Part of a series on |
Shinto |
---|
![]() |
State Shintō (国家神道 or 國家神道, Kokka Shintō) was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto.[1]: 547 The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests[2][3]: 59 [4]: 120 to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as a divine being.[5]: 8
The State Shinto ideology emerged at the start of the Meiji era, after government officials defined freedom of religion within the Meiji Constitution.[6]: 115 Imperial scholars believed Shinto reflected the historical fact of the Emperor's divine origins rather than a religious belief, and argued that it should enjoy a privileged relationship with the Japanese state.[5]: 8 [3]: 59 The government argued that Shinto was a non-religious moral tradition and patriotic practice, to give the impression that they supported religious freedom.[3]: 59 [4]: 120 Though early Meiji-era attempts to unite Shinto and the state failed,[6]: 51 this non-religious concept of ideological Shinto was incorporated into state bureaucracy.[7]: 547 [8] Shrines were defined as patriotic, not religious, institutions, which served state purposes such as honoring the war dead;[6]: 91 this is known as Secular Shrine Theory.[9]
The state also integrated local shrines into political functions, occasionally spurring local opposition and resentment.[4]: 120 With fewer shrines financed by the state, nearly 80,000 closed or merged with neighbors.[6]: 98 [7]: 118 Many shrines and shrine organizations began to independently embrace these state directives, regardless of funding.[7]: 114 By 1940, Shinto priests risked persecution for performing traditionally "religious" Shinto ceremonies.[6]: 25 [10]: 699 Imperial Japan did not draw a distinction between ideological Shinto and traditional Shinto.[7]: 100
US military leaders introduced the term "State Shinto" to differentiate the state's ideology from traditional Shinto practices[5]: 38 in the 1945 Shinto Directive.[5]: 38 That decree established Shinto as a religion, and banned further ideological uses of Shinto by the state.[10]: 703 Controversy continues to surround the use of Shinto symbols in state functions.[2]: 428 [10]: 706 [11]
Fridell
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Shibata
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Zhong
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Keene
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Earhart
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Hardacre
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).:0
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Beckford
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Loo
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).