State Shinto facts for kids
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State Shintō (国家神道 or 國家神道, Kokka Shintō) was how Imperial Japan used the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto for its own ideas. The government took control of money for shrines and how priests were trained. They strongly encouraged Shinto practices that made the Emperor seem like a divine being.
The idea of State Shinto started during the Meiji era. This was after the government said people had freedom of religion in the Meiji Constitution. Important thinkers at the time believed Shinto showed the Emperor's divine beginnings, not just a religious belief. They thought Shinto should have a special link with the Japanese government. The government said Shinto was a moral tradition and a patriotic practice, not a religion. This made it seem like they supported religious freedom.
Even though early attempts to combine Shinto and the state failed, this non-religious idea of Shinto became part of the government's system. Shrines were seen as patriotic places, not religious ones. They served state purposes, like honoring soldiers who died in war. This idea is called Secular Shrine Theory.
The government also made local shrines part of political activities. This sometimes made local people upset. With fewer shrines getting money from the state, almost 80,000 closed or joined with other nearby shrines. Many shrines and groups started to follow these state rules on their own, even without funding. By 1940, Shinto priests could get into trouble for doing traditional "religious" Shinto ceremonies. Imperial Japan did not see a difference between this official Shinto and traditional Shinto.
US military leaders created the term "State Shinto." They used it to tell the difference between the government's ideas and traditional Shinto practices. This happened in the 1945 Shinto Directive. That rule said Shinto was a religion. It stopped the government from using Shinto for its own ideas anymore. Today, there are still discussions about using Shinto symbols in government events.
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What is State Shinto?
Shinto is a mix of old Japanese folk practices, beliefs, and ways of worshiping spirits. It goes back to at least 600 CE. These beliefs were brought together as "Shinto" during the Meiji era (1868–1912). The "State Shinto" term was created on December 15, 1945. This was in the "Shinto Directive" from the United States General Headquarters. They started governing Japan after World War II.
The Shinto Directive officially defined State Shinto. It was "that part of Shinto which, by official acts of the Japanese government, has been separated from the religion of Sect Shinto and has been called a non-religious national cult." So, "State Shinto" was used to describe and stop Imperial Japanese practices. These practices used Shinto to support nationalistic ideas. By not banning Shinto completely, Japan's post-war constitution could keep full freedom of religion.
Understanding State Shinto
It's important to know the difference between "State Shinto" and just "Shinto." "Shinto" was one part of the national symbols used in the State Shinto idea. Some experts and the Shinto Directive itself used "Shrine Shinto" and "State Shinto" to mean the same thing. However, most experts today use "Shrine Shinto" for most Shinto shrines that were not under State Shinto's control. "State Shinto" refers to shrines and practices made to show government ideas.
Shinto as a Government Idea
Before the Meiji restoration, the Western idea of "religion" was not known in Japan. "Religion" meant beliefs about faith and the afterlife. It was also linked to Western power. The Meiji restoration brought back the Emperor, a "religious" figure, as Japan's leader.
Freedom of religion was first allowed because Western governments asked for it. Japan let Christian missionaries in due to pressure from Western countries. But they saw Christianity as a foreign threat. The government needed to find a way to explain Shinto that was above religion. This explanation had to include and promote the Emperor's divine family line. By saying Shinto was a special kind of "suprareligious" cultural practice, it would not be covered by Meiji laws protecting religious freedom.
The "State Shinto" idea said Shinto was more than religion. It was "a unity of government and teaching... not a religion." Instead of a religious practice, Shinto was seen as a form of education. It "consists of the traditions of the imperial house, starting from the age of gods and continuing through history."
Some experts, like Sakamoto Koremaru, say that "State Shinto" only existed between 1900 and 1945. This was when the government created the Bureau of Shrines. This bureau separated Shinto from other religions managed by the Bureau of Shrines and Temples, which became the Bureau of Religions. By separating them this way, Shinto was seen as different from Buddhist temples and Christian churches, which were called religions. This was the start of the government officially calling Shinto shrines "suprareligious" or "non-religious."
So, State Shinto was not called a "state religion" during the Meiji era. Instead, State Shinto is seen as the government taking over traditional Shinto. It did this by giving money to shrines that supported its ideas. State Shinto mixed political actions and religious thought. Its followers believed it would bring the country together during and after the difficult time of Japanese feudalism.
How State Shinto Was Used
The Empire of Japan tried to make Shinto practice a patriotic moral tradition. It did this through education and money for new shrines. From the early Meiji era, the Emperor's divine origin was the official view of the state. It was taught in schools as a historical fact, not a myth. Shinto priests were hired to teach in public schools. They promoted this teaching, along with respect for the Emperor and required school trips to shrines. State Shinto followers also stressed the ritual part as a traditional civic practice that did not need faith to join.
By seeing Shinto as "suprareligious" (above religion), the state could make Japanese people take part in rituals. At the same time, it claimed to respect their freedom of religion. This allowed the state to become a strong part of society in ways religions could not. This included teaching its version of Shinto in public schools. It also included ceremonies honoring the Emperor and rituals with the Emperor's picture.
In 1926, the government set up committees to study religious and shrine systems. These committees further supported the "Shintogaku" idea, which said Shinto was suprareligious.
To protect this non-religious idea, practices that did not fit government functions were increasingly banned. This included preaching at shrines and holding funerals. The use of the symbolic torii gate was limited to government-supported shrines. As religious rituals without state functions were limited, followers had to practice in secret and were often arrested. Other Shinto groups, like Omotokyo, faced problems when their priests were put in jail in 1921. The separation of "State Shinto" shrines changed in 1931. From then on, shrines were pressured to focus on the divinity of Emperor Hirohito. If they didn't, shrine priests could face trouble.
Some thinkers at the time, like Yanagita Kunio, disagreed with Imperial Japan's claim that Shinto was not religious. In 1936, the Catholic Church agreed with the state's definition. It said that visits to shrines had "only a purely civil value."
Government Control of Shrines
The government's interest in Shinto ideas is well known. But there is debate about how much control the government had over local shrines and for how long. Shrine money did not come only from the state. Shinto priests, even when supported by the state, usually avoided talking about political ideas. This changed with the creation of the Institute of Divinities in 1940.
In 1906, the government decided to give money to only one shrine per village. This supported shrines that followed its rules for funding. It encouraged unfunded shrines to join with larger ones. Because of this effort to combine Shinto beliefs into state-approved practices, Japan's 200,000 shrines became 120,000 by 1914. This gave control to shrines that favored the state's view of Shinto.
In 1910, people who graduated from state-run Shinto schools, like Kokugakuin University and Kougakkan University, were allowed to become public school teachers. More well-trained priests from state-supported schools, along with growing patriotic feelings, may have helped create a situation where people worshiped the Emperor on their own, even without money for local shrines.
In 1913, official rules for Shrine priests said they had "a duty to observe festivals conforming to the rituals of the state." Some shrines did adopt State Shinto practices even without government money. Several Shrine Associations supported "State Shinto" rules on their own.
In 1940, the state created the Institute of Divinities. This group increased control over state shrines and expanded the state's role. Before this, individual priests had limited political roles. They were mainly in charge of rituals and shrine upkeep. They rarely encouraged Emperor worship or other state ideas on their own. No shrine priest or member of the Institute of Divinities had sought public office before. Some experts say this shows the state used Shinto for its own goals, rather than priests trying to gain political power.
Where the Ideas Came From
Scholar Katsurajima Nobuhiro suggests that the "suprareligious" view of State Shinto came from the state's past failures. It had tried to combine religious Shinto for government purposes before.
Kokugaku ("National Learning") was an early attempt to create ideas about Shinto. Many of these ideas later became the basis for "State Shinto." Kokugaku was an educational philosophy from the Edo period. It looked for a "pure" form of Japanese Shinto, without foreign influences, especially Buddhism.
In the Meiji era, scholar Hirata Atsutane wanted to return to "National Learning." He believed this would remove Buddhist influence and create a native form of Shinto. From 1868 to 1884, Atsutane's followers, along with other priests and scholars, led a "Great Promulgation Campaign." They wanted to combine nationalism and Shinto by worshiping the Emperor. Before Buddhism, there was no tradition of absolute obedience to the Emperor in Shinto. This effort did not get much public support. Thinkers at the time dismissed the idea. Author Fukuzawa Yukichi called the campaign an "insignificant movement."
Despite its failure, Atsutane's native view of Shinto encouraged a later scholar, Ōkuni Takamasa. Takamasa wanted to control and standardize Shinto practice through the "Department of Divinity." These activists urged leaders to combine different local Shinto practices into one national practice. They argued this would unite Japan in support of the Emperor.
The state responded by passing the Kami and Buddhas Separation Order (神仏判然令, Shinbutsu Hanzenrei) in 1868. It also tried to remove Buddhist influence and bring back direct imperial control of the Department of Divinities in 1869. This government group encouraged separating Kami spirits from Buddhist ones. It also stressed the Emperor's divine family line from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. This action tried to undo the mixing of Buddhist and Shinto practices in Japan. That department was not successful and was lowered to the Ministry of Divinities. In 1872, rules for shrines and other religions were taken over by the Ministry of Religion. The Ministry wanted to make rituals the same across shrines. It had some small success but did not reach its main goal.
National Teaching
In 1874, a group of Shinto priests asked for the return of the Department of Divinities. They made a statement calling Shinto a "National Teaching." That statement said Shinto was different from religions. They argued that Shinto was about keeping the traditions of the Imperial house. So, it was the purest form of Japanese state rituals. These scholars wrote:
National Teaching is teaching the codes of national government to the people without error. Japan is called the divine land because it is ruled by the heavenly deities' descendants, who consolidate the work of the deities. The Way of such consolidation and rule by divine descendants is called Shinto.
People who signed the statement included Shinto leaders, followers, and scholars. These included Tanaka Yoritsune, chief priest of Ise shrine; Motoori Toyokai, head of Kanda shrine; and Hirayama Seisai, head of a major shrine in Tokyo. Still, this idea of Shinto as a "National Learning" did not become popular for most people's understanding of Shinto.
Great Promulgation Campaign
The Bureau of Shinto Affairs tried to make the training of priests standard in 1875. This created a split between government officials and local priests. They disagreed about what should be in the standard training. This discussion was about which kami, or spirits, to include in rituals. Specifically, whether state kami should be included. This debate showed the rise of the Ise sect, which was open to more state involvement in Shinto, and the Izumo sect, which was not. The Izumo sect wanted the god Ōkuninushi to be seen as equal to Amaterasu. This had important religious effects for emperor-worship. This debate, called the "enshrinement debate," was a serious threat to the Meiji government's ideas.
Because of the enshrinement debate, the Ministry of the Interior focused on the differences between "religion" and "doctrine." It said that "Shinto rituals are performed by the state, while religious doctrines are to be followed by individuals and families." With this idea, Shinto rituals were a civic duty that all Japanese people were expected to do. But "religious" Shinto was a matter of personal faith and had freedom of religion. This debate was an early failure in creating a unified national Shinto practice. It led to a sharp drop in both state money for Shinto shrines and in Shinto priests being appointed to government jobs. This was the start of Secular Shrine Theory. This theory explained duties not related to belief and separated Sect Shinto or groups based on beliefs. The Ministry of Home Affairs took over responsibility for shrines in 1877. It began to separate Shinto religious practices from government teaching. In 1887, the Ministry stopped giving money to most shrines, except for certain Imperial shrines linked to state functions.
Yasukuni Shrine
In 1869, Yasukuni Shrine was first built. Its original name was Tōkyō Shōkonsha, meaning "shrine to summon the souls." At first, it was not used very often. For example, in the 1874 Japanese invasion of Taiwan, only 12 people were honored at Yasukuni Shrine.
However, after the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, the Emperor had 6,959 souls of war dead honored at Tōkyō Shōkonsha. In 1879, the shrine was renamed Yasukuni Jinja. The name Yasukuni means "Pacifying the Nation." The Meiji Emperor chose it.
Around this time, the state began to give shrines meanings related to patriotic nationalism. This included a network of shrines for soldiers killed in battle. These meanings had no link to the history of these local shrines, which caused some anger.
Today, the shrine has become a controversial symbol for Japanese nationalists. Many people visit the shrine to honor relatives who died in battle. Their kami (spirits) are said to be honored there. But the kami of several Class-A war criminals are also honored there. These criminals were honored in a secret ceremony in 1978. This has made Japanese pacifists and the international community upset.
No Emperor has visited the shrine since then. Visits by prime ministers and government officials to the shrine have caused lawsuits and media discussions.
In Other Countries
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As the Japanese took over more land, shrines were built to host Japanese kami in these occupied areas. This started with Naminoue Shrine in Okinawa in 1890. Big shrines built across Asia included Karafuto Shrine in Sakhalin in 1910 and Chosen Shrine in Korea in 1919. These shrines were considered almost as important as Ise Shrine in Japan. Other shrines included Shonan Shrine in Singapore, San'a Shrine in Hainan Island (China), Japanese Shrine in Kolonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Akatsuki Shrine in Saigon, the Hokoku Shrine in Java and the Yorioka Shrine in Sarawak.
The Japanese built almost 400 shrines in occupied Korea. Worship was required for Koreans. A statement from the head of the Home Office in Korea said about the shrines: "...they are completely different from religion. Worship at the shrines is an act of patriotism and loyalty, the basic moral values of our nation."
By 1937, more than 500,000 Jingu Taima shrines were set up in homes across Taiwan. Out of 68 approved places of worship, 38 were built between 1937 and 1943. Schools and organizations were told to worship there.
In Manchuria, the Japanese studied the local folk religion. They built 366 shrines. However, they did not try to force Shinto on the local people as they did in Korea and Taiwan. This was because the Manchurian State was seen as a spiritually independent nation. In other Chinese areas occupied by the Japanese, it is thought there were at least 51 shrines.
At least fifteen State Shinto shrines were built in the South Seas Mandate in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Shinto was mainly practiced by Japanese settlers, but also by local people. The shrine at Jabor on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands was said to be the easternmost shrine in the Japanese Empire. Seven shrines were built in the Mariana Islands. Other shrines were built on the more distant islands of Kosrae, Truk, Ponape, Yap and Lamotrek. The biggest shrine in these areas was the Nan'yō Shrine in Palau. It had a large Japanese population. It was near Koror and opened in 1940.
During the Second World War, Shinto shrines were built across Southeast Asia as Japan expanded south. Countries like the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, and Indonesia saw Shinto shrines because State Shinto was put in place. In Indonesia alone, 11 shrines were built. Famous ones included Chinnan Shrine in Malang, Java, which was the southernmost Shinto shrine in Asia, and Hirohara Shrine in Medan, which is the last Shinto shrine still standing in Southeast Asia.
After the War
On January 1, 1946, Emperor Shōwa made a statement. It is sometimes called the Humanity Declaration. In it, he said he was not an Akitsumikami (a god in human form). He also said Japan was not built on myths. The U.S. General Headquarters quickly defined and banned practices it called "State Shinto." But because the U.S. saw freedom of religion as very important for post-war Japan, it did not fully ban Japanese religious ceremonies involving the Emperor. General Douglas MacArthur and the State Department wanted to keep the Emperor's authority. This was to avoid "lasting resentment" among the Japanese people during the occupation and rebuilding of Japan.
The Shinto Directive said it was made to "free the Japanese people from direct or indirect pressure to believe or say they believe in a religion or cult officially named by the state." It also aimed to "prevent Shinto ideas and beliefs from being twisted into militaristic and super-nationalistic messages again."
Today, the Imperial House still performs Shinto rituals as "private ceremonies." But Japanese citizens are no longer forced to take part or believe, and the state does not pay for them. Other parts of the government's "suprareligious" enforcement of Shinto practices, like school trips to Shinto shrines, were forbidden. Many new ideas from Meiji-era Shinto are still in Shinto today. For example, some priests believe Shinto is a non-religious cultural practice that helps national unity.
See also
- Kokutai
- Emperor of Japan
- Shinto sects and schools
- Yasukuni Shrine controversy
- Statism in Shōwa Japan
- Nippon Kaigi
- Secular Shrine Theory
- State religion
- Religion in politics
