State Shinto

The point of this video is not to trash this idea that Shinto has deep roots in Japanese culture, but to explore the power of its definition as a unique and exclusively Japanese tradition, and how it accomplishes several goals at the same time, not all of which are positive goals.

As we talked about in episode three, starting in the late 1800s, the modern Japanese government gradually brought the majority of Shinto shrines under their control in a system now called State Shinto.

Thousands of shrines were also created, but not just in Japan.

The Japanese Empire also established overseas shrines within their colonial territories, including Korea, China, and Taiwan.

For example, in 1935, the police demolished the headquarters of Omoto, a new religious movement derived from Shinto, and arrested many of their leaders for treason for venerating other kami over the emperor's ancestor, Amaterasu.

The many existing Shinto traditions, on the other hand, were split into two groups, non-religious and religious, or state Shinto and sect Shinto.

The formation of state Shinto started in the Meiji period, when the Japanese state officially co-opted the majority of shrines as sites for non-religious rituals on behalf of the emperor and the nation.

Shrine property was seized, priests were required to become state employees, and hereditary priesthoods were abolished.

Officials and academics argued that Shinto mythology, the divinity of the emperor, and the special status of Japan as a sacred land created by the kami were historical fact rather than a matter of personal belief.

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took the lead in reshaping the contours of government and religion in Japan once again.

The occupation administration ignored the Meiji Constitution and the distinction between civic and religious Shinto traditions, arguing that state Shinto was a source of militaristic ideology, a perversion of an ancient religion, and a dangerous mix of church and state.