Shinto-uke: Religious Control via Shinto Shrines

In the seventeenth century, a system of enforced membership to Buddhist temples, the so- called tera-uke system (lit. system of temple certification), emerged as a consequence of radical measures to wipe out Christianity in Japan. In some parts of the country, however, Buddhist temples were initially substituted by Shinto shrines. This system of religious control is known as shinto-uke (certification [of orthodoxy] by Shinto shrines). Shinto-uke was systematically employed in at least three important domains Mito, Aizu, and Okayama from about the mid-1660s to the early 1690s. In the wake of this system, institutional separations of temples and shrines were accompanied by anti-Buddhist violence. In many respects, shinto-uke foreshadowed events at the beginning of the Meiji period (1868). Eventually, however, the government forbade shinto-uke and accepted only certificates of orthodoxy by Buddhist temples. For the first time in Western Japanese Studies, the poorly understood phenomenon of shinto-uke will become the focal topic in this project. On the basis of preparatory research on Okayama, three factors were identified as particularly important to explain this phenomenon: 1) Neo-Confucian anti-Buddhist discourse, 2) the institutional strength and wealth Buddhist temples gained by their administrative functions, and 3) the conflict with heretical Buddhist groups (the Fujufuse-ha of Nichiren Buddhism, in the case of Okayama) and the growing political impact of the concept of heresy. These factors will be given particular attention not only in Okayama but also in Mito andto some lesser degreein Aizu and possibly some other domains. Taken together, the lines of inquiry of this project will potentially revise our entire understanding of how Shinto emerged as an independent tradition. While current scholarship often argues that modern Shinto, especially in its relation to ruling authority, was solely the creation of the Meiji government, the project investigates local precedents going back more than two centuries earlier. If it can be proved that shinto-uke was indeed one missing link between the conceptual emergence of Shinto in the late medieval period and State Shinto at the beginning of the modern era, this will substantially revise our image of Shinto history and our understanding of early modern Japanese religion in general.

In the seventeenth century, a system of enforced membership at Buddhist temples, the so-called tera-uke system (lit. system of temple certification), emerged as a consequence of radical measures to wipe out Christianity in Japan. In some parts of the country, however, Buddhist temples were initially substituted by Shint shrines. This system of religious control is known as shint-uke (certification [of orthodoxy] by Shint shrines). Shint-uke was systematically employed in at least three important domains - Mito, Aizu, and Okayama - from about the mid-1660s to the early 1690s. In the wake of this system, institutional separations of temples and shrines were accompanied by anti-Buddhist violence. In many respects, shint-uke foreshadowed events at the beginning of the Meiji period (1868). Eventually, however, the government forbade shint-uke and accepted only certificates of orthodoxy by Buddhist temples. The poorly understood phenomenon of shint-uke is the focus of this project. On the basis of preparatory research on Okayama, three factors have been identified as particularly important to explain this phenomenon: Neo-Confucian anti-Buddhist discourse, the institutional strength and wealth Buddhist temples gained by their administrative and ideological functions, and the conflict with "heretical" Buddhist groups (the Fujufuse-ha of Nichiren Buddhism, in the case of Okayama) and the growing political impact of the concept of heresy. These factors received particular attention not only in Okayama, but also in Mito and - to a lesser degree - in Aizu, as well as possibly other domains. Taken together, the project aims at a new understanding of how Shint emerged as an independent tradition. While current scholarship often argues that modern Shint, especially in its privileged relation to ruling authority, was solely the creation of the Meiji government, the project investigates local precedents going back more than two centuries before that time.