構造-仮構された神代 (Tokyo: Perikan-sha, 1999), 26 et seq.
For Eric Voegelin, modern states were established in opposition to true religion yet created new, more efficient and dangerous forms of religion which he calls “political religions”. See Eric Voegelin, Modernity Without Restraint: The Political Religions, the New Science of Politics, and Science, Politics, and Gnosticism, ed. Manfred Henningsen (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999).
On the history of the Jingi-kan, see Francine Hérail, Fonctions et fonctionnaires japonais au début du XIe siècle (Paris: POF, 1977), 24–34 and Kumagai Yasutaka 熊谷保孝, Ritsuryō kokka to jingi 律令国家と神祇 (Tokyo: Dai’ichi shobō, 1982). The seven ministries overseen by the Dajō-kan were created in 1868 (Keiō 4). In 1869, all of these “kan”, except the Dajō-kan and the Jingi-kan, became “shō”.
Joseph Kyburz, “Telle une bouffée de vent divin. Le culte d’Ise au début de l’ère Meiji”, Cipango - Cahiers d’études japonaises, no. 7 (autumn 1998): 181–214.
Having previously been one division of a kan (ministry), each shō now functioned as a ministry in its own right.
Shrine Shintō, the official form of the religion, must thus be distinguished from Folk Shintō and Sect Shintō. Despite strict supervision and certain forms of persecution prior to 1945, for example against Tenri-kyō 天理教and Ōmoto-kyō 大本教, the government was unable to control all forms of Shintō. For more information on Ōmoto-kyō, see Jean-Pierre Berthon, Omoto - Espérance millénariste d’une nouvelle religion japonaise, Cahiers d’études et de documents sur les religions du Japon vol. 6 (Paris: Atelier Alpha bleue, 1985); on Tenri-kyō, see Kyōri kara genkyō made Tenri-kyō, ed. Dōyū-sha (Tenri: Tenri-kyō dōyū-sha, 1982); on the vitality and modernity of folk beliefs, see Anne Bouchy, Les oracles de Shirakata (Arles: Philippe Picquier, 1992), and Laurence Caillet, La maison Yamazaki (Paris: Plon, 1991).
See Hérail, Fonctions et fonctionnaires, 24–25.
Morioka Kiyomi, Kindai no shūrakujinja to kokka tōsei 近代の集落神社と国家統制 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1987). This movement began in 1898.
The final step in separating State Shintō from other religions came about in 1900, when two new administrative offices were created within the Home Ministry: the Jinja-kyoku 神社局, or Bureau of Shrines, and the Shūkyō-kyoku 宗教局, or Bureau of Religions, which oversaw Sect Shintō, Buddhism, Christianity and all other religious movements.
For more information on the influence of Christian communities on Meiji religious policy, see Yamaguchi Teruomi, Meiji kokka to shūkyō, note 12.
Raymond Aron, Democracy and Totalitarianism (Worthing: Littlehampton Book Services, 1968), on the subject of “the sacred history of Soviet doctrine”.
Shintō weddings, or shinzen kekkon 神前結婚 (marriage before the gods), developed rapidly during the late Meiji period in imitation of the rites performed by the imperial family. The first ceremony of this type to be held was the wedding (go-kongi 御婚儀) of Crown Prince Yoshihito, the future Emperor Taishō and son of Emperor Meiji, in May 1900. His wedding was celebrated before the Kashiko-dokoro 賢所, which houses the sacred mirror of the goddess Amaterasu at the imperial palace, as set out in the Imperial Household Law of 1889 (Kōshitsu tenpan 皇室典範).
Translation taken from William Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, Sources of Japanese Tradition. 1600 to 2000. Part Two: 1868 to 2000 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 108–09. For more information on the thought behind the Kyōiku chokugo, see Matsumoto Sannosuke, Meiji shisō shi Kindai kokka no sōsetsu kara ko no kakusei made 明治思想史 近代国家の創設から個の覚醒まで (Tokyo: Shinyōsha, 1996), 106 et seq. The theme of “the glory of … Our Nation”, waga kokutai no seika 我が国体の精華, will be discussed in greater detail at the end of this paper.
Yoshida Kanemi’s Shintō dai’i 神道大意 reaffirmed Confucian criticisms of Buddhism while challenging celibacy and the abstention from eating meat. See François Macé, “Yoshida Kanemi (1535–1610) et la modernité du shintō. Le Yoshida shintō”, in Japon pluriel II - Actes du deuxième colloque de la société française des études japonaises, ed. Jean-Pierre Berthon and Josef Kyburz (Arles: Philippe Picquier, 1998), 218.
Myths were almost completely eradicated.
J. Victor Koschmann, The Mito Ideology: Discourse, Reform, and Insurrection in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1790–1864 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 53. See also the critical reading of Motoori Norinaga’s Naobi no mitama by Aizawa Seishisai, “Toku naobimitama” 読直毘霊 (1858), in Nihon jurin sōsho 日本儒林叢書, ed. Seki Giichirō, vol. 4 (Tokyo: Ōtori shuppan, 1971).
See note 52 and the accompanying text.
Tsuda Sōkichi, “Bungaku ni arawaretaru waga kokumin shisō no kenkyū” 文学に現はれたる我が国民思想の研究, in Tsuda Sōkichi zenshū bekkan 5 (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1966), 438.
Naitō, Mato edo no toshikeikaku, 203–04.
As an illustration, one of the two universities responsible for training shrine priests was called Kokugaku-in daigaku 国学院大学 (National Learning University).
Although Keichū worked under the authority of his master and friend Shimokōbe Chōryū 下河辺長流 (who died in 1686), poetic tradition did not systematically advocate a return to Japan’s most ancient history. See Emmanuel Lozerand, Naissance de l’histoire de la littérature japonaise (draft version), 60.
François Macé, “Les Etudes nationales entre raison, religion et idéologie”, in Tradition et modernité quelques aspects du Japon d’Edo (1603-1867) et de Meiji (1868-1912), ed. Sakae Murakami-Giroux and Christiane Séguy (Strasbourg: Université Marc Bloch, 1999), 74.
See, for example, Hayashi Razan and his table of relations between five Shintō deities, the five elements (godai 五大) and the five Buddhas. Hayashi Razan, Shintō denju, 39.
Parallels have thus been drawn between Itō Jinsai, Ogyū Sorai, Motoori Norinaga and even Yanagita Kunio. See, among others, Kogaku no shisō, ed. Takeuchi Seiichi 竹内整一 et al (Tokyo: Perikan-sha, 1994).
The first decree, on the 17th day of the 3rd month of Meiji 1, was supplemented on the 28th of that month, then on the 24th of the next month, to form the 12-article long Shinbutsu hanzen no rei 神仏判然の令 [Shintō and Buddhism Separation Order].
Anne-Marie Bouchy (Annu-Mari Busshī), Shashin gyōja Jitsuri no shugendō 捨身行者 実利の修験道 (Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten, 1977). A good example of the destruction wrought by the shinbutsu bunri policy is presented in Allan Grapard, “Japan’s Ignored Cultural Revolution: the Separation of Shinto and Buddhist Divinities in Meiji (shinbutsu bunri) and a Case Study: Tōnomine”, in History of Religion, vol. 23, no. 3 (Feb. 1984): 241–65.
For an example of syncretism, see François Macé, “Pensée cloisonnée et pensée syncrétique, temps humain et temps divin, le problème du Gengenshū de Kitabatake Chikafusa”, in Bouddhisme et cultures locales - Quelques cas de réciproques adaptations. Actes du colloque franco-japonais de septembre 1991, ed. Fukui Fumimasa and Gérard Fussman (Paris: EFEO, 1994), 225–32.
This book is attributed in its foreword to Soga no Umako 蘇我馬子 and Shōtoku Taishi 聖徳太子. Its authenticity was contested in the early Edo period by scholars like Tada Yoshitoshi多田義俊 and Nanrei南嶺 (1698–1750), who wrote Kuji-ki gisho meishō-kō旧事紀偽書明証考 [Proof of the Kujiki’s Inauthenticity].
The Watarai 度会 family of the Gekū 外宮 (Outer Shrine) and the Arakida 荒木田 family of the Naikū 内宮 (Inner Shrine) were forced to abandon their functions in 1872, despite having a family tradition that dated back as far as that of the shrines.
This was the early 17th-century realisation of a project which Kanetomo had been unable to see through in his time. It consisted of the building on Mt Yoshida of the headquarters of the Department of Divinities, which had not been able to be reconstructed following numerous fires at the imperial palace.
When one of the branches of the Urabe family took over Yoshida Shrine, to the east of the capital, it adopted the name Yoshida; however, its clan-name continued to be Urabe, hence the concurrent use of the terms Yoshida Shintō and Urabe Shintō.
Okada Shōji, Urabe shintō (ge), Shintō taikei: Ronsetsuhen 9 (Tokyo: Shintō Taikei Hensan Kai, 1991), 43.
Allan Grapard, “The Shintō of Yoshida Kanetomo”, Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 47, no. 1 (spring 1992): 27–58.
Such as Allan Grapard and James Edward Ketelaar.
François Macé (Furansowa Mase), “Kindai nihon ni okeru kigen no shisō” 近代日本における「起源」の思想, Bungaku 文学 (spring 1997): 56–61. The decree imposing the new calendar referred only to the “solar calendar”, without any mention of its use in the West. It is clear, however, that with this reform Japan was aligning itself with the West and opening itself up to foreign trade.
The characters used literally mean “illuminated government”. The name is derived from two characters that appear in a passage from the I Ching 易経: 聖人南面而聴天下嚮明而治 (The sages faced south when they listened to the world, they turned towards the brightness and ruled).
Imperial rescript of the 8th day of the 9th month of Meiji 1 (Kaigen no mikotonori 改元の詔), which appeared in the Kōshitsu tenpan (Imperial Household Law), chapter 2, article 12 (cited in Ihara Yoriaki, Kōshitsu jiten 皇室事典 [Tokyo: Fūzanbō, 1979], 419).
Takahashi Yoshitoki, “Rarande rekisho kanken” ラランデ暦書管見 (1803), commentary by Nakayama Shigeru, “Takahashi Yoshitoki to rarande rekisho kanken” 高橋至時とラランデ暦書管見, in Yōgaku, ed. Hirose Hideo, Nakayama Shigeru and Ogawa Teizō (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1985), 167–206 and 473–78. Takahashi Yoshitoki himself devised the Kansei calendar system (Kansei-reki 寛政暦) in 1797.
Dajō-kan decree no. 337, published on the 9th day of the 11th month of Meiji 5 (1872). It was decided that the 3rd day of the 12th month that year would be the first of January, year 6 (1873). Note that the Japanese language continued to count in “days” (nichi 日) and “months” – formerly moons – (gatsu 月).
Teeth blackening (o-haguro お歯黒) was initially a mark of puberty but came to distinguish married women from all social classes during the Edo period.
The “three revolutions” (sankaku 三革) are: kakumei 革命, a younger brother (yin) of metal-rooster year (shin’yū 辛酉), for example the year in which Jimmu founded the first capital; kakurei 革令, an older brother (yang) of wood-rat year (kasshi 甲子), the first year of the sexagenary cycle; kaku’un 革運, an older brother (yang) of earth-dragon year (boshin 戊辰), which had little impact on era changes in Japan.
As of 1868 these were the only official ceremonies.
The most striking example of this is no doubt “Yume no shiro” 夢の代 by Yamagata Bantō 山片蟠桃 (1748–1821), in Yamagata Bantō – Tominaga Nakamoto, Nihon shisō taikei 43, ed. Mizuta Norihisa and Arisaka Takamichi (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1973), 141–642.
François Macé, “De l’inscription de l’histoire nationale dans le sol : à la recherche des tombes impériales à partir de la seconde moitié d’Edo”, in Japon pluriel III - Actes du troisième colloque de la société française des études japonaises, ed. Jean-Pierre Berthon and Anne Gossot (Arles: Philippe Picquier, 1999), 173–79.
Project launched by the head of the Mito domain, Tokugawa Mitsukuni 徳川光圀 (1628–1700).
Ōkuni Takamasa used this chronology on page 415 of Hongaku kyoyō 本学挙要 [The Essentials of True Learning, 1855], as well as in Gyojū mondō 馭戎問答 [Questions and Answers on the Taming of Barbarians], cited in a footnote in Hongaku kyoyō (page 550).
Decree 342 from the Dajō-kan, issued on the 15th day of the 11th month of 1872.
As a reminder, the Heisei 平成 era began in 1989 (Translator’s note: this era ended on 30 April 2019; the current era is known as Reiwa 令和).
The imperial year continues to be noted in almanacs.
Translator’s note: the second of December was the date of a number of key events in French history: the coronation of Napoleon I in 1804; the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805; and the 1851 coup d'état staged by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who chose the date specifically because it was the anniversary of the two previously mentioned events.
Restoration of Toyokuni jinja 豊国神社 for the anniversary of the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. See François Macé, “Le cortège fantôme - Les funérailles et la déification de Toyotomi Hideyoshi”, Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie, Mémorial Anna Seidel Religions traditionnelles d’Asie Orientales II, no. 9 (1996–1997): 441–62.
It is not easy to find a list of shrines built during the Meiji period, if such a list even exists. However, other examples I can mention include the shrine dedicated to Emperor Go Daigo, Yoshino jingū 吉野神宮, built in 1892 (it only became a jingū in 1918), and Minatogawa jinja 湊川神社, dedicated in 1872 to Kusunoki Masashige 楠木正成 (1294–1336), a loyal supporter of Go Daigo.
In 1938 another emperor was enshrined here, the last emperor to have reigned from Kyoto: Emperor Kōmei 孝明 (1831–1866), father of Emperor Meiji.
Jidai matsuri is one of Kyoto’s “Three Great Festivals” (San dai-matsuri 三大祭) alongside Aoi matsuri 葵祭 and Gion matsuri 祇園祭.
It was held for the first time on 25 November 1895.
Unlike the highly symbolic date of the founding of Japan’s first capital, which was converted into the Western calendar – as the first day of the first month of the reign of Jimmu, corresponding to 11 February 660 bce – in this instance the Japanese simply transposed the 10th month of the old calendar into the 10th month of the new.
Although the Ashikaga shogunate, the second of Japan’s three military governments, left a deep mark on Japanese civilisation, and on Kyoto in particular (for example Kinkaku-ji 金閣寺 and Gingaku-ji 銀閣寺), during the Edo period it was seen as a disgrace for having accepted the title “Ō” 王, meaning a king who was vassal to the Chinese emperor (Translator’s note: since 2007 the Ashikaga have been included in the parade).
The old system did not include a regular day of rest. Samurai working for the domains and bakufu worked turns of duty lasting five or six days a month.
Some traditions die hard, however, like the Obon festival, which in many regions of Japan is celebrated one month earlier than usual, in July.
Marcel Detienne, “Quand on façonne la conscience nationale”, Le monde des débats (November 2000): 13–14.
Marcel Detienne, “History and Nation”, Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, third series, vol. 8, no. 3 (winter, 2001): 83–88 (citation appears on page 83).
Mori Kōichi, Nihon no kofun: Nishi nihon hen (Tokyo: Yūhikaku, 1981), 9–16.
Another example of Japan’s historicizing and anchoring of tradition was the creation of the Commission of Inquiry into Historical Sites Related to Emperor Jimmu for the 2,600th anniversary celebrations. This commission was created in 1940 by the Ministry of Education and included several historians from Tokyo University, such as Tsuji Zennosuke. See John S. Brownlee, Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945. The Age of Gods and Emperor Jinmu (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 180–85.
There were around 150 shōkon-sha, including the future Yasukuni jinja 靖国神社 in Tokyo.
One example is the declaration on 17 May 2000 by Prime Minister Mori Yoshirō 森喜朗, before the Shinto Political Alliance Diet Members' Association (Shintō seiji renmei kokkai-giin kondankai 神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会), that “Japan is a country of the gods with the emperor at its centre” / Nihon wa tennō wo chūshin to suru kami no kuni da zo. / 日本は天皇を中心とする神の国だぞ, Asahi Shinbun 朝日新聞, 18 May 2000, page 1. The Shinto Political Alliance was created in 1970. It supported a bill (which was rejected in 1974) to place Yasukuni jinja under state control and also worked to ensure that the era-name system introduced during the Meiji period was once again enshrined in law (gengō hōsei-ka 元号法制化). The Shinto Political Alliance was founded by the Jinja honchō 神社本庁, a religious association that has inherited the tradition of State Shintō. See Zōho kaitei kindai jinja shintō shi 増補改訂近代神社神道史 [Revised and Corrected Edition of the History of Modern Shintō Shrines], ed. Jinja shinpō-sha (Tokyo: Jinja shinpō-sha, 1991), 266–70.
Since it was in Japan that Amaterasu Ōmikami, the Great Divinity Illuminating Heaven, was born. See Kakaika 呵刈葭, completed in around 1790, republished in Motoori Norinaga zenshū, vol. 8 (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1972), 411. One of the bones of contention in the dispute between Motoori and Ueda Akinari was the nature of the sun.
For example, in his 1855 work Hongaku kyoyō. Ōkuni Takamasa, “Hongaku kyoyō”, in Hirata Atsutane, Ban Nobutomo, Ōkuni Takamasa, ed. Tahara Tsuguo et al, Nihonshisō taikei 50 (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1975), 403–58.
Slogan coined by the Mitogaku scholar Aizawa Seishisai 会沢正志齋 (1782–1863) in his work Shinron 新論 (1825). The subject of sonnō will be explored further on in this paper.
On the subject of kokutai, see among others Rai Kiichi, Jugaku kokugaku yōgaku [Confucianism, National Learning, Western Learning], Nihon no kinsei 13 (Tokyo: Chūō kōron, 1993), 353–57.
The first three chapters of Aizawa Seishisai’s Shinron 新論 [New Theses] are titled “Kokutai”. The term, which had been known since ancient times thanks to Chinese chronicles, continued to mean “country” or “form of a country” until the 18th century.
Three hundred thousand copies of the first edition were published. By March 1943, 1,900,000 copies had been sold (latest known figures), without counting private editions. Kokutai no hongi – Cardinal Principles of The National Entity of Japan, ed. Robert King Hall, trans. John Owen Gauntlett (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949), 10.
Nozomu Kawamura, Sociology and Society of Japan (New York: Routledge, 2011), 155.
Eric Seizelet, “Les portraits impériaux – Contribution à l’étude du culte impérial”, in Mélanges offerts à René Sieffert à l’occasion de son soixante-dixième anniversaire, special edition of Cipango - Cahier d’études japonaises, (June 1994): 437–50.
Haihan chiken 廃藩置県, seventh month of 1871.
Jinshin koseki 壬申戸籍, first day of the second month of 1872.
For more information on one aspect of this deification, see Yoshimi Shun’ya, “Les rituels politiques du Japon moderne. Tournées impériales et stratégies du regard dans le Japon de Meiji”, translated into French by Emmanuel Lozerand, Annales - Histoire, Sciences Sociales, vol. 50, no. 2 (March-April 1995): 341–71.
Cremation ban introduced on 18 July 1873 and rescinded on 23 May 1875. Uchikawa Yoshimi and Matsushima Eiichi, Meiji nyūsu jiten 明治ニュース事典 [Meiji News Dictionary], vol. 1 (Keiō 4 – Meiji 10), (Tokyo: Mainichi komyunikēshonzu, 1989), 153.
François Macé, “Yoshida Kanemi (1535–1610) et la modernité du shintō. Le Yoshida shintō”, in Japon pluriel II – Actes du deuxième colloque de la société française des études japonaises, ed. Jean-Pierre Berthon and Josef Kyburz (Arles: Philippe Picquier, 1998), 213–20.
For a discussion of the links between Shintō and funerals, see François Macé, “Le shintō en mal de funérailles”, in Japon pluriel - Actes du premier colloque de la Société française des études japonaises, ed. Patrick Beillevaire and Anne Gossot (Arles: Philippe Picquier, 1995), 45–51. Kondō Keigo has stressed how heavily indebted Shintō funerals are to Confucianism, in particular the funerary rites set out in the Jiali 家禮, written by Zhu Xi 朱子. Kondō Keigo, Jusō to shinsō 儒葬と神葬 (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1990).
On the funeral rites and deification of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, see François Macé, “Le cortège fantôme - Les funérailles et la déification de Toyotomi Hideyoshi”, Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie, Mémorial Anna Seidel, Religions traditionnelles d’Asie Orientales II, no. 9 (1996–1997): 441–62.
Katō Genchi, Honpō seishi no kenkyū - Seishi noshijitsu to sono shinribunseki - 本邦生祠の研究-生祠の史実と其心理分析 (Tokyo: Meiji Seitoku Kinen Gakkai Hakkō, 1932).
See for example Hayashi Razan, Shintō denju, 14: “Men are the masters of the gods. ‘Men’ refers to the human character. It is because there is man that the gods are revered; if man did not exist, who would worship the gods?” (Tami wa kami no shu nari. Tami to wa ningen no koto nari. Hito arite koso kami wa agamure, moshi hito nakereba, dare ga kami wo agamuru? / 民ハ神ノ主也。民トハ人間ノ事也。人有リテコソ神ヲアガムレ、モシ人ナケレバ、誰カ神ヲアガムル). The same idea was expressed by Kumazawa Banzan 熊沢蕃山 (1619–1691) in Daigaku wakumon 大学或問 (Kumazawa Banzan, “Daigaku wakumon” (1657), in Kumazawa Banzan, Nihonshisō taikei 30 [Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1971], 448): “The man who knows the universe [who rules the world] is master of the gods” (天下を知る人は神の主なり). Bracketed section added by the present author.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 61 and 178 (note 19). Marcel Gauchet attributes the expression Entzauberung (disenchantment) to Friedrich Schiller. Marcel Gauchet, The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion, trans. Oscar Burge (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
Translator’s note: in 2019 the starting point would be 2679 years ago.
François Macé (Furansowa Mase), Kojiki shinwa no kōzō 古事記神話の構造 (Tokyo: Chūōkōronsha, 1989).
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