Andrea J. Horbinski (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ahorbinski) wrote2014-03-06 02:05 pm
ahorbinski) wrote2014-03-06 02:05 pm
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Book review: Shinto & the State
Bibliographic Data: Hardacre, Helen. Shinto and the State, 1868-1988. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
Main Argument: Hardacre argues that 1) state Shinto was largely an invented tradition and 2) that it was a radical departure from "anything in the country's previous religious history" (4). Attempting to "explore the significance for popular religious life of the state's involvement in Shinto between 1868 and 1945," Hardacre finds that "it is here that we see the expanding influence of the periphery over the center and the decreasing distance between the two relative to the situation in pre-Meiji Japan" (7).
Historiographical Engagement: Lots of shrine records.
Introduction: Argument, Sources, Examples Reviewing Shinto's history pre-1868, Hardacre finds that "until the end of the 19thC, Shinto knew no comprehensive organizational structure" (10) and thus that on an institutional level, the claim that Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan does not actually hold water. That said, "the character of pre-Meiji Shinto was liturgical and closely integrated with social life" (18); indeed, as other people have mentioned, Japan did not have a concept of "religion" prior to exposure to Western ideas about the same after 1853.
Chapter 1: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter provides a chronological overview of relations between Shinto and the state and explores a central question: is Shinto properly considered a religion? Briefly, the years 1868-80 were characterized by experimentation and disillusion; 1880-1905, by declining state support; 1905-30, by expansion and increased influence; 1930-1945, maximized influence; 1945-88, dissolution and partial reconstruction.
Chapter 2: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the Great Promulgation Campaign of 1870-84, designed to preach the "Great Teaching" to the people. Hardacre concludes that "through participation in the campaign, many of these leaders [of new religions] came to understand their own creeds as varieties or sects of Shinto and to preach this idea to their followers. They played an important role in creating a popular awareness of Shinto as an independent religion and in the process were able to legitimate themselves in the eyes of the state" (42). The "idea of Shinto was also subject to a number of different interpretations among priests, National Learning figures, lay people, and politicians. Each of these groups had distinctive interests in spreading their particular understanding of what Shinto was, and each could see in Shinto distinctive ways in which it could be used to personal advantage" (58-59). In some ways this was facilitated by the fact that "the idea of Shinto as a collective entity" and "the concept of Shinto as a name for all the cults of kami was unfamiliar to priest and lay person alike" (58).
Chapter 3: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the Shinto priesthood, which has remained fairly internally diverse to this day. In early Meiji, both Shinto priests and intellectuals came to a weak consensus that Shinto was not a religion because it was not like Christianity and because it lacked ethics and doctrine, respectively. LIttle positive definition remained to it other than ritual, consequently, but even within prefectures Shinto priests varied widely as to their religiosity and their sense of whether spiritual life was their concern.
Chapter 4: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at shrines and the rites of empire. Hardacre summarizes that
Chapter 5: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at shrine rites, the upshot of which is that the vast changes in which were "greatly changing the character of popular religious life and bringing much of it within the purview of state supervision" (100). The effect was "producing a unified symbolic and institutional system where localized cult life and extreme diversity had been the norm for centuries" (113). Hardacre concludes that "shrines could link local and national communities, and that shrine life and affiliation could provide an organizational vehicle for the promotion of individual and communal interests and a means of access to the prestige of the state" (ibid). There were thus "tangible incentives for the populace to support shrines and to participate in their rites," thus "sugarcoating" the "pill of shrine mergers and other locally disruptive policies" (ibid).
Chapter 6: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at religious freedom under state Shinto. Religious freedom became a huge stumbling block to Japan's drive towards equal status after the government tortured and deported the Urakami "kakure kirishitans" in the 1860s. As a result of the pressures of foreign governments and nativism, when religious freedom was guaranteed in the Meiji Constitution (promulgated 11/29/1890), in effect, "Japanese subjects were free to believe in a religion but not necessarily to practice it publicly" (131). Hardacre argues that as state Shinto became obligatory and more and more part of the state itself, it divorced itself from its parishioners, "whose attachment to shrines continued to be religious in character," yielding "the paradoxical result that, while State Shinto was in many ways profound influential in prewar social life, it did not permeate the religious consciousness of the people very deeply" (132).
Chapter 7: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Shinto and the state after 1945. The Allied Occupation ended state patronage of Shinto and guaranteed the separation of state and religion in the new constitution, thus severing the link between Shinto and state prestige and greatly reducing the appeal of Shinto itself. Hardacre sees that since the 1970s the government had begun "moving toward reinstitution the prewar symbolic unity of state and religion, centering again upon the Yasukuni Shrine. … The political culture of postwar Japan is, however, highly pluralistic and open, and the state cannot institute these changes without encountering vigorous criticism from academics and the religious world" (134). The state is, in effect, one of multiple competitors seeking to determine the meaning of "such national symbols as the Yasukuni Shrine, the national flag, and the national anthem," albeit a highly privileged one (158).
Conclusion: Argument, Sources, Examples
Critical assessment: This book does what it says on the tin, and for that reason it's no surprise that everybody cites it. Hardacre is not an inspired analyst, but she gets the job done.
Further reading: Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy; Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths
Meta notes: Given that Hardacre analyzes Shinto from within the paradigm of "religion" that was not native to Japan before 1853, and which Shinto priests continued to resist, I do wonder about the question of reflexivity.
Main Argument: Hardacre argues that 1) state Shinto was largely an invented tradition and 2) that it was a radical departure from "anything in the country's previous religious history" (4). Attempting to "explore the significance for popular religious life of the state's involvement in Shinto between 1868 and 1945," Hardacre finds that "it is here that we see the expanding influence of the periphery over the center and the decreasing distance between the two relative to the situation in pre-Meiji Japan" (7).
Historiographical Engagement: Lots of shrine records.
Introduction: Argument, Sources, Examples Reviewing Shinto's history pre-1868, Hardacre finds that "until the end of the 19thC, Shinto knew no comprehensive organizational structure" (10) and thus that on an institutional level, the claim that Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan does not actually hold water. That said, "the character of pre-Meiji Shinto was liturgical and closely integrated with social life" (18); indeed, as other people have mentioned, Japan did not have a concept of "religion" prior to exposure to Western ideas about the same after 1853.
Chapter 1: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter provides a chronological overview of relations between Shinto and the state and explores a central question: is Shinto properly considered a religion? Briefly, the years 1868-80 were characterized by experimentation and disillusion; 1880-1905, by declining state support; 1905-30, by expansion and increased influence; 1930-1945, maximized influence; 1945-88, dissolution and partial reconstruction.
Chapter 2: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the Great Promulgation Campaign of 1870-84, designed to preach the "Great Teaching" to the people. Hardacre concludes that "through participation in the campaign, many of these leaders [of new religions] came to understand their own creeds as varieties or sects of Shinto and to preach this idea to their followers. They played an important role in creating a popular awareness of Shinto as an independent religion and in the process were able to legitimate themselves in the eyes of the state" (42). The "idea of Shinto was also subject to a number of different interpretations among priests, National Learning figures, lay people, and politicians. Each of these groups had distinctive interests in spreading their particular understanding of what Shinto was, and each could see in Shinto distinctive ways in which it could be used to personal advantage" (58-59). In some ways this was facilitated by the fact that "the idea of Shinto as a collective entity" and "the concept of Shinto as a name for all the cults of kami was unfamiliar to priest and lay person alike" (58).
Chapter 3: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the Shinto priesthood, which has remained fairly internally diverse to this day. In early Meiji, both Shinto priests and intellectuals came to a weak consensus that Shinto was not a religion because it was not like Christianity and because it lacked ethics and doctrine, respectively. LIttle positive definition remained to it other than ritual, consequently, but even within prefectures Shinto priests varied widely as to their religiosity and their sense of whether spiritual life was their concern.
Chapter 4: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at shrines and the rites of empire. Hardacre summarizes that
The modern period has seen an unprecedented involvement of the state with shrine affairs, entailing the separation of Buddhism from Shinto, a universal system of shrine ranking, universal affiliation of the populace with shrines, state support for shrines, and state promotion of cults of the Ise deities and of the war dead. In addition to these phenomena, the period saw two further developments that lacked any parallel in previous religious history: the construction of a shrine using contributions of money and labor from all areas of the nation in the establishment of the Meiji Shrine, and state promotion of shrine construction outside Japan, in the colonies of the empire. (93)
Chapter 5: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at shrine rites, the upshot of which is that the vast changes in which were "greatly changing the character of popular religious life and bringing much of it within the purview of state supervision" (100). The effect was "producing a unified symbolic and institutional system where localized cult life and extreme diversity had been the norm for centuries" (113). Hardacre concludes that "shrines could link local and national communities, and that shrine life and affiliation could provide an organizational vehicle for the promotion of individual and communal interests and a means of access to the prestige of the state" (ibid). There were thus "tangible incentives for the populace to support shrines and to participate in their rites," thus "sugarcoating" the "pill of shrine mergers and other locally disruptive policies" (ibid).
Chapter 6: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at religious freedom under state Shinto. Religious freedom became a huge stumbling block to Japan's drive towards equal status after the government tortured and deported the Urakami "kakure kirishitans" in the 1860s. As a result of the pressures of foreign governments and nativism, when religious freedom was guaranteed in the Meiji Constitution (promulgated 11/29/1890), in effect, "Japanese subjects were free to believe in a religion but not necessarily to practice it publicly" (131). Hardacre argues that as state Shinto became obligatory and more and more part of the state itself, it divorced itself from its parishioners, "whose attachment to shrines continued to be religious in character," yielding "the paradoxical result that, while State Shinto was in many ways profound influential in prewar social life, it did not permeate the religious consciousness of the people very deeply" (132).
Chapter 7: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Shinto and the state after 1945. The Allied Occupation ended state patronage of Shinto and guaranteed the separation of state and religion in the new constitution, thus severing the link between Shinto and state prestige and greatly reducing the appeal of Shinto itself. Hardacre sees that since the 1970s the government had begun "moving toward reinstitution the prewar symbolic unity of state and religion, centering again upon the Yasukuni Shrine. … The political culture of postwar Japan is, however, highly pluralistic and open, and the state cannot institute these changes without encountering vigorous criticism from academics and the religious world" (134). The state is, in effect, one of multiple competitors seeking to determine the meaning of "such national symbols as the Yasukuni Shrine, the national flag, and the national anthem," albeit a highly privileged one (158).
Conclusion: Argument, Sources, Examples
It seems clear that since 1945 Shinto and the state have succeeded in reconstructing parts of the symbolic edifice that united them before the reforms of the Allied Occupation. Politicians at all levels seek to legitimate themselves and their administrations by appearing to honor the most profound religious sentiments of the people, embodied in the desire to memorialize the war dead. Shrines, having lost state support in 1945, seek to regain it. … Created in its modern form by the state, Shinto continues to work towards establishing substantive links to the state. (163)
Critical assessment: This book does what it says on the tin, and for that reason it's no surprise that everybody cites it. Hardacre is not an inspired analyst, but she gets the job done.
Further reading: Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy; Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths
Meta notes: Given that Hardacre analyzes Shinto from within the paradigm of "religion" that was not native to Japan before 1853, and which Shinto priests continued to resist, I do wonder about the question of reflexivity.