Shinto A Short History Inoue Nobutaka Ito Satoshi en

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51 SHINTO – A SHORT HISTORY
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13111 Shinto – A Short History provides an introductory outline of the historical
4 development of Shinto from the ancient period of Japanese history until
5 the present day.
6 Shinto does not offer a readily identifiable set of teachings, rituals or
7 beliefs; individual shrines and kami deities have led their own lives, not
8 within the confines of a narrowly defined Shinto, but rather as participants
9 in a religious field that included Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian and folk
20111 elements. Thus, this book approaches Shinto as a series of historical
1 ‘religious systems’ rather than attempting to identify a timeless ‘Shinto
2 essence’.
3 This history focuses on three aspects of Shinto practice: the people
4 involved in shrine worship, the institutional networks that ensured con-
5 tinuity, and teachings and rituals. By following the interplay between these
6 aspects in different periods, a pattern of continuity and discontinuity is
7 revealed that challenges received understandings of the history of Shinto.
8 This book does not presuppose prior knowledge of Japanese religion, and
9 is easily accessible for those new to the subject.
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1 Inoue Nobutaka teaches at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, where he
2 is a central member of the newly created Faculty of Shinto Studies. His
3 field is sociology of religion. He is widely recognised as one of the
4 foremost experts on Japanese new religions in general, and sect Shinto
5 in particular.
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Mark Teeuwen teaches at the University of Oslo, Norway. His specialisa-
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tion is the history of Japanese religion. He has published extensively on
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the history of Shinto and kami worship within this field.
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40111 John Breen teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies,
1 University of London. He specialises in cultural history and has published
211 widely on politics and religion in modern Japan.
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51 SHINTO – A SHORT
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HISTORY
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4 Inoue Nobutaka (editor), Itō Satoshi,
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6 Endō Jun and Mori Mizue
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9 Translated and adapted by
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Original edition ﬁrst published 1998 by Shin’yōsha, Tokyo, Japan
English translation ﬁrst published 2003
by RoutledgeCurzon
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeCurzon
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Original edition © 1998 Inoue Nobutaka, Itō Satoshi,
Endō Jun and Mori Mizue
English translation © 2003 Mark Teeuwen and John Breen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-46288-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-34082-5 (Adobe eReader Format)

ISBN 0–415–31179–9 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–31913–7 (pbk)
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5 CONTENTS
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13111 List of contributors vii
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5 Translators’ introduction ix
6 MARK TEEUWEN AND JOHN BREEN
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Introduction: what is Shinto? 1
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I N O U E N O BU TA K A
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1 Ancient and classical Japan: the dawn of Shinto 12
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MORI MIZUE
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2 The medieval period: the kami merge with Buddhism 63
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I TŌ S ATO S H I
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3 The early modern period: in search of a Shinto identity 108
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ENDŌ JUN
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4 The modern age: Shinto confronts modernity 159
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I N O U E N O BU TA K A
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4 Selected reading 198
5 Index 204
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5 CONTRIBUTORS
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13111 Endō Jun is a Researcher at the International Institute for the Study of
4 Religions in Tokyo. He specialises in the early modern and modern
5 history of religion in Japan.
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Inoue Nobutaka is a Professor at the Institute for Japanese Culture and
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Classics and the Faculty of Shinto Studies, both of Kokugakuin
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University, Tokyo. His specialisation is the sociology of religion, with
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a focus on modern religious movements in Japan.
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1 Itō Satoshi is an Associate Professor at Ibaraki University, Mito, Japan.
2 His work is in the field of the history of ideas in medieval Japan, espe-
3 cially related to Buddhist kami thought.
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Mori Mizue is a Researcher at the International Institute for the Study
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of Religions in Tokyo. Her specialisation is early modern Shinto and
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nativist thought.
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Translators
1 John Breen is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African
2 Studies, University of London, UK. He is interested in issues of reli-
3 gion and politics in early modern and modern Japan.
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5 Mark Teeuwen is a Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway. He
6 specialises in the history of kami worship and shrines in classical and
7 medieval Japan.
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5 TRANSLATORS’
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INTRODUCTION
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13111 The term Shinto covers a many-hued array of Japanese religious traditions.
4 In the Japan of today, these are represented by a considerable number of
5 organised religious groups, an even larger number of more or less organ-
6 ised local shrine cults, and an ill-defined body of unorganised beliefs
7 and practices that do not involve religious professionals. To the outside
8 observer, Shinto appears less as a distinct religion, than as an extremely
9 fluid body of religious phenomena linked, at best, by a family resemblance.
20111 What defines these disparate phenomena as aspects of Shinto, is not so
1 much shared beliefs, ideas or moral attitudes, but rather a common set
2 of physical symbols and ritual patterns. There is no scripture, no set of
3 dogmas, nor even a shared pantheon that could warrant the lumping
4 together of Shinto’s multifarious traditions under one label. Rather, prac-
5 tices are identified as some form of Shinto by such markers as the torii gate
6 and shimenawa straw ropes, used to demarcate sacred spaces or objects; by
7 branches of the evergreen sakaki tree, used as offerings or for purification;
8 by shrine buildings with readily identifiable characteristics that set them
9 apart from both Buddhist temples and the churches of established and new
30111 religions; and by the use of mirrors to signal the presence of the kami or
1 deities. One ritual pattern that conveys a Shinto identity is purification
2 (harae), performed by a priest waving a sakaki branch over the heads of
3 worshippers; another is the parading of deities through the streets, carried
4 on the shoulders of parishioners in elaborate portable shrines.
5 These symbols and rituals are immediately recognisable to all Japanese.
6 Shinto shrines dot the landscape of Japan, and number more than 100,000.
7 Some, such as the Meiji shrine in Tokyo, dominate large areas in city
8 centres; others are tucked away in the corners of rural fields, or on the
9 rooftops of office blocks. Statistics show that the majority of Japanese
40111 engage actively with shrines in some form or other on a regular basis.
1 According to a 1997 survey, some 70 per cent of Japanese visit a shrine at
211 New Year (hatsumōde), and over 50 per cent celebrate the birth of a new
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MARK TEEUWEN AND JOHN BREEN
baby (hatsumiya), or their child’s third, fifth and seventh birthdays

(shichigosan), by making a shrine visit. One in three employs a Shinto priest
to perform ritual purification of a new building plot, or a new car. One in
four participates in shrine festivals, prays at shrines for success in examin-
ations, and uses Shinto-style marriage ceremonies. Only 16 per cent of
respondents stated that they never pray at shrines.1 Yet even these are
likely to visit shrines for non-religious reasons, since many shrine precincts
double as parks, and are used for a variety of recreational pursuits.
Yet, even though shrines play some part in the lives of most Japanese,
few define themselves as followers of a religion called Shinto. In the same
1997 survey, less than 4 per cent did so. In fact, most Japanese have only
a very vague understanding of the term, and a large proportion of the
younger generation do not know it at all. In contrast to shrines, ‘Shinto’
is a concept of little consequence in Japanese society. Nor is this a phenom-
enon of recent origin. While shrines have been an enduring element of
Japanese religious life, the notion of an overarching, abstract Shinto
that integrates diverse shrine cults into a single cultic system has, at most
times, been of marginal importance. In this sense, the present situation,
in which shrines are integrated in the social life of contemporary Japanese
while Shinto remains an unfamiliar concept, represents a continuation of
the past.
It is, therefore, essential to make a clear distinction between shrines on
the one hand, and Shinto on the other. Shrines are the concrete sites
of worship of kami, the deities or spirits that form the focus of shrine prac-
tice. Central to shrines, of course, are the worshippers who manage and
use them, and the changing social structures that have secured their
upkeep through the centuries. Shinto, on the other hand, refers to struc-
tures (organisational, doctrinal, or both) that aim to integrate individual
shrine cults into a larger, national or even universal system. Attempts at
construing such structures and putting them into practice have been made
by various groups during different periods in Japanese history. The insti-
tution of a system of regular offerings to shrines throughout the land by
the court in the seventh and eighth centuries was the first, and one of the
most successful, of such Shinto constructs. During the medieval period,
the main superstructures that served to conjoin different local shrine cults
were Buddhist ones, and most shrines were linked to, and accommodated
within, Buddhist temples. The Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods
(1868–1945) saw yet other attempts at rallying shrines under a common
Shinto banner; this time, they were political and designed to serve the
cause of strengthening the emerging Japanese nation-state. Thus, we find
that throughout history, shrines and their kami drifted in and out of consec-
utive Shinto constructs, presented to them (or, at times, imposed on them)
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1111 by various elites – be they court aristocrats, warriors, Buddhist monks, or

2 bureaucrats of the modern period. The relationship between shrines and
3 different forms of Shinto constitutes an important dynamic in the shaping
4 of the history of kami worship.
5 A failure to make this critical distinction has bedevilled the study of the
6 subject, especially in the West. Today, it is less controversial to state that
7 Shinto was ‘invented’ in the Meiji period, than to trace its history to, say,
8 the Nara period (710–94). If ‘Shinto’ is taken to refer only to post-Meiji
9 Shinto, this is of course true; but such an insistence masks the existence
1011 of earlier Shinto constructs, and it threatens more damage than good. Even
1 more serious is the fact that the study of not only earlier forms of Shinto
2 but also the history of shrines has been undermined by the assumption that
13111 Shinto is a modern invented tradition. It should be clear for all to see that
4 even though Meiji Shinto was indeed a Meiji invention, this does not
5 change the fact that shrines have been important centres of religious,
6 political, social and economic activity throughout Japanese history.
7 Compared to, say, studies of Japanese Buddhism, Western literature on
8 shrines and Shinto is extremely limited in scope. In Japan, meanwhile,
9 research into this subject has developed rapidly during the post-war period.
20111 Until the late 1970s, the history of shrines and Shinto was the unique
1 preserve of scholars with close links to the Shinto establishment, who
2 approached it with a predictable ideological bias. More recently, however,
3 kami cults have also drawn the attention of historians without Shinto
4 affiliations, and their researches have revolutionised the field. Especially,
5 new light has been shed on the many centuries during which the shrines and
6 their kami functioned primarily within a Buddhist framework. Historians
7 such as Kuroda Toshio and Satō Hiroo have transformed our understanding
8 of medieval Buddhism, and also of the role of the kami and their shrines
9 within it.2 Also, scholars of medieval literature such as Itō Masayoshi
30111 have begun to reconstruct medieval practices and legends around kami,
1 drawing on sources previously ignored by Shinto historians.3 A new critical
2 approach to Shinto has finally been extended also to the modern period by
3 scholars like Yasumaru Yoshio and Miyachi Masato.4 At the same time, the
4 Shinto world itself has become less rigidly ideological. Many Shinto schol-
5 ars have taken on board the findings of historians from other disciplines and
6 of other ideological persuasions, and further refined them.
7 As a result, a radically new view on the history of shrines and Shinto
8 is beginning to take shape. This new perspective has become possible, first
9 and foremost, thanks to the field’s liberation from the ideological concerns
40111 of post-Meiji Shinto. Much older research departed from the premise that
1 Shinto has existed since time immemorial as an unbroken, autonomous
211 tradition that defined the basic outlook of the Japanese. Concern to uphold
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MARK TEEUWEN AND JOHN BREEN
this dogma had typically led to a heavy bias in favour of continuity rather
than historical change, of ‘native’ elements rather than the pervasive
Buddhist (and otherwise Chinese) influence, and of court-sanctioned
orthodox practice rather than the more eclectic practices of the general
populace. Only after historians from other disciplines began to show an
active interest in shrines and Shinto could a more balanced view of their
history emerge.
It was in order to present the preliminary results of this ongoing re-
definition of Shinto history to the general Japanese public that this short
volume was first conceived. Inoue Nobutaka, the editor of this book, is an
established sociologist of religion specialising in Japanese New Religions.
The three other contributors are relatively young scholars with back-
grounds in history and literature, rather than in Shinto studies. The
authors coordinated their approach by adopting a common perspective on
Shinto, namely as a ‘religious system’. The outline of this perspective is
explained in the book’s introduction, and need not be repeated here, but
its merit is worth setting out from the start. By approaching Shinto as a
religious system, an equal measure of attention is given to religious ideas
and practices, the people who conveyed them, and the social structures
that ensured their transmission. This ensures that the vital dynamic
between Shinto and shrines comes to the surface. The result is a history
both of Shinto, and of shrines, that in many ways succeeds in overcoming
the limitations of earlier Shinto histories.
Our task has been that of translators, but we have on occasion adapted
the original text when we deemed it necessary to clarify the author’s mean-
ing for a non-Japanese audience. For the sake for clarity, we have worked all
substantial notes into the main text. While retaining the original references
to Japanese-language works, we have provided key Western-language
titles on the same subjects, as well as a list of recommended reading on
Shinto in Western languages. Mark Teeuwen is responsible for the transla-
tion of the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2; John Breen for Chapters 3
and 4.
Mark Teeuwen
John Breen
Notes
1 This survey was conducted by the Shrine Association, and is based on 1,389
returned questionnaires. Jinja Honchō Kyōgaku Kenkyūjo, Jinja ni kansuru ishiki
chōsa hōkokusho (1997), p. 30.
2 E.g. Kuroda Toshio, Jisha seiryoku (Iwanami 1980) and ‘Shinto in the history
of Japanese religion’ (Journal of Japanese Studies 7–1, 1981); Satō Hiroo, Kami,
hotoke, ōken no chūsei (Hōzōkan 1998).
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T R A N S L AT O R S ’ I N T R O D U C T I O N
1111 3 Here, we would especially like to stress Itō’s work on the ‘medieval Nihongi’;
2 e.g. ‘Chūsei Nihongi no rinkaku’ (Bungaku 40–10, 1972).
3 4 See, for example, Yasumaru Yoshio, Kamigami no Meiji ishin (Iwanami 1979),
Miyachi Masato, Tennōsei no seijishiteki kenkyū (Azekura Shobō 1981) and
4
Yasumaru and Miyachi eds, Nihon kindai shisō taikei 5: shūkyō to kokka (Iwanami
5 1988).
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N
E Akita
W
S
Sendai
Aizu
Hitachi
Mito
- Toshogu
Nikko, - - -
Kashima
Katori
Suwa Edo/Tokyo
Mt Ontake
Hakone
HONSHU Kamakura,
Mt Hakusan Mt Fuji
Tsurugaoka
-
Kunozan
Kehi
Wakasahiko Owari/Nagoya
Kyoto Tado Miyakejima
Ise
Izumo YAMATO
Okayama
Kumano
Aki Konpira
Itsukushima
Tsuwano
Oki no Shima
SHIKOKU
Usa
Munakata
Hakozaki
Dazaifu Mt Hiko
Mt
Nagasaki
Takachiho
KYUSHU
Japan: Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku

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3 Ground above 100 metres
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LAKE
5 BIWA
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OMI
Mt Hiei
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13111 Kyoto/ -
Onjoji
Heiankyo-
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5 Fushimi Inari Daigoji Sanboin
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Kasuga/Kofukuji
2 - -
Nara/Heijokyo
3 Isonokami
4 Naniwa/Osaka Mt Muro-
Tenri
Sumiyoshi
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Hase
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8 Mt Katsuragi
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Koyasan
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8 Central Japan: the Home Provinces
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51 INTRODUCTION
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7 What is Shinto?
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1011 Inoue Nobutaka
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Shinto as a religious system
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7 The term ‘Shinto’ is notoriously vague and difficult to define. A brief look
8 at the term’s history confuses more than it enlightens. Its first occurrence
9 is in the Nihon shoki (720), which writes of Emperor Yōmei (r. 585–7) that
20111 he ‘had faith in the Buddhist Dharma and revered Shinto.’ Here, as in
1 most early usages of the word, it seems to serve as a synonym for Japan’s
2 native deities, in Japanese called kami, in contrast to the new ‘foreign
3 kami’ that entered Japan with the introduction of Buddhism in the sixth
4 century. Only during the medieval and early modern periods was the term
5 applied to specific theological and ritual systems. In modern scholarship,
6 the term is often used with reference to kami worship and related theolo-
7 gies, rituals and practices. In these contexts, ‘Shinto’ takes on the meaning
8 of ‘Japan’s traditional religion’, as opposed to foreign religions such as
9 Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and so forth.
30111 A central element in a practical definition of Shinto will have to be
1 systems of kami worship and shrine ritual that date back to classical times.
2 Few will doubt that the kami and their cults form the core of what we call
3 Shinto. However, when we try to pin down more specifically what teach-
4 ings, rituals, or beliefs have constituted Shinto through the centuries, we
5 soon run into difficulty. Some scholars have attempted to categorise Shinto
6 into ‘shrine Shinto’, ‘sect Shinto’, and ‘folk Shinto’, and others have
7 added ‘imperial Shinto’ (referring to imperial rituals focusing on kami),
8 ‘state Shinto’ and ‘Shinto-derived new religions’. However, many ques-
9 tions remain both as to the legitimacy of these categorisations, and as to
40111 their relationship to each other. In particular, it is well-nigh impossible
1 to separate ‘shrine Shinto’ from ‘folk Shinto’. In extreme cases, some have
211 even resorted to labelling all religious folk traditions in Japan ‘Shinto’.
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I N O U E N O B U TA K A
In the field of Religious Studies, Shinto is usually described as an ‘indi-

genous religion’. By this term is meant a religion that emerged naturally
within the historical development of an indigenous culture, in contrast to
‘founded religions’, which are based on the teachings of historical founders.
These latter are often described as ‘world religions’, because they spread
across national boundaries to assume a global role. In contrast, Shinto as
an ‘indigenous religion’ is inextricably linked with a single nation, Japan.
Shinto also displays many features of what we may call ‘folk religion’.
This term is here used as a generic term for popular beliefs and practices
that are not directly controlled by a shrine, temple or church, or led by a
religious professional such as a priest, a monk or a minister. As such beliefs
and practices in Japan, we may mention the worship of various deity tablets
(ofuda), the tabooing of certain dates or directions, belief in different
kinds of spirits (such as spirits of the dead, or ‘revengeful spirits’, onryō),
worship of natural objects such as trees and mountains, and worship of
the kami of fields and mountains (ta no kami and yama no kami). Most
of what is commonly called religious folklore, local customs, or supersti-
tion belongs in this category.
Not only Shinto, but also Buddhism and the new religions of Japan are
closely connected with folk religion. Even Christianity, both in Japan and
elsewhere, contains many folk influences. In the case of Shinto, however,
such elements are so prominent that it is impossible to draw a line between
folk religion and some fictional ‘pure Shinto’. This is a direct result of
Shinto’s history, which is rooted in a long tradition of kami worship that
developed in close relation with the rhythms of everyday life, both cultural
and economic.
There is another reason why it is difficult to follow Shinto through
history as a distinct religious tradition: the fact that Shinto has been
profoundly influenced by other religious traditions. The influence of the
religions of China has been prominent since ancient times, and among
them, the religion that left the most profound impact was Chinese
Buddhism. Even if we were to use the term ‘Early Shinto’ to refer to some
archaic prototype of Shinto, we would find that such a distant ancestor
of Shinto would already have been transformed in important ways by
Chinese forms of Buddhism. In addition, other continental traditions
such as Confucianism, Taoism, and theories about Yin and Yang and the
Five Phases of matter (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) left their imprint
in ideas about, and practices around, the kami from an early date. These
facts further complicate our question, which appears so simple at first
sight: what is Shinto? One is reminded of the onion of Peer Gynt: will
there really be a ‘core’ to be found after we have peeled off layer after layer
of foreign accretions?
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I N T R O D U C T I O N : W H AT I S S H I N T O ?
1111 These are the sort of fundamental problems one is faced with when
2 trying to define Shinto. Looking for Shinto’s ‘core’ or ‘true essence’ will
3 not take us very far in resolving the issue. In this volume, we have chosen
4 a different approach. Here, we will introduce the concept of a ‘religious
5 system’ as a new angle on Shinto and its historical development.
6 The concept of a ‘religious system’ is here proposed as a tool to explore
7 the historical development of religion in its intimate relation with the
8 structural characteristics and changes of society as a whole. Traditionally,
9 religious history has occupied itself with the histories of individual reli-
1011 gions, schools or sects. We have histories of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism
1 and Shinto, histories of the Methodist church and of Pure Land Buddhism,
2 and histories of Tenrikyō and Sōka Gakkai. While this is a valuable
13111 approach to the history of religion, it tends to ignore the fact that the
4 concept of religion itself can vary widely from period to period, or from
5 religious group to religious group. It is obvious, for example, that the
6 Catholic Church in Korea and its counterpart in Japan differ in many
7 respects, in spite of the fact that both are grounded in the same religion.
8 Similarly, Buddhism in classical Japan was fundamentally distinct in char-
9 acter from modern Japanese Buddhism. Conversely, we find that different
20111 religious groups display similar characteristics when developing in a
1 common social and cultural environment. The new religious movements
2 of modern Japan, which are collectively known as the ‘new religions’, are
3 a good example of this: behind the multitude of sect names we find many
4 similarities in actual teaching and practice. If we were to compare, for
5 example, the modern Risshō Kōseikai and Myōchikai (both Buddhist-
6 derived new religions), we would find that they are much more similar to
7 one another than, say, the Buddhism of the Nara period (710–94) and the
8 Edo period (1600–1867).
9 If we think of a religion in terms of written doctrine, individual religions
30111 or sects display a great deal of continuity over the centuries, but when
1 we consider the roles these same religions or sects have played in actual
2 society in different historical periods or in different cultural areas, we
3 notice radical differences. If we regard individual religions as part of a wider
4 religious ‘ecosystem’, it becomes clear that traditional histories of religion
5 need to be reconsidered in various ways. It is to tackle these issues that
6 the concept of a ‘religious system’ is useful. This concept allows us to treat
7 clusters of religious groups that display typological similarities as one
8 religious system. When studying such clusters as a religious system we relate
9 their development to changes within society as a whole. This makes it
40111 possible to consider, say, the Sōtō Zen sect and the Jōdo Pure Land sect
1 of the Edo period as two members of the same religious system: early
211 modern Japanese Buddhism. Conversely, the Shingon school in the Heian
3
period (794–1192) can be studied as belonging to a different religious

system from its Edo period counterpart.
To study religion from this angle is to exchange the metaphor of religion
as an organism for that of religion as an ecosystem. The boundaries of
different religious systems are regarded as fluid, both with regard to indi-
vidual religious movements, and with regard to different historical periods.
When we isolate a particular religious system and try to make out its
characteristics, it is necessary to approach it from three angles: the system’s
constituents, its network, and its substance. The constituents of a religious
system are the people who carry and maintain it. In most cases, we can
distinguish between two groups: the ‘makers’ and the ‘users’ of the reli-
gion. The first include the founders of religious groups and their successors:
monks, shrine priests, ministers, missionaries, and so forth. These are the
people who work actively to sustain a particular religious tradition. This
category also includes those who carry out the administrative tasks of
religious institutions. The ‘users’ of a religious system are the believers,
followers and church-goers who participate in religious activities. It is
important to note that not all ‘users’ are necessarily ‘believers’; those who
do not necessarily have ‘faith’ but are active in the periphery of religious
groups must also be included in this category. This is because they are
important to religious groups as possible future believers, and as targets for
missionary education or conversion. The category of ‘users’, then, can be
defined as those who already are, and those who may become, believers of
a religion.
This takes us to the term network. We use this term to refer to the various
elements that are related to the organisational upkeep of the religious
system: the channels the religious system uses to ensure its future exis-
tence. Here, we can distinguish between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ aspects:
the sacred sites, shrine buildings, temples, churches and headquarters of
religious groups constitute the first, while the latter includes institutional
hierarchies, pilgrimage routes, etc.
The third and last key aspect of religious systems is termed substance.
This refers to the message that a religion tries to convey to its users through
its teachings, practices and rituals. A religion’s teachings include both the
doctrines laid down in its scriptures, and the contents of the sermons of
its preachers – two aspects of teaching that are not always identical or even
consistent. Practices and rituals range widely from secret, esoteric rites to
public ceremonies.
Religious groups which display a clear similarity in structure or type
can fruitfully be studied as components of a single religious system. A new
religious system emerges when the three elements of constituents, network
and substance come together in some new way. Changes in religious systems
4
1111 occur when one of these three elements is transformed to such a degree
2 that it affects the other two.
3 If religious systems are formed and transformed in close interaction
4 with the society in which they partake, it follows that Shinto cannot be
5 considered as a single religious system that existed from the ancient to the
6 modern period. Nonetheless, it is also true that the religious system that
7 emerged with the systematisation of kami worship in ancient Japan is
8 connected with modern shrine Shinto through a long string of gradual
9 transformations. The method we will take in this volume is to follow this
1011 long history of transformations. As our point of departure, we will choose
1 kami worship as the characteristic that distinguishes Shinto from other
2 religious traditions and gives it continuity through the ages. It will become
13111 clear, however, that the concrete beliefs and practices of kami worship
4 changed considerably from period to period, and took on a great variety
5 of disparate forms.
6 The classical system of kami worship clearly possessed all the elements
7 of a fully fledged religious system. Its origin is difficult to date, but it was
8 completed as a system after the establishment of a central imperial state
9 governed by an adapted version of Chinese law (J. ritsuryō). Shrines from
20111 all over the country were included in a system of ‘official shrines’ (kansha).
1 This network of official shrines formed the network of kami worship as a
2 religious system. Also, the constituents of kami rituals were clearly identi-
3 fied, and their message (the system’s substance) was transmitted to society
4 through ritual prayers (norito) and imperial decrees (senmyō). It is not
5 possible to identify a religious system that might be described as ‘Shinto’
6 before the systematisation of kami worship by the new imperial state during
7 the classical period, because the constituents, network, and substance of
8 kami cults during this early period were too ill-defined.
9 Together with the decline of the rule of ritsuryō law, the classical system
30111 of kami worship gradually lost its character as a distinct religious system.
1 The system’s network was lost, and as kami cults amalgamated with
2 Buddhism, its substance was radically transformed. During the medieval
3 period, warrior groups became important carriers of kami cults, leading to
4 a partial shift of the religion’s constituents. The spread of private estates
5 (shōen) and the popular practice of ‘inviting’ spirits of the deity Hachiman
6 to such estates encouraged the formation of a new network which partly
7 replaced the classical ‘network’ of official shrines.
8 Simultaneously, the amalgamation of kami cults and Buddhism that had
9 begun already in early classical times penetrated into all nooks and cran-
40111 nies of kami worship in the course of the medieval period, and in the
1 process not only transformed the classical system of kami worship but
211 also encouraged the founding of new religious systems, such as that of
5
Shugendo. This amalgamation generated changes in the substance of kami

cults, because it placed kami cults under the strong influence of Buddhist
doctrine. On the other hand, the process of amalgamation also encour-
aged the development of theological kami thought in opposition to
Buddhism. During medieval times, Shinto as a religious system was all but
absorbed by the much more powerful system of Buddhism, but neverthe-
less survived. Developments in the early modern and modern periods
proved that medieval Shinto, though largely subsumed in Buddhism, still
remained sufficiently autonomous as a religious system to move once more
into a direction of its own.
Elements of the classical system of kami worship survived through the
middle ages into the early modern period. This period saw the emergence
of a new form of Shinto thought in the form of National Learning (koku-
gaku) and Restoration (fukko) Shinto. This form of Shinto can be regarded
as a new religious system in its own right, and also proved essential in the
later formation of sect Shinto in modern times. On the level of substance,
we see that the multitude of medieval kami theories of the medieval
period were rearranged into a new, close-knit discourse through the labours
of successive thinkers of the National Learning movement. This was an
important step in the formation of a new religious system. With regard to
the network of Shinto, the early modern period saw the formation of a
range of religious ‘confraternities’ (kō), whose existence was an important
factor in the development of the Shinto sects of the modern period.
The Buddhist and Confucian forms of Shinto that were prominent
during the medieval and early modern periods were incomplete as a reli-
gious system, because they did not provide for a network of their own, or
only a fragmentary one. On the other hand, they prepared the ground both
for the modern system of kami worship and for the formation of sect Shinto
and Shinto-derived new religions. Therefore, it is not impossible to regard
them at least as a religious system in nascendo.
Shugendo, finally, developed in the power field between kami cults and
Esoteric Buddhism, and gradually matured into a religious system of its
own. Shugendo will not be discussed in detail in this volume, but it was
a factor of great importance in the historical development of Shinto.
The East-Asian sphere of religious culture and Shinto

Traditionally, there has been a tendency to stress the ‘uniquely Japanese’
character of Shinto, and little effort has been made to compare kami
worship in Japan with the indigenous religions and folk beliefs of other
East-Asian countries. It is only recently that researchers have focused
on the similarities between kami cults and Taoism, and on the profound
6
1111 influence of Chinese folk religion and Chinese theories of Yin and Yang
2 and the Five Phases of matter on Japanese kami cults.1
3 Worship of spirits, spirit possession, divination, oracles and polytheism
4 are all features that Japanese kami cults share with East-Asian folk religion.
5 Also, the amalgamation of kami cults with Buddhism in Japan has paral-
6 lels in the amalgamation of Taoism and Buddhism in China, and of
7 Confucianism and Buddhism in Korea.
8 The influence of Chinese religion in East Asia is so prominent that the
9 whole region may well be regarded as a single ‘Chinese religio-cultural
1011 sphere’. Until recently, scholars who have wished to identify the charac-
1 teristics of Japanese religion did so by comparing Japanese religious
2 traditions with the monotheistic religions of the West. As a result of such
13111 comparisons, syncretism, polytheism and animism have frequently been
4 highlighted as typical of Japanese religion as a whole. However, even a
5 superficial glance at the religions of Japan’s closest neighbours reveals that
6 these are all features shared by the large majority of religions in the Chinese
7 religio-cultural sphere.
8 Shinto worships an untold multitude of different kami deities. While
9 this represents an important difference with monotheistic religions such
20111 as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is a feature that Shinto shares with
1 many other religions across the world, and that constitutes the norm in
2 East Asia. Buddhism incorporated many Hindu deities in India, and once
3 again expanded its pantheon in China with a host of Taoist deities. These
4 countless regional deities play an especially important role on the level of
5 popular religion.
6 Moreover, popular beliefs and practices revere not only deities but also
7 a multitude of other kinds of spirits and supernatural creatures. Japanese
8 religion recognises many deities and, to some extent, attributes different
9 functions to different deities. The dividing line between deities and human
30111 beings is vague, and extraordinary humans are frequently worshipped
1 as ‘living kami’ (ikigami) or as ‘emanations of a Buddha’ (keshin). These
2 features of Japanese religion, too, are widely shared by other religious
3 traditions within the Chinese cultural sphere.
4 It goes without saying that polytheistic and animistic forms of religion
5 can be found across the globe, and constitute one of the basic types of
6 religion. In East Asia, these features are especially common. Moreover,
7 East-Asian versions of polytheistic and animistic religions can perhaps be
8 further defined as a special sub-species of this form of religion. Here, the
9 role of Mahāyāna Buddhism and ancient Chinese deity worship, ancestor
40111 worship, and beliefs in demons must be emphasised.
1 The universal religion of East Asia has been Mahāyāna Buddhism, a
211 religion of an exceptionally accommodative character. In the Chinese
7
cultural sphere, Mahāyāna Buddhism absorbed multifarious forms of

ancestor worship and deity worship, and through its flexible attitude and
its tendency to transform differences and oppositions into expressions of a
single religious truth, it contributed to the multifaceted and yet closely
interconnected character of East-Asian religion as a whole.
An important issue in all religious traditions is the question of how
contact with deities, or with God, can be established and maintained.
Christianity and Islam describe how God ‘appears’ to human beings to
convey messages to them (a phenomenon termed theophany); in East Asia,
we find a corresponding phenomenon in the various forms of shamanism
that are common throughout this region. Shamans can be defined as those
who deploy some well-developed technique of interacting with deities or
spirits. In contrast to those who encounter a theophany in Christianity
or Islam, shamans actively establish contact with deities or spirits and, on
occasion, control and use them for their own aims.
Shamanism is often mentioned as a constituent of Shinto. Oracles have
formed part of kami cults since the ancient period, and spirit possession is
a common element of folk religion to this day. It is perhaps questionable
whether all of these phenomena should be termed shamanism, but there
is no doubt that they have functioned as important means of communica-
tion between kami and their worshippers throughout history. The ques-
tion remains how exactly kami possession in Shinto relates to shamanic
practices current in modern Korea, Taiwan or Mongolia; the least we can
say is that all these practices are religious techniques to fathom the will of
deities or spirits. Practices of this nature can be found throughout East
Asia, and Japan is no exception. In Japan, shamanic features are especially
apparent in the activities of different types of spirit ritualists, which are
known variously as ogamiya, reinōsha, kitōshi, or, in specific regions of
Japan, yuta (Okinawa), kamisan, itako, and gomiso (Northern Honshu). The
former of these are occupied mainly with healing practices, and the latter
specialise first and foremost in contacting the dead and conveying messages
from them, and in making predictions for the future.
Another common method to fathom the will of the gods is divination
(uranai). Techniques to interpret utterances, natural events, or the move-
ments of special contrivances as the will of supernatural beings have been
common in most religions since ancient times. In modern Shinto, the draw-
ing of omikuji lots springs to mind; older are the reading of cracks in burnt
tortoise shells (a technique of Chinese origin), and ‘hot-water ordeals’
(kugatachi), in which a priest sprinkles hot water over the worshippers
in the kami’s presence. A large variety of annual divinatory rites and
ceremonies to predict the prosperity of the coming year are practised at
different localities throughout Japan. There are also forms of divination
8
1111 which include an element of spirit possession, such as yudate, a ritual closely
2 related to kugatachi in which a miko priestess sprinkles hot water over her-
3 self and the worshippers to become possessed by the kami. Most forms of
4 divination in Japan have been heavily influenced by Chinese folk religion,
5 by Chinese theories of Yin and Yang and the Five Phases of matter, and
6 by the Book of Changes (Yijing). In fact, the very idea that good and bad for-
7 tune alternate, and the notion that we can read the ‘will of Heaven’, have
8 their roots in China.
9 Even more important in the history of kami cults was their interblending
1011 with Buddhism. Throughout most of the historical period, kami have been
1 worshipped together with buddhas or bodhisattvas, as a primarily Buddhist
2 set. This not only assimilated the characters of different kami with
13111 those of buddhas and bodhisattvas, but also resulted in a situation in which
4 the same individuals or communities followed different religious traditions
5 parallel to each other. Both of these phenomena are commonly termed
6 syncretism.
7 Syncretism develops naturally in a society where different non-
8 exclusionistic, open-ended religions exist side by side. In Japan, Shinto
9 amalgamated not only with Buddhism but also with Confucianism. Also,
20111 most modern new religions are rooted in more than one established
1 religious tradition. In China, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have
2 produced a variety of combinatory cults and theologies, and Korea saw the
3 partial amalgamation of Confucianism with Taoism. In Korea one can even
4 find cults that combine Christian with shamanic elements. It is no exag-
5 geration to argue that syncretism is characteristic of East-Asian religion
6 as a whole.
7 In addition to this traditional syncretism, we can observe a new trend
8 of forming new religious systems by selecting and combining the ‘best
9 points’ of more than one religion. This tendency is distinguished from
30111 traditional syncretism as ‘neo-syncretism’. Neo-syncretism is particularly
1 prominent in modern Shinto-derived new religions, but can also be
2 encountered in some of the new religions of modern Taiwan, Korea and
3 other East-Asian countries.
4 Another prominent aspect of East-Asian religion is ancestor worship. In
5 Japan, memorial services for ancestors are largely the domain of Buddhist
6 sects, and ancestor worship is often regarded as an element of popular
7 Buddhism; nevertheless, ancestors also play an important role in popu-
8 lar kami practices. In East Asia, ancestor worship has often been tied in
9 with Confucianism, and has played a prominent role in people’s religious
40111 life. Ancestral genealogies have usually followed the paternal line and
1 are, in China and Korea, linked with specific places of origin. In some
211 modern Japanese Buddhist-derived sects (notably Reiyūkai and sects split
9
off from it), there is a tendency to include maternal ancestors as well.

In general, it can be said that the concept of ancestors in Japan is more
inclusive than in China or Korea, and the practice of paying reverence to
ancestors has consistently occupied a larger proportion of religious activity
than in other parts of East Asia. The fact remains, however, that the notion
of a shared ancestry has played an important role in the formation of group
identities in most societies throughout East Asia.
Ancestor worship mostly takes the form of ritual practice by kin groups
or clans, and continues to perform the function of promoting group soli-
darity, often in secularised ways. Originally, such rituals were strongly
religious in character. The ancestors were connected to living individuals
or groups not only genealogically, but also as active ancestral spirits that
protect their descendants in the present. In Japan, ancestor spirits were
not necessarily related to their protégés in a strictly genealogical sense, and
could therefore play an important role in community (rather than kin
group) rituals. Moreover, ancestor worship has been central to modern
ideologies that identify the whole of the state of Japan as an extended
family, with the emperor at its head.
As will be clear already from this brief inventory of shared East-Asian
features, research into Shinto as a member of the family of East-Asian reli-
gions is a promising and necessary avenue to a better understanding of this
religious tradition, which has all too often been described as ‘uniquely
Japanese’.
Note
1 Examples are Fukunaga Mitsuji, Dōkyō to Nihon bunka (Jinbun Shoin 1982),
and Yoshino Hiroko, In’yō gogyōsetsu kara mita Nihon no matsuri (Kōbundō
1978).
10
2
1
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1011
1111
Ancient period Medieval period Early modern period Modern period (pre-war, post-war)
Shinto of
religious groups
Constituents: Shrine lineages, monks, etc. Constituents: Kokugaku scholars, Sects’ founders, leaders
Makers Makers Shintoists, etc.
Users Users Students Followers
Network: Network: Sects’ buildings, sacred sites

Hard Hard
Soft Kami initiations Soft Students’ networks Law on religious

organizations
Substance Kami as Buddhist emanations Substance Kokugaku, Confucianism Teachings of founders

Japan as a ‘divine land’
Medieval Nihongi, Shinto thought
Intellectual Shinto lineages Shinto-derived

Kokugaku Sect Shinto
11
Initiatory Shinto lineages New Religions
Religious system Ancient kami system Gradual transformation Modern kami system Modern Shrine Shinto
Shinto of
shrines
Constituents: Emperor, kami clans, Shrine lineages, monks, Constituents: Shirakawa and Yoshida Shrine priests Shrine priests
Makers jingikan ‘pilgrim masters’ (oshi) Makers houses
Warriors, courtiers
Users Clans, elites Confraternities Users (Further popularization) Parishioners (ujiko) Ujiko followers
(popularization)
Network: Ise shrines, other shrines Increase in Hachiman and Network: Meiji Jingu,
- etc. Jinja Honcho-
Hard Tenjin shrines Hard Toyokuni shrine, Toshogu
- - - etc. priests’ education
facilities
Soft Court offerings to selected shrines 22 shrines system Soft Regulations for shrines and Modern imperial Law on religious
Ise periodic rebuilding, saigu- Provincial and first shrines shrine priests system organizations
Kami law Shrine guilds State-sponsored
shrines
Substance Myths of Nihon shoki, Kojiki, Fudoki Founding myths (engi) Substance Standardized Rites prescribed
Norito prayers Amalgamation of kami and shrine rights by Jinja Honcho-
Clan rituals Buddhism
Figure I.1 An overview of Shinto history

1
ANCIENT AND
CLASSICAL JAPAN
The dawn of Shinto
Mori Mizue
Where did Shinto come from? Must we look for the origins of Shinto in
the Jōmon period (c.12,000–400 BCE), or did its traditions arise in the
subsequent Yayoi period (c.400 BCE–300 CE)? Opinions on this question
are still divided. The least we can say is that excavations of ritual sites
from the Yayoi period leave little doubt that during this period, people
believed in, and worshipped, spiritual powers that controlled the weather
and the crops. These sites bespeak the existence at this early date of what
we may call kami worship.
With the arrival of wet rice cultivation from the Asian continent, kami
worship became gradually more systematised. As the scale of rice cultiva-
tion increased, the necessity arose for large groups of people to cooperate
in a more systematic way. At the same time, clan chiefs took control over
water resources and agricultural techniques, and increased their own
authority by linking these to specific kami. As indicated already by the
twin meanings of the Japanese word matsurigoto – ‘secular rule’ and ‘ritual’
– these chiefs maintained order within their communities through the
performance of kami rituals.
In the late fourth century, the end of the Yayoi period was signalled by the
rise of the Yamato court to a position of dominance over other clans. By the
latter half of the fifth century, the Yamato chief had attained the position of
the country’s ‘Great King’. The kings of the Yamato court had originally
worshipped the kami of the area around Mount Miwa, but this highly
localised cult was gradually substituted with rituals focusing on military
kami, and worship of a single Sun Deity. While recognising the ritual
prerogatives of other clans, the Yamato court moved to force them into a
larger political order; in terms of ritual, this was achieved by rearranging the
12
T H E DAW N O F S H I N T O
1111 myths of other clans around the genealogy of the royal lineage. Further-
2 more, the late seventh century saw the importation of a system of Chinese
3 law, known in Japan as ritsuryō. This signalled the beginning of the classical
4 period. Under this legal system, rule over the country was centralised
5 to an unprecedented degree, leading also to a centralisation of kami ritual
6 under a special government office, the ‘Ministry of Kami Affairs’ (Jingikan).
7 It is at this point that, for the first time, we can speak of ‘Shinto’ as a
8 religious system that is linked directly (if remotely) to the Shinto of today.
9 The main task of the Ministry of Kami Affairs was to perform rituals for
1011 all the kami in the land. The most important shrines of the different regions
1 were given a national status and rank, and became so-called ‘official shrines’
2 (kansha). At the basis of this system of official kami ritual lay the idea that
13111 the sovereignty of the emperor (tennō) is derived from his descent from the
4 Sun-Deity Amaterasu Ōmikami. This idea was laid down in mythological
5 form in two National Histories, Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720). Most
6 poignant in this respect are myths (recorded as history in these National
7 Histories) that recount how Amaterasu granted her grandson, Ninigi, ever-
8 lasting sovereignty over Japan; how Ninigi descended from Amaterasu’s
9 dwelling place, the Plain of High Heaven, to the island of Kyushu; and how
20111 Ninigi’s descendant, Jinmu, subjugated other clans, established his court
1 in Yamato, and became the first human to ascend to the imperial throne.
2 The kami rituals carried out by the court during the ritsuryō period func-
3 tioned on the premise that local clan traditions continued. However, kami
4 worship could not remain unaffected by the spread of the Chinese bureau-
5 cratic and patrilineal values that lay behind the ritsuryō legal system.
6 Whereas the Japanese clan system had contained matrilineal as well as
7 patrilineal elements, the new political environment soon rendered them
8 exclusively patrilineal. This gave rise to the development of so-called
9 ujigami (‘clan deity’) cults. Changes also occurred on the village level
30111 where, during this period, the first permanent shrine buildings appeared.
1 This chapter will trace the emergence of Shinto as a religious system of the
2 state, by considering all of these developments and their relationship with
3 the period’s political trends.
4
5
Ritual sites and kami cults
6
7 The civilisation of the Jōmon period, which began with the introduction
8 of pottery in c.12,000 BCE, was almost exclusively based on hunting and
9 gathering. In contrast, Yayoi period civilisation revolved around wet rice
40111 cultivation, which was adopted from the Asian continent in the fourth
1 century BCE and spread throughout Japan with remarkable speed during
211 the subsequent century. Jōmon and Yayoi culture have long been regarded
13
MORI MIZUE
as two contrasting strains that have since defined the character of Japanese
culture. The origins of Shinto are often traced back to kami beliefs that
existed during the later Yayoi period or the subsequent period of burial
mounds (the Kofun period, c.300–700). Many writers have linked Shinto’s
origins to community rituals around the agricultural calendar of rice
growing from these periods.1
Considering the facts that rituals around rice growing have dominated
the ritual calendar of shrines throughout history, and that the emperor has
always functioned as a ritual king with a special concern for the rice crop,
it is perhaps not unreasonable to look for the roots of Shinto in these
periods. At the same time, it is worth noting that recent archaeological
finds have led to a revision of our understanding of the Jōmon period.
Recently, it has become clear that there must have been as much, if not
more, continuity than contrast between this period and the subsequent
Yayoi period and, as a result, the animism of the Jōmon period will also have
to be taken into account as a possible ancestor of Shinto. Even so, there are
indications of a clear break in religious practice between the Jōmon and
Yayoi periods. Jōmon period villages were constructed in a circle around a
central square or cemetery, and rituals for the dead must have performed an
important role in community life. In contrast, Yayoi period ritual sites are
never connected to graves. Here, the dead were not the object of ritual
practice, but were avoided and tabooed, and rather than on the dead,
rituals focused on spirits associated with the forces of nature.
All in all, it appears quite clear that in broad terms, a religious system
that we may call Shinto first emerged when kami beliefs were systematised
under the influence of Yayoi period rituals relating to the growing of rice.
However, rice cultivation spread to all areas of Japan only gradually, and
in different regions there will have existed a wide variety of kami beliefs
and rituals. It is by no means possible to explain the origins and aims
of all kami cults with reference to rice-growing rituals alone. It would
certainly be an oversimplification to state that the Japanese islands first
gave rise to kami cults of different types, which grew and developed nat-
urally within local communities, and then gave birth to Shinto in some
kind of natural progression. Rather, it was the Yamato court which,
under the influence of Chinese notions of kingship, consciously chose
sun worship as the linchpin of its ritual activities. This the Yamato court
tied in with the concept of ‘Heavenly Deities’ (ama-tsu-kami), a group of
superior kami among whom the Sun Goddess Amaterasu was the most
prominent, and who reigned over the ‘Earthly Deities’ (kuni-tsu-kami) and
their descendants from their heavenly domain. It was this consciously
and deliberately constructed cult that provided the impetus leading to the
emergence of Shinto as a religious system.
14
1111 This leaves us with the question of what can be known about kami cults
2 before their systematisation by the Yamato court. The written sources
3 we possess about early Shinto all date from the period after the establish-
4 ment of the Yamato court, and most were written down when the Yamato
5 court had already embarked upon the formation of a centralised state
6 based on ritsuryō law. For this reason, these sources deal almost exclusively
7 with Shinto state ritual. This renders it very difficult to reconstruct
8 concrete instances of kami cults before the formation of the state cult, or
9 even instances of local kami rites away from the court during and after the
1011 formation of this cult. These limitations leave only the archaeological
1 record as a reliable source of information on early kami cults.
2 Among finds from the Yayoi and Kofun periods are many ritual sites,
13111 usually at some remove from settlements, in mountains or valleys, along
4 streams or on islands, which focus on large rocks (iwasaka or shiki). At
5 some of these sites, fetishes carved from wood, precious objects such as
6 jewels, and containers for food have been found, and they are generally
7 understood to have been places of kami worship. It appears that at such
8 iwasaka sites, but also at springs, waterfalls, river banks, and by large trees,
9 mostly in places that were important for the water supply of farming
20111 communities, sacred spaces were created and marked off, kami were
1 temporarily invited to descend and attend, and rites relating to the agri-
2 cultural calendar were performed. For the purpose of such rites, objects
3 known as yorishiro were placed in the sacred space to which the kami were
4 invited to descend. At this stage, the kami were imagined as invisible
5 spirits, without permanent dwelling places.
6 These yorishiro could be stones (called iwasaka), or trees or branches
7 (himorogi); it appears that animals such as snakes, birds, boar or deer could
8 also serve as yorishiro. Few of such natural yorishiro have come down to us,
9 but it would seem that the most common type was an evergreen tree
30111 or branch of a pillar-like appearance, placed directly on the ground. In
1 some cases, geological features such as waterfalls, streams, hills or islands
2 served as objects of worship. In particular, hills that were thought to influ-
3 ence the weather, or that were striking in appearance were regarded
4 as sacred dwelling places of kami and functioned as ritual sites.2 Low,
5 wooded, conical hills rising from the plains were often referred to as ‘kami-
6 inhabited mountains’ (mimuro-yama or kannabi-yama), but ritual sites have
7 also been found on more rugged mountains. The Ōmiwa, Suwa, and a few
8 other shrines have preserved the practice of worshipping a mountain as a
9 kami site to this day: lacking a kami hall, they consist simply of a worship-
40111 ping hall built before a kami hill (shintaizan). Rites on kami hills took
1 place in a demarcated sacred area into which entry for non-ritual purposes
211 was forbidden; but it appears that such hills were also intensively used
15
MORI MIZUE
for collecting firewood and foodstuffs, and played an important role in

everyday village life.
The rapid spread of rice cultivation through most of Japan occasioned
the emergence of a new ruling class, which controlled and managed the
skills and the excess produce of village communities. In ritual terms, this
development is reflected in the performance of communal agricultural rites
at the granaries where the rice crops and seeds were stored (raised-floor
structures known as kura), and at the dwellings of local chiefs (miya or
yake, yakata).
Kura were regarded as dwelling places of the spirits of the rice. The
villagers worshipped these spirits in the forecourts of kura or at specially
constructed himorogi, where the spirits were treated with lavish offerings.
In some cases, a special building for the preparation of such offerings
(known as a yashiro) would also have been put up. Such kura later devel-
oped into permanent raised-floor shrines; the most famous shrine buildings
of this type, known as shinmei-zukuri, are the shrines of Ise.
Another type of shrine building developed from the dwellings of local
chiefs, or miya. Such dwellings were set apart from the other village houses
on the fringe of the village area. It appears that a section of the main
house was set aside for the performance of rites. The most famous modern
shrine that belongs to this type, known as taisha-zukuri, is the Izumo shrine.
While the main entrance to shinmei-zukuri shrine buildings is placed
in the long wall of the structure, taisha-zukuri shrines have their main
entrance in a short wall. Both have raised floors, built on pillars set in
holes dug in the ground.
The worship of kami in permanent structures that they were believed
to inhabit in a human-like fashion led to their personalisation and human-
isation, and soon, village kami acquired human traits. Moreover, those who
were directly involved in the rites performed in the enclosed spaces of
permanent shrines were thought to have a special relationship with the
kami, and thus came to be seen as kami-like figures themselves, clearly
separated from other members of the village community. It is thought that
village chiefs may have performed a shaman-like role in village ritual.
Yayoi period sites have produced large numbers of ornate bell-shaped
bronze objects, known as dōtaku, as well as bronze weapons and mirrors. It
is believed that these metal objects may have been used to call up kami
spirits for agricultural rituals. It is possible that the sounds produced by
striking such objects, or their bright and shiny surface, may have inspired
a belief that they had special properties, and caused them to be selected
for such a role. On dōtaku, as well as on the walls of the inner chambers
of the burial mounds of the Kofun period, depictions of birds have been
found, together with agricultural scenes, the sun and the moon, or boats;
16
1111 there are also finds of bird figures carved from wood. These pictures and
2 figures seem to reflect a belief that birds are sacred creatures, who fly to
3 and fro between this world and another world, contributing to the move-
4 ments of the sun, and carrying the spirits of the rice. This belief displays
5 certain similarities with myths recounting the ‘shooting of suns’. Such
6 myths are known from a large area, stretching from southern China to
7 Korea, that coincides with the route along which rice cultivation spread.
8 An early account of them can be found in the Chinese Huainanzi (second
9 century BCE), which tells how at some time in the distant past, the ten
1011 suns which at normal times took turns to illuminate the world in a ten-
1 day cycle appeared all at the same time, causing a disastrous drought. These
2 suns were carried along the heavens by birds, and the crisis was overcome
13111 when a hero shot nine of the ten suns. Rites using bird figures and
4 shamanism can be found throughout this area, suggesting that shamans
5 were expected to control the movements of the sun through control of
6 birds, and thus guarantee a good crop.
7 In these various ways, Japan’s religious culture was profoundly affected
8 by the arrival of rice cultivation. Of special importance was the formation
9 of hierarchically structured village communities, led by chiefs. These chiefs
20111 played a central part in the rites surrounding the growing of rice, and their
1 ritual role was an essential element of their authority as local leaders.
2 Moreover, towards the end of the Yayoi period, widespread fighting among
3 villages led to the formation of small ‘states’ (kuni), each comprising a
4 considerable number of villages. As these ‘states’ formed alliances, fought
5 wars, and merged into ever greater units, the military and political roles
6 of kami ritual became ever more pronounced.
7 This period saw the adoption of precious symbols of secular power, such
8 as mirrors (some imported from China, others Japanese copies), swords, and
9 jewels as yorishiro used in kami rites. Some ritual sites, such as Kōjindani in
30111 Izumo, have revealed large hoards of metal objects such as weapons (of a size
1 and shape that excludes their practical use) and mirrors, presumably made
2 and used for exorcist ritual purposes. Such finds indicate that the religious
3 powers of chiefs were now expected not only to enable them to control
4 nature, but also to maintain military security and make the right political
5 judgements in a world of ever shifting alliances and power balances.
6
7
Matsurigoto: ritual and political power
8
9 The National Histories Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720) give Emperor
40111 Mimaki-iri-hiko or Sujin the title ‘First Emperor to Rule the Realm’ (hatsu-
1 kuni-shirasu sumera-mikoto), suggesting that this emperor, whose rule is
211 dated to the late third century, was the first ‘Great King’ of the Yamato
17
MORI MIZUE
court. With the establishment of this court in central Japan, the system-
atisation of kami ritual began. Its constituents were the members of the
ruling elite, consisting of the royal clan and its allies. Here, I will give an
overview of the religious network and substance that informed the ritual
rule of the Yamato kings during the period from the early emergence of
the Yamato court in the third century, until its final establishment in the
latter half of the fifth century.
Before the establishment of unified rule, the shamanic powers of the
various local kings of the many small ‘states’ (kuni) into which Japan was
divided must have played a prominent role. An example of such a figure
is Pimiko, the queen of ‘Wo’ who figures in the Chinese Weizhi (‘History
of the Wei’), compiled around 297 CE. The Weizhi writes of Pimiko that
she ‘occupied herself with magic and sorcery, bewitching the people,’3
suggesting that her powers were religious as much as secular. The articles
on Sujin in Kojiki and Nihon shoki, too, contain many religious elements,
such as divinely inspired dreams relating to his succession, the stopping of
an epidemic through the solving of riddles, and so forth.
The main site, and quite possibly also the main object of the ritual
worship of the Yamato court was Mount Miwa. Miwa is a typical kami
hill, dotted with iwasaka rocks. The kami of Miwa, Ōmononushi, was
worshipped as the ‘spirit of the land’ (kunitama) who bestowed bountiful
harvests on Yamato, for example by blessing the land with favourable
weather conditions. This kami was thought to take on the shape of a snake;
to this day, the kami of Miwa is known as mii-san (‘snake’), and it is said
that a messenger from the kami dwells at the foot of a large cedar tree in
front of the worshipping hall in the form of a white snake. The kings of
Yamato must have performed agricultural rituals similar to those carried
out by Yayoi period chiefs, focusing, above all, on ensuring a plentiful
supply of water for rice growing. As the Yamato court expanded, its
guardian deity, Ōmononushi, also took on the character of a deity of war,
and shrines dedicated to this deity were founded in conquered areas.
Another important site was Isonokami, Yamato’s gate to the east. At
the Isonokami shrine, members of the Mononobe clan performed rituals
that focused on a divine sword, praying for the military success of the
Yamato state. The Mononobe were ancient retainers of the Yamato court,
and were in charge of military matters (together with the Ōtomo clan).
There are indications that Isonokami was originally a site for agricultural
rites carried out by the communities along the Furukawa river, but it would
appear that with the rise of the Mononobe at the Yamato court, this shrine
took on the function of betowing success on the battlefield. It is thought
that the Kashima and Katori shrines in eastern Japan went through a
similar development.
18
1111 Through a combination of military power and diplomacy, the Yamato

2 court gained supremacy among the ‘states’ of early Japan between the
3 late third and late fifth centuries. Chinese histories of the Jin (316–420)
4 and Song (420–79) dynasties mention five Japanese kings (the so-called
5 ‘Five Kings of Wo’), who sent frequent tributes to China and attained
6 royal status on a par with the kings of Korean states. As proof of their royal
7 status, the Yamato kings received seals, mirrors, ceremonial weapons and
8 glass objects from the Chinese emperor. These objects bespoke the tech-
9 nological superiority of China, and were cherished as symbols of royal
1011 power, knowledge and wealth in Japan. They came to occupy a central
1 position in court ritual as divine treasures or as containers of kami spirits.
2 Ritual sites that emerged with the development of overseas diplomacy
13111 were the harbour of Naniwazu (modern Osaka) and the island of Oki no
4 Shima. Naniwazu was the site of the shrine of Sumiyoshi, a deity who was
5 worshipped as the protector of the sea route between this harbour and
6 Kyushu. This deity had strong and long-standing ties with the Yamato
7 court. Oki no Shima is a small uninhabited island off the coast of north-
8 western Kyushu, linked to the Munakata shrine on the shore. Ritual sites
9 discovered on this island revealed thousands of objects offered by the
20111 Yamato court between the fourth and tenth centuries. The deity of
1 Munakata was originally worshipped by the clans of northern Kyushu; the
2 Yamato court raised the prestige of this deity and initiated ritual worship
3 on Oki no Shima as part of its efforts to gain the cooperation of these
4 clans in maintaining relations with the continent.
5 In the late third century, the Yamato court developed a new kind of
6 burial mound of a particular keyhole shape (zenpō kōen fun). Such mounds
7 were also ceremonial spaces, where rituals of succession were carried out.
8 A rite symbolising the transfer of power from the old to the new king was
9 carried out on the high round part of the mound, followed by a ceremony
30111 of proclaiming the beginning of the new king’s reign on a lower square
1 part attached to the round part. After this, the round part, which contained
2 the grave of the old king, was marked off as a sacred area by means of clay
3 cylinders (haniwa), which became more elaborate over time.
4 It is interesting in this context that an inscription found on an iron sword
5 from the late fifth century, excavated from the Inariyama burial mound,
6 explicitly states that Emperor Wakatakeru or Yūryaku was a direct descen-
7 dant in the eighth generation of the above-mentioned Emperor Mimaki-
8 iri-hiko or Sujin. The building of burial mounds, the development of new
9 rites of succession, and the casting of ceremonial swords drew heavily on
40111 the services of immigrant clans from the continent. It was their knowledge
1 of continental culture that gave the impetus for the development of new
211 conceptions of royal authority, and for their expression in a new royal
19
MORI MIZUE
genealogy and a new body of ritual. Together with the expansion of the
Yamato court, keyhole-shaped burial mounds appeared throughout Japan.
The genealogical awareness and ritual forms that were developed by the
Yamato court spread in the wake of these monuments, and served as exam-
ples for the court’s allies in the provinces.
By Yūryaku’s time, the unification of Japan under the Yamato court was
nearly complete. This reduced the need for Chinese imperial recognition
of the Yamato kings, and tribute payments to China ceased. The dimin-
ished importance of diplomatic ties with the continent is reflected in a
simplification of the rituals performed on Oki no Shima. Here, numerous
precious objects were used as offerings during the late fourth and fifth
centuries, while in the late fifth and sixth centuries, these were replaced
by copies in stone or iron. This same period saw a new development in
the conception of the power of the Yamato kings: their authority was
increasingly understood to cover ‘All under Heaven’, and took on an even
more religious character. This understanding of royal authority found
expression in the cult of the Sun Goddess in Ise.
Ise was not only an affluent district of economic importance, but was
also situated directly to the east from Yūryaku’s capital at Hase on the
eastern slope of Mount Miwa. Seen from Hase, Ise was the sacred place
where the sun rose. Opinions are divided over the origin of the Ise shrines,
but most scholars agree that the Inner Shrine (Naikū) dedicated to the
Sun Goddess Amaterasu was moved to Ise from Yamato, while the orig-
inal shrine at Ise was redefined as an ‘Outer Shrine’ (Gekū) dedicated to
a food deity subservient to Amaterasu.4 This move of the Sun Goddess
to Ise represented a major change in the Yamato cult of the sun: from a
local cult of Amaterasu as the ‘spirit of the land’ of the province of Yamato,
to a cult in which Amaterasu featured as a universal sun deity who illu-
minates All under Heaven, and whose worship is the prerogative of a royal
lineage with equally universal powers.
Our best sources on the transformation of kami cults during Yūryaku’s
reign are passages from the National Histories Kojiki and Nihon shoki
relating to the origin of the practice of dedicating imperial princesses
(saigū) to the Ise shrines. These unmarried princesses carried out ritual
functions at Ise in the name of the emperor. The Kojiki relates that during
the reign of Emperor Sujin, an oracle was revealed to princess Yamato-
totobimomoso-hime, proclaiming that in order to appease Ōmononushi
and to stop the pestilence caused by his wrath, Ōmononushi’s grandson,
Ōtataneko, must be found and appointed as his priest. This Ōtataneko
then became the ancestor of the aptly named Miwa clan of Miwa priests.
The Nihon shoki describes how Sujin ‘came to dread the great power’ of
the two deities Amaterasu and Yamato no Ōkunitama (‘Yamato’s Great
20
1111 Spirit of the Land’), who until then had been ‘worshipped together within
2 the Emperor’s Great Hall’. The text states that the emperor ‘did not feel
3 secure in their dwelling together’,5 and therefore entrusted each of these
4 two deities to an imperial princess and moved them away from the im-
5 perial palace. The imperial ancestor Amaterasu was handed over from one
6 princess to another, until after about a century of wanderings she reached
7 Ise and ordered the imperial princess Yamato-hime in an oracle to build a
8 permanent shrine for her in that ‘secluded and pleasant land’.6 This
9 occurred during the reign of Emperor Suinin.
1011 These legends reveal much about the emergence of professional priests
1 and permanent shrines. However, they also show that rituals that were
2 originally performed by the Yamato king himself were increasingly dele-
13111 gated to female members of the royal lineage and to subordinate clans.
4 This suggests that ritual matters were becoming less central to royal rule
5 than before.
6 Conversely, these legends about the origin of dedicated princesses also
7 indicate the strong links that existed between ritual worship and political
8 rule before this time, and show that ritual matters were largely the province
9 of female members of the royal clan. Some scholars argue that there existed
20111 a system of rule by a closely related female and male (or hime and hiko,
1 ‘princess and prince’), in which the female acted as a shaman in charge
2 of ritual matters while the male held secular power. Examples from the
3 National Histories that may be regarded as remnants of such a system are
4 Jingū Kōgō, who became empress after the death of her husband Emperor
5 Chūai (who died after ignoring an oracle revealed to Jingū Kōgō), and
6 Princess Iitoyo no Ao, an unmarried princess who ruled for a short while
7 after Emperor Buretsu’s death; a similar system of rule is sketched in the
8 Chinese account of Queen Pimiko of Yamatai.
9 It is, indeed, more than a coincidence that the supreme deity in the
30111 National Histories is the female Amaterasu, and it is a fact that many
1 deities appear as pairs, one called hime and the other hiko. Also, there are
2 legends that make mention of female chiefs. However, Chinese records
3 about the tribute-bearing Kings of Wo and legends about the origins of
4 chiefs contained in the National Histories also mention numerous
5 instances of kami possession by males, and it would be wrong, even for this
6 early period, simply to define the female as sacred versus the male as
7 secular. Clearly, different early Japanese states used different ritual systems,
8 and there is no evidence to suggest that a single system of rule involving
9 a female shaman and a male secular ruler was common to all.
40111 What does appear strongly from the sources is that already at an early
1 stage of the royal clan’s emergence as Japan’s supreme military power, ritual
211 and secular duties were separated from each other by excluding females
21
MORI MIZUE
The royal lineage

1. Jinmu
10. Sujin
11. Suinin
12. Keikō
14. Jingū Kōgō (regent)
15. Ōjin
21. Yūryaku
26. Keitai (507–31)
27. Ankan (531–5)
29. Kinmei (539–71)
31. Yōmei (585–7)
33. Suiko (592–628)
36. Kōtoku (645–54)
38. Tenchi (662–71)
40. Tenmu (672–86)
41. Jitō (690–7)
from the latter.7 Those ritualists, both female and male, who took care of
royal kami ritual lost their political influence and were reduced to a sup-
portive role in the service of the royal court. This led, among other things,
to a marginalisation of formerly extremely influential female ritualists.
Emperor Jinmu: clan alliances and legend

Between the latter half of the fifth century (Emperor Yūryaku’s reign) and
the middle of the sixth century (Emperor Kinmei’s reign), the Yamato court
imposed its rule over an area stretching from Kyushu in the south-west to
the Kanto plain in the north-east. This period saw the emergence of a
new, large state which wielded military, diplomatic and ritual authority,
centring on the Yamato royal house and supported by an alliance of
powerful clans. Elites were formed that were also the constituents and makers
of a new system of kami cults, and the substance contained in these cults
was shaped by the very process of state formation.
Yūryaku is described in the sources as the ‘Great King who Governs All
under Heaven’. The term ‘All under Heaven’ (Ch. tianxia, J. tenka or
ame no shita) is a telling one: it reveals that this Great King was seen not
as a peripheral king subservient to the Chinese emperors of the Middle
22
1111 Kingdom, but as a world ruler claiming universal powers. As the title of
2 Great King (J. ōkimi) became hereditary, its incumbents used ever greater
3 resources for the building of gigantic burial tombs, designed to impress their
4 military power on possible rivals. With the establishment of the principles
5 of the succession, a beginning was made with the recording of genealogical
6 annals of the royal lineage. On the ritual front, this period saw the devel-
7 opment of separate rituals of burial and succession. The new succession
8 rituals included the selection of a suitable site through divination, the
9 construction of an enthronement platform, the performance of an acces-
1011 sion ceremony, and, finally, the building of a new royal palace. This new
1 ceremonial form is thought to have arisen both through the influence of
2 Chinese models, and through a strengthening of the taboo on death, which
13111 made burial mounds less desirable as sites for succession ceremonies.
4 Central to the royal funereal ceremonies of this period were the rituals
5 performed during the mogari or ‘wake’, which involved a temporary burial
6 in the court grounds. At the temporary burial site, rites were performed
7 for the pacification of the potentially violent spirit of the deceased king.8
8 Most important among the mogari rituals was the recitation of a eulogy of
the deceased, called shinobi. At the wake, those present recited the geneal-
9
ogy and the achievements of the deceased, and swore their allegiance to the
20111
new king. As the final rite of the funeral, the deceased king was given a
1
posthumous title in Japanese (wafū shigō), which symbolised his accom-
2
plishments as a ruler; this practice started with Emperor Ankan (r. 531–5),
3
who was given such a title in 535. These rituals served to impress the
4 importance of the royal lineage on the nation’s elite, by stressing both its
5 divine origins and its historical achievements. Members of immigrant
6 clans from the mainland with expertise in writing and calendrical matters
7 were in charge of both these rituals and the written records. Already in
8 inscriptions in metal and stone from the fifth and sixth centuries, Chinese
9 characters were used phonetically to record Japanese personal names and
30111 place names; not much later, this phonetic way of using Chinese characters
1 was developed further to commit to writing phrases, poems, formulas and
2 myths in Japanese. These developments show a conscious attempt on the
3 part of the Japanese court to create a historical record that was its very own,
4 even if this meant deviating from Chinese precedents.
5 Parallel with these changes, the royal court deepened its relations with
6 leading clans of the Home Provinces, for example through actively seeking
7 marital ties. These relations were reflected in a merging of myths and
8 genealogies, resulting in a shared understanding of historical origins
9 and blood ties. Such clans (uji) emerged in the late fifth century, and were
40111 patrilinear groups bound together by the notion of a shared ancestry. They
1 consisted of an elite of ‘clan members’ (ujibito) led by a clan head (uji no
211 kami), and controlled large areas of land as well as great numbers of slaves
23
MORI MIZUE
(nuhi). There were also clans whose positions were not based so much on
their control of certain areas, but rather on their expertise in specific
(mostly Chinese) skills. Clans who served the royal court, either by imple-
menting royal policies in the region under their control or by offering the
court their specialised services, received titles (kabane) which indicated
their status within the court hierarchy.9
When we trace back the history of the formation of these clans, we find
that already during the late fifth century, kabane titles were granted to chiefs;
but at this time clan names do not yet figure in the sources. The founding
ancestor of the royal lineage was said to be Emperor Sujin, and early written
sources mention persons from Sujin’s reign as the ancestors of the main
chiefly lineages. We find no indications that there existed a (perceived)
genealogical link between the royal lineage and these chiefly lineages, nor
between the royal lineage and the deities worshipped by such lineages during
this period. The sixth century, however, saw the birth of the legend of
Emperor Jinmu’s conquest of Yamato. By claiming descent in a straight line
from this legendary emperor, the royal lineage proclaimed its legitimacy as
rulers over the whole of Japan. The supremacy of the royal court over all
other clan chiefs was legitimised by referring to the legendary events from
Jinmu’s age. At the same time, those groups who served under the royal court
adapted their own legends to fit in more closely with those of their masters.
The legend of Emperor Jinmu recounts how Kamu-Yamato-Iwarehiko
(i.e. Jinmu), a descendant of the ‘Heavenly Deities’, left his native Kyushu
(‘Himuka in Tsukushi’), defeated a series of enemies with the help of the
gods, and after many adventures reached Yamato. Here, the legend tells us,
he worshipped the Heavenly Deities at Mount Kaguyama and ascended the
throne as the first emperor (sumera-mikoto). The claim that this legendary
figure conquered Yamato from the outside pressed home the point that
he and his descendants were not merely local chiefs of Yamato, but were
the offspring of the ‘Heavenly Deities’, and as such had been promised the
overlordship over the whole of Japan already in the Age of the Gods.
Scholars have linked the legend of Emperor Jinmu’s conquest of Yamato
to an alliance of clans that supported the succession of Emperor Keitai
(r. 507–31) in the early sixth century. Keitai was brought in from the
Hokuriku region (on the coast of the Japan Sea, north of Yamato) by pow-
erful chiefs from the Yamato and Ōmi regions when the lineage of Emperor
Yūryaku died out. Legends about the origins of the lineages of these chiefs
(such as the chief of the Ōtomo clan) are woven into the Jinmu legend
and form an important part of it. The involvement of new powers in the
planning of Yūryaku’s succession helped to further disseminate the legends
of the Yamato kings and their allies, and involved new clan groups in
the emerging network of relationships reflected in, and continued through,
legend.
24
1111 Other legends, such as that of the conquest of Korea by Empress Jingū
2 Kōgō and her general Takenouchi no Sukune, and that of the succession
3 of Emperor Ōjin, include founding myths of powerful shrines located along
4 the Japanese coast between Naniwazu (modern Osaka) and Kyushu, such
5 as Sumiyoshi Taisha (in Osaka), Hirota Jinja (Nishinomiya), Iminomiya
6 Jinja (Shimonoseki), and Kashii-gū (Fukuoka). The deities of these shrines
7 had long been worshipped for protection at sea, but in these legends, they
8 display a distinctly military character. Here, court policy is described as
9 the restoration of vested interests, and is shown to carry the blessing of
1011 the gods. The acts of Jingū Kōgō and Ōjin are described as legitimate
1 measures flowing naturally from historical necessity. The ever-growing
2 body of legend provided a ‘story line’ revolving around the lineage of
13111 Emperor Jinmu, which defined the legitimacy of the royal court, recorded
4 the past accomplishments of the royal allies (thus legitimising their present
5 positions), and explained the significance of specific political measures.
6 By the time of Emperor Kinmei’s reign (r. 539–71), the ruling elites of
7 Kyushu had submitted to the Yamato court, and the process of adjusting
8 the myths and legends of the leading clans to those that legitimised royal
9 authority gathered speed. The legends that recount the subordination of
20111 clans described as descendants of ‘Earthly Kami’ by Jinmu and his succes-
1 sors mostly refer to clans with the highest kabane titles (omi, kimi), which
2 originally had independent power bases. In addition to Jinmu’s conquests,
3 the National Histories recount how Emperor Sujin dispatched four im-
4 perial princes to various regions where they ‘pacified the savages’, and how
5 Emperor Keikō’s son Yamato-takeru conquered Kyushu, Izumo and the
6 Kanto region.10 These legends, too, serve to weave local traditions ranging
7 from Kyushu to the North-East into the tapestry of royal history. In their
8 turn, royal legends were also adopted and adapted in out-lying regions.
9 The Hitachi kuni fudoki, for example, a ‘gazetteer’ from the distant eastern
30111 province of Hitachi informing the court of local customs, legends, folk-
1 tales and resources, records an atypical version of the Yamato-takeru
2 legend, and uses it to explain place names and shrine origins in the region.
3 Parallel with the emergence of these legends of subordination, local
4 chiefs became provincial governors (kuni no miyatsuko) in the service of
5 the royal court. While retaining much of their traditional power in local
6 society, clan chiefs were made part of a nation-wide governmental struc-
7 ture under the royal court. The provincial governors collected royal
8 taxes in specified regional products (nie), sent their sons and daughters
9 to the royal court for service, and led provincial armies under royal
40111 command. Moreover, they offered traditional ‘divine treasures’ to the
1 court, which were stored at the Isonokami shrine. In this manner, the reli-
211 gious authority of the local chiefs was absorbed into the ritual prerogatives
25
MORI MIZUE
of the Yamato king, while at the same time the chiefs were given a role
within the royal government.
As the royal genealogy was perfected, the position of the Great King
was increasingly shrouded in mystery. It seems that there was a short break
in the performance of rituals in worship of the sun goddess at the Ise
shrines, which during Yūryaku’s reign had become a royal site of worship,
but this ritual practice was revived in the mid-sixth century (under
Emperor Kinmei), and the latter half of this century saw the establishment
of special groups (shinabe) throughout the country whose task it was to
contribute, in goods or in labour, to the ritual worship of the sun goddess.
Shinabe groups paid set annual amounts of specified goods or labour to the
court; an example of a ritual shinabe is the himatsuribe or ‘sun worship
group’, who served as assistants of the saigū under the supervision of the
Nakatomi at the court. The considerable resources invested in such prac-
tices bespeak the importance attached by the court to the notion that the
Great King was a direct descendant of the Sun Goddess, as a basis for
royal legitimacy that was not swayed by the royal incumbent’s military and
political capacities.
The mystification of the origins of royal rule triggered a similar devel-
opment among leading clans. Clans began to trace their origins back to
‘Earthly Kami’ from before Jinmu’s time, who had welcomed or had been
allies of Ninigi, the grandson of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, when he
descended from Heaven to rule over Japan. Clans with the kabane title
muraji, which had no independent territorial bases of power and were
directly subordinate to the royal court as so-called tomo no miyatsuko, were
recognised as descendants of Heavenly Kami, just like the royal lineage
itself, and were said to have accompanied Ninigi from Heaven. All of these
legends conveyed the message that these various clans had been retainers
of the royal lineage since time immemorial, and were indispensable to the
royal reign for that very reason.
The establishment of political order, the development of a new notion
of royal authority, and the compilation of historical chronicles all had
their roots in a new national awareness which emerged not only in Japan
but also in other East-Asian peripheral nations after the demise of the
Southern and Northern Dynasties in China (420–589). When with
the Sui (581–619) and Tang (618–907) dynasties a strong centralised state
appeared in China, peripheral states entered into a tribute-bearing rela-
tionship with the Chinese empire. According to a practice known as cefeng
(J. sakuhō), ‘the conferring of lands’, the Chinese emperor recognised
the overlordship of tribute-sending local rulers in exchange for regular
tribute, and granted them an appropriate title, such as ‘king’ (Ch. wang).
During the reign of Empress Suiko (r. 592–628), Japan too reinstituted the
26
1111 practice of sending tribute to China, after a gap of some hundred years.
2 However, even while sending tribute, the Yamato court refused to accept
3 a Chinese title. Rather than as a local king subordinate to the Chinese
4 emperor, the Yamato kings defined themselves as ‘Sons of Heaven in the
5 Land of the Rising Sun’ (hi izuru tokoro no tenshi). This title is found in
6 an entry dated 607 in the official history of the Sui dynasty (Suishu); a
7 corresponding entry in Nihon shoki (in the chapter on Empress Suiko) gives
8 the title ‘Eastern Emperor’. By avoiding both the Chinese title ‘king’ and
9 the Chinese name for Japan, Wo (J. Wa), the Yamato court adopted a
1011 stance of independence in relation to its powerful neighbour. The title the
1 Yamato kings chose for themselves had its roots in a view of the east as a
2 sacred direction, and in the notion that the royal lineage descended from
13111 the Sun Goddess.
4 Suiko’s reign saw the compilation of so-called ‘Imperial Records’ (teiki)
5 and ‘Ancient Tales’ (kuji). The Imperial Records contained information
6 on each emperor’s name, his relation to the previous emperor, the location
7 of his palace, the duration of his reign, his offspring, his main achieve-
8 ments, the year of his death and his age, and the location of his grave; the
9 Ancient Tales consisted of tales and songs. Both were burnt when the Soga
20111 clan was overthrown in 645, but we may assume that by this time, the
1 basic substance regarding the history of the Japanese state had taken shape.
2 This substance consisted of three main elements:
3
4 1 the descent from heaven of the grandson of the Sun Goddess, and his
5 mandate to rule over Japan (defining royal legitimacy in native terms,
6 quite unrelated to Chinese cefeng practice);
7 2 the imperial genealogy from Emperor Jinmu onwards (praising the
8 accomplishments of the ‘Sons of Heaven’);
9 3 the legends and traditions of the royal lineage and allied clans (setting
30111 out the historical reality of royal rule).
1
2 This first attempt at compiling historical records was a link in a larger pro-
3 gramme: to reform the country into a more centralised state under imperial
4 rule. It was this same programme that fuelled the further embellishment
5 of the myths and legends that reached its peak with the compilation of
6 the National Histories, Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720).
7 Tribute may not always have been sent, but Japan was nonetheless
8 subject to strong continental influence throughout this entire period.
9 This fact also left its mark on the development of the state myths and
40111 legends recorded in Kojiki and Nihon shoki. Throughout these works,
1 we can recognise the influence of Chinese thought. The descriptions of
211 the birth of the earliest deities are clearly informed by Chinese theories
27
MORI MIZUE
on Yin, Yang and the Five Phases of matter (wood, fire, earth, metal and
water). We encounter terms from the Yijing (‘Book of Changes’) and from
Taoist thought, and find that the Japanese kings are described as saints and
immortals in the Taoist tradition.
But while in Chinese thought the universe is governed by an imper-
sonal Heaven and moves according to the unchangeable laws of ‘matter’
(Ch. qi), the Japanese histories explain the origins and changes of
phenomena in this world as acts of a large number of human-like deities
(yaoyorozu no kami, ‘the eight hundred myriad kami’). The Japanese
histories set out with the origin of heaven and earth, and dwell at length
on the ‘Age of the Gods’. All of this stands in stark contrast with the
conventions of Chinese philosophical and historical writing. Sun worship
and the motif of the descent of the royal ancestor from heaven have close
parallels in Korea rather than China, and may also have been influenced
by Buddhism.
Cultural influences from the continent arrived in Japan as a mixture of
practical skills, such as calendrical knowledge, medicine and divination,
and philosophical and religious elements from Buddhism, Confucianism
and Taoism. However, in contrast to popular divination techniques and
Taoist practices, which arrived in Japan as individual rites without a
coherent philosophical foundation, Buddhism was introduced to Japan in
an official and systematic manner. This occurred probably in 538 (although
some sources give the date as 552).
Buddhism was adopted in Japan, first and foremost, as a body of magical
rituals relating to ancestor worship, healing, rainmaking, and so forth. In
various sources from this period the Buddhist divinities are described as
‘foreign kami’, ‘Buddhist kami’, or ‘Chinese kami’, and it would appear that
their worship was conducted along the same lines as that of the native
deities. It is striking, for example, that the first monastics in Japan were
not monks but young nuns. It is logical to see a relation with native kami
ritual, in which offerings were, as a rule, prepared and presented by unmar-
ried girls. Nevertheless, it is of great importance that Buddha images,
Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist monks arrived in Japan as clearly defined
parts of a single religious system. Buddhist statues and paintings were
clearly different both from the indistinct native and Chinese deities and
from the plants and animals worshipped in folk cults, in that they showed
beautiful images of idealised human beings. Also, Buddhist divinities were
distinct from other objects of worship in that they were revered in special
structures (temples), and by specialist priests (monks and nuns). In other
words, Buddhism arrived in Japan as a fully fledged religious system in its
own right. For this very reason, Buddhism also met with determined resist-
ance. Nihon shoki tells that its supporters, led by Soga no Iname, argued
28
1111 that since ‘all the western frontier lands without exception do it worship’,
2 Yamato should do the same, while its detractors, such as Mononobe no
3 Okoshi and Nakatomi no Kamako, objected that ‘if we were to worship
4 . . . foreign deities, it may be feared that we should incur the wrath of our
5 national deities’.11
6 The Nihon shoki is also the oldest source for the term ‘Shinto’. In passages
7 relating to the reigns of the Emperors Yōmei (r. 585–7) and Kōtoku
8 (r. 645–54), the term Shinto is used to refer to the cult of the imperial
9 kami, in clear distinction from the ‘Buddhist Dharma’ (buppō): ‘Emperor
1011 [Yōmei] had faith in the Buddhist Dharma and revered Shinto’; ‘[Emperor
1 Kōtoku] revered the Buddhist Dharma but scorned Shinto’.12 It is not clear,
2 however, whether this term was actually in use at these early dates, or
13111 whether it was picked from Chinese sources at the time of the compilation
4 of the Nihon shoki. Also, the very meaning of the term Shinto in this
5 context is a hotly debated issue.13 Many find it hard to believe that there
6 was any awareness of the religious difference between kami and buddha
7 worship during the early years of Japanese Buddhism. Nevertheless, it
8 would seem that these enigmatic passages do indicate that the arrival
9 of Buddhism triggered some reflection on the existence and the status of
20111 native cults. The sources show quite unequivocally that a distinction was
1 made between ‘national deities’ on the one hand and ‘foreign deities’ on
2 the other, and that worship of the former was considered an important
3 duty of the Yamato kings. In this sense, the arrival of Buddhism was a
4 significant event in the emergence of Shinto.
5
6
The descent from Heaven and the succession
7
ceremonies of the Son of the Sun
8
9 During the second half of the seventh century, Japan’s political structure
30111 was radically reformed from an alliance of clans into an imperial state
1 modelled on the Chinese empire. At this time, the myths surrounding the
2 imperial ancestress Amaterasu and the imperial rites of succession took on
3 special importance. The myths around Amaterasu formed the pivot of the
4 substance relating to imperial authority, and the succession rites consti-
5 tuted a ceremonial ‘re-acting’ of the imperial myths, performed by the
6 emperor in person as the embodiment of the state.
7 Emperor Tenmu, who acceded to the throne in 672, enacted the first
8 extant Chinese-style law code, known as the Kiyomihara code, in 689.
9 The Chinese example of both this and subsequent law codes is known as
40111 ritsuryō (Ch. lüling) law. The introduction of ritsuryō law was a central
1 element in the transformation of the primitive Japanese state of the early
211 and mid-Kofun periods into a more sophisticated and centralised one, and
29
MORI MIZUE
the adoption of this first Japanese code of law is often noted as the birth
date of a new Japanese ‘ritsuryō state’. Tenmu renamed the country ‘Japan’,
or ‘Source of the Sun’ (J. Nihon, Nippon, or hi no moto; the Chinese equiv-
alent Riben, or in Wade-Giles’ transcription Jih-pen, is the source of our
‘Japan’), and adopted the title ‘emperor’ (J. tennō, from Ch. tianhuang).
The name Nihon came into official diplomatic use in 702, and the term
tennō was adopted around the same time, probably after 690.14 These
changes signalled a complete denial of the overlordship of the Chinese
emperor as symbolised by the practice of cefeng discussed above. Neither
Tenmu nor his successor Empress Jitō (r. 690–7) sent tribute to the Tang.
Nihon or Nippon is the Japanese pronunciation of Ch. Riben, which refers
to Japan’s location to the east of China (hi no moto is a literal Japanese
translation of Riben, ‘Source of the Sun’). Its adoption as the official name
of the state reveals a strong awareness of the Chinese perspective on Japan,
but at the same time also bespeaks a strong intent to build an indepen-
dent Japanese state. This is because it refers to the legends surrounding
the ‘descent from heaven’ of the imperial lineage. Tenmu himself collected
the records and legends of both the imperial lineage and its allied clans,
and instigated the compilation of a ‘correct’ history of the state. His activ-
ities directly occasioned the compilation of the Kojiki (712) and, more
indirectly, the Nihon shoki (720).
Following on from the origin of Heaven and Earth, these first Japanese
National Histories record the myth of the ‘birth of the land’. The first male
and female deities, Izanaki and Izanami, are ordered by the Heavenly
Deities to ‘consolidate the land’. They marry on the ‘self-coagulating’
island of Onogorojima, created from the brine that forms when they stir
a jewelled spear in the ocean, and give birth to many islands, together
constituting the ‘Land of the Eight (i.e. numerous) Great Islands’ (ōyashima
no kuni).
These islands all carry both geographical and personal names. One
island is said to have four ‘faces’, and each of these is given a geograph-
ical and a personal name, some male and some female. Clearly, the islands
are imagined as deities with human characteristics. After the birth of the
islands, Kojiki and Nihon shoki continue without break with the birth
of various natural deities: of the wind, the plains, the mountains, and so
forth. In relation to the ‘Plain of High Heaven’ (takama-ga-hara) on the
one hand, and the subterranean ‘Land of Darkness’ (yomi no kuni) or ‘Land
of Roots’ (ne no kuni) on the other, the Land of the Eight Great Islands
is designated as the ‘Land of the Middle’ (naka-tsu-kuni). This is the
domain over which the ‘Heavenly Grandson’ is granted rule. These myths
primarily set out to recount the sacred origins of the territories ruled by
the imperial lineage.
30
1111 It is worth noting that the myths relating to the ‘birth of the land’ were
2 firmly grounded in the diplomatic realities of the Yamato court in the late
3 seventh century. After the defeat against Silla and Tang forces on the Kŭm
4 river (known in Japanese as Hakusuki no E) in 663, the Japanese had given
5 up all territorial ambitions in southern Korea. Tenmu’s reforms had, in no
6 small degree, been informed by this same loss of Japan’s last Korean
7 foothold, and by an increased awareness of a possible threat from the
8 continent. It is not possible to put an accurate date on the formulation of
9 ‘birth of the land’ mythology, but it is clear that these myths define a sacred
1011 ‘territory’, created by the kami and bestowed by them upon the imperial
1 lineage. If Tenmu’s intention was to build a small empire of his own
2 without negating Chinese imperial rhetoric, this body of myths served this
13111 purpose to perfection. Also, the territories which feature in these myths
4 coincide with the areas actually controlled by the Yamato court during
5 Tenmu’s reign.
6 Kojiki and Nihon shoki define the era before Emperor Jinmu as the ‘Age
7 of the Gods’, and the period after Jinmu as the ‘Age of Man’. The main
8 story line structuring the account of the Age of the Gods proceeds from
9 the ‘birth of the land’, through Amaterasu’s reign in Heaven, to the descent
20111 of her grandson, Ninigi, to the ‘Land of the Middle’. The notion that the
1 ruler of Japan was the lord of the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ and descended
2 from the Heavenly Deities can be traced back to Empress Suiko’s reign
3 (592–628); but the idea that Amaterasu was first and foremost an imperial
4 ancestor was consolidated first during the reigns of Tenmu (672–86) and
5 Jitō (690–7).
6 Kojiki and Nihon shoki tell us that Amaterasu was born as the first of
7 the ‘three most august children’ of Izanaki (Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi and
8 Susanowo), that she is the kami of the sun, and that Izanaki ordered her
9 to rule over heaven. However, soon afterwards her brother Susanowo
30111 visited her in heaven and misbehaved in a wildly destructive way, causing
1 Amaterasu to withdraw into the ‘Cave of Heaven’ (ame no iwato). As a
2 result, both Heaven and the ‘Land of the Middle’ were plunged into dark-
3 ness and chaos. The ‘eight hundred myriad deities’ convened to perform
4 ‘divine entertainments’ (kami-asobi) and succeeded in luring Amaterasu
5 out of the cave, thus restoring light and order. To prevent reoccurrence,
6 the cave was closed and Susanowo was punished.
7 This tale, known as the ‘myth of the Cave of Heaven’, is often inter-
8 preted as a myth of Amaterasu’s ‘death and rebirth’. Another important
9 point, however, is that this tale establishes unequivocally who is the
40111 supreme deity ruling heaven. Order in heaven and earth is dependent upon
1 Amaterasu’s presence, and the myth describes at length how all the kami
211 of heaven gather to submit to her supremacy.
31
MORI MIZUE
In the subsequent myth of the ‘descent of the Heavenly Grandson’,

Amaterasu sends her new-born grandson, Ninigi, to the Land of the Middle
as its ruler. She bestows on him a mirror that represents her spirit, and
selects an entourage of kami to accompany and serve him. In W.G. Aston’s
translation of Nihon shoki, Amaterasu ‘commanded her August Grandchild
(Ninigi), saying: This Reed-plain-1500-autumns-fair-rice-ear Land is the
region which my descendants shall be lords of. Do thou, my August
Grandchild, proceed thither and govern it. Go! and may prosperity attend
thy dynasty, and may it, like Heaven and Earth, endure for ever.’15 Thus,
the Heavenly Grandson is depicted not as a human king who has been
entrusted with rule over the land by the gods, but rather as a ‘living
deity’ (aki-tsu-kami) who reigns together with Amaterasu. The Heavenly
Grandson descends to Mount Takachiho in Kyushu and he and his des-
cendants marry ‘Earthly Deities’, until Ninigi’s great-great-grandson,
Jinmu, subdues the kami who would not submit, and becomes the first
emperor to realise Amaterasu’s ‘divine decree’ (shinchoku).
The substance regardin the origin and nature of imperial rule contained
in Kojiki and Nihon shoki was given concrete form by succession cere-
monies designed and inaugurated by Tenmu. These ceremonies consisted
of two subsequent rituals: the daijōsai (or senso daijōsai), derived from
traditional harvest rituals performed at the Yamato court, and a secular
enthronement ritual called sokui no gi and based on Chinese examples.
Both were carried out as ‘kami rituals’ on the basis of detailed regulations
laid down in ‘kami law’ (jingiryō). The daijōsai, especially, was a kami ritual
of the highest category, involving a prolonged period of abstinence both
before and after its performance. This characterises the ritual as a religiously
charged performance that stressed the ‘mystical’ qualities of the imperial
throne.
The daijōsai is the first ‘ritual of first fruits’ (shinjōsai or niiname) per-
formed by an emperor after his enthronement. By symbolically partaking
of products from the new harvest from different parts of the country,
the emperor confirmed his territorial claim to the land. In practice, two
provinces known as yuki and suki were chosen by divinatory means to
supply the first fruits used in the ceremony. It is revealing that the roles
of yuki and suki were given not to the traditional core area of Yamato
control, but to outlying provinces brought under Yamato rule at a later
stage. The fields used to produce crops (primarily rice) for the daijōsai were
supervised by the district governor (gunji), who was also in charge of local
kami ritual. In addition to the rice produced at the yuki and suki sites, a
broad range of products from areas throughout the land was listed as tribute
(nie). Thus the entire territory of imperial rule was transformed into a ritual
32
1111 area for the production of divine food offerings for the daijōsai ceremony,
2 and representatives from all areas became ritualists engaged in the ritual-
3 ised production and submission of produce under the leadership of the
4 emperor as the ritual’s chief officiant. On the day of the harvest and the
5 day of the daijōsai itself, offerings were made to the Ise shrines and other
6 selected sites of worship, so that, in an indirect way, all the main deities
7 of the land shared in the ritual proceedings of the daijōsai. Although it was
8 based on the annual shinjōsai, which was performed to ensure the yearly
9 renewal of the spirit of the rice, the daijōsai was much more than that; it
1011 defined the new powers of the emperors of the ritsuryō state in a way that
1 the traditional shinjōsai never had.16
2 In the evening of the day of the daijōsai (the day of the rabbit in the
13111 eleventh month), in the presence of officials of the Ministry of Kami
4 Affairs (Jingikan), ladies-in-waiting from the palace (uneme), and provin-
5 cial and district governors of the provinces designated as yuki and suki,
6 the emperor proceeded to a cluster of ritual buildings constructed for the
7 occasion in the forecourt of the Taikyokuden hall in the palace grounds.
8 Here he retired to a series of temporary shrines, closed to the gaze of all
9
present, to worship the gods in person. The ritual acts of the emperor
20111
during the daijōsai rites were, and are, kept secret; there are hardly any
1
records, and much around these rites remains unclear. We know that
2
the emperor offers new fruits to the deity, and partakes of these fruits
3
himself; then he lies down on bedding (ofusuma) spread over a sacred
4
5 ‘kami seat’. This is interpreted as a reference to the ofusuma that one
6 of the Heavenly Deities, Takami-musubi, used to cover the new-born
7 Ninigi before sending him down to earth. The sharing of food with the
8 deity is a rite of granting and receiving the spirit of the rice. During
9 the ritual, a court lady (uneme) is in attendance, but her role remains
30111 unclear. Some, such as Orikuchi Shinobu and Okada Seishi, have
1 suggested that the ritual may at some stage have included a sacred marriage
2 with the kami, mediated by the court lady; but this view is criticised
3 by others.17 The dominant opinion now holds that the emperor re-enacts
4 the descent of the new-born child Ninigi, and thus re-embodies Ninigi’s
5 ‘imperial spirit’.
6 In contrast to the daijōsai, the sokui no gi contains no secrets. This cere-
7 mony, which was first introduced in Japan during Empress Suiko’s reign
8 (592–628) under continental influence, had as its aim to broadcast the
9 succession both nationally and internationally. It included the recitation
40111 of ‘words of praise of the Heavenly Deities’ (ama-tsu-kami no yogoto) by
1 the head of the Nakatomi clan, and the ceremonial handing over of the
211 imperial mirror and sword (known as the senso no gi) by the head of
33
MORI MIZUE
the Inbe clan – the two clans who occupied leading hereditary positions
in the Ministry of Kami Affairs. Also, an imperial decree (senmyō) was
read, stating that the succession had been bestowed upon the incumbent
by the Heavenly Deities, and ordering the assembled officials to serve him
with uprightness, sincerity and purity of mind. The sokui no gi was attended
also by ‘barbarians’ not present at the daijōsai (Emishi from the north of
Honshu and Hayato from southern Kyushu, as well as foreign envoys),
and the Kojiki and Nihon shoki also included legends recounting their sub-
mission to the imperial court. Like the daijōsai, therefore, the sokui no gi
enacted the substance contained in the national legends, and had the
character and status of a kami ritual.
There are many theories but few certainties regarding the question
who the main deity worshipped during the daijōsai was. Since Ninigi is a
spirit of the rice as well as an imperial ancestor,18 he may have been the
original object of worship of the daijōsai; if this is so, it would seem logical
to assume that the emperor worshipped Amaterasu after having embodied
Ninigi’s spirit. Another current theory, however, holds that the emperor
worshipped not just Amaterasu but the ‘eight hundred myriad kami’ from
all corners of the land.
Moreover, various versions of the myths of the descent of the Heavenly
Grandson differ in assigning the role of sending Ninigi to earth to differ-
ent deities, so there is no consensus even over the question whether
Amaterasu played the leading part in this. Ninigi’s father was a deity
produced by Susanowo by ‘crunching’ a hair ornament of Amaterasu, and
his mother was a daughter of the deity Takami-musuhi. In the Nihon shoki,
it is Takami-musuhi who takes the decision to send Ninigi to the Land
of the Middle, and the Kojiki text is ambiguous enough to allow for the
interpretation that Amaterasu carried out Takami-musuhi’s will in sending
Ninigi.
Takami-musuhi is one of the ‘separate deities’ who were produced simul-
taneously with the origin of heaven and earth, and also carries the name
of Takagi no Kami. Musuhi (or musubi) is a term for the divine spirits that
give birth to all things in heaven and on earth – the origin of all life.
Takami-musuhi, or ‘the high, august musuhi’, is the central figure among
the musuhi deities, and is therefore hardly less suitable than Amaterasu to
fulfil the role of imperial ancestor. It is thought that Takami-musuhi was
widely revered as the highest deity of all, and that his cult had deep roots
in the worship of the forces of life in nature.
However, Ninigi’s rule was understood as the fulfilment of Amaterasu’s
divine decree, and the Jinmu legend, too, draws heavily on beliefs around
the sun deity. In Kojiki and Nihon shoki, therefore, it is clearly Amaterasu
34
1111 who stands out as the prime ancestor of the imperial lineage. On top
2 of this came Tenmu’s personal faith in Amaterasu, as expressed in the
3 development of ritual worship at Ise during his reign. It appears that both
4 Tenmu himself and many of his contemporaries regarded his victory in
5 the so-called Jinshin war of 672 as a gift from the kami of Ise, and as a
6 sign of Amaterasu’s special protection. Nihon shoki reports that Tenmu
7 worshipped Amaterasu ‘from afar’ (yōhai) in the district of Asake (Ise
8 province), and defeated his enemies soon afterwards; and Japan’s earliest
9 poetry collection, the Man’yōshū, contains a song of praise about Tenmu’s
1011 divinely-assisted victory by the poet Kakinomoto Hitomaro, who took part
1 in the Jinshin campaign. For Tenmu at least, the imperial ancestor must,
2 first and foremost, have been Amaterasu, not Takami-musuhi.
13111 Tenmu further embellished the Ise shrines, where the mirror of
4 Amaterasu was worshipped. He established the practices of sending im-
5 perial princesses (saigū) to Ise, and of periodically (vicennially) rebuilding
6 the shrines and renewing all their divine treasures (shikinen sengū). Also,
7 he took measures to ensure that the enormous costs involved would be
8 guaranteed by the court on a permanent basis. Finally, the Ise shrines were
9 given the special status of ‘great shrines’ (taisha) in ritsuryō law, making
20111 them second only to the imperial palace itself, and superior to all other
1 shrines. The Ise sun deity had been rated highly also before Tenmu’s time,
2 but it was during his reign that Ise was for the first time given the official
3 status of ancestral shrine of the royal lineage.
4 During the seventh century, different religious traditions arrived in Japan
5 from the continent, leading to great changes in the image and concep-
6 tion of the authority of the Japanese royal lineage. Tenmu himself was
7 influenced by Taoist thought, and adopted an imperial ideal close to that of
8 the Taoist immortal. However, even more important perhaps was the fact
9 that, in contrast to his predecessor Tenchi, who stood under a strong
30111 Confucian influence and interpreted the ‘Heavenly Deities’ along the lines
1 of the Confucian concept of Heaven, Tenmu regarded these same deities as
2 his direct, genealogical ancestors (mioyagami), connected with him through
3 the blood.
4 Also enshrined at Ise were the ancestral deities of the Yamato court’s
5 priestly clans, as well as other clans that assisted Tenmu’s rule. These deities
6 were worshipped as kami who had played a central role during the kami-
7 asobi in front of the Cave of Heaven, or who had received direct orders
8 from Amaterasu to serve Ninigi during and after his descent from heaven.
9 Thus Amaterasu was not only the literal ‘parent’ (oya) of the imperial
40111 lineage, but also the deity who defined the raison d’être of the other clans
1 that dominated the court. All based their positions at court on Amaterasu’s
211 divine decree.
35
MORI MIZUE
Laws relating to kami worship in the Yōrō code

Ritsu (penal) law
Section ‘Eight grave offences’:
Offence of grave contempt: damaging a Great Shrine. Punish-
ment: decapitation.
‘Guards’:
Punishments for illegal intrusion into Great Shrines and Shrines.
‘Personnel’:
Punishments for failure to give notice of a Great Festival.
Punishments for mourning, visiting the sick, etc. during the
abstention period prior to a Great Festival.
Punishments for mistakes in the performance of rituals.
‘Rebellion and Theft’:
No pardon for acts of grave contempt. Damaging a Great Shrine
is punishable by exile; planning to do so by forced labour.
Punishments for negligence during Great Festivals.
Punishments for neglect of duty in taking care of the Divine Seal.
Ryō (administrative) law

‘Offices and Ranks’:
Grades 9 to 17 for Jingikan officials.
‘Personnel’:
Lists of personnel for the Jingikan in the capital, and in Sakyō,
Settsu, Dazaifu and other provinces.
‘Personnel of the Women’s Palace’:
Appointments of caretakers of the Divine Seal.
‘Kami’
Tasks of the Jingikan.
Regular festivals: Kinensai or toshigoi (Praying for the Harvest),
hanashizume (Pacifying the Flowers), kanmiso (Deity Raiment), Ōmi
(Festival of Ōmi), Saigusa (Festival of Izakawa), Kaze no Kami
(Festival of Tatsuta), tsukinami (Thanking for the Harvest),
hoshizume (Pacifying Fire), michiae (Banquet on the Roads), kanname
(Tasting the First Fruits at Ise), ainame (Tasting the First Fruits at
the Palace), mitamashizume (Pacifying the Spirit of the Emperor).
36
1111
2 Rules of abstinence before and after festivals, and for the presen-
3 tation of offerings at the emperor’s accession.
4 Abstinence is defined as no mourning, no visits to the sick, no
5 eating of meat, no death verdicts or execution of punishments, no
6 music, and no contact with impurity.
7 Abstinence before Great Festivals is set at one month; before
8 Medium Festivals at three days; before Minor Festivals at only the
9 day of the festival itself.
1011 On the day of the emperor’s accession, the Nakatomi are to recite
1 the ‘words of praise of the Heavenly Deities’, and the Inbe are to
2
present the Divine Seal, as well as the mirror and the sword.
13111
The provincial governor is responsible for the daijōsai or ōname
4
(Great Tasting) on the occasion of the imperial accession; the
5
Jingikan for the niiname (New Tasting) at other times.
6
The Jingikan is to give notice of festivals to all other government
7
8 offices.
9 The head of the Jingikan is personally in charge of offerings.
20111 Offerings for interim festivals.
1 Procedures for Great Purification ceremonies in the 6th and 12th
2 months.
3 Contributions of provinces, districts and households on the
4 occasion of provincial Great Purification ceremonies.
5 Expenditure of taxes from kami households.
6 ‘Rice Fields’:
7 Kami fields (fields whose taxes are reserved for kami ritual) are
8 exempt from the six-yearly redistribution of fields.
9 Allotment of fields to officials in charge of kami ritual.
30111
1 ‘Civil Examinations’:
2 The most important task of Jingikan officials is to make sure that
3 no mistakes are made in the regulation of rituals.
4 ‘Military Defence’:
5 Allotment of labour to local officials in charge of kami ritual.
6
7 ‘Court Ceremonial’:
8 During rituals, the emperor is to be referred to as the Son of
9 Heaven.
40111 Instruction of the local population during harvest festivals in the
1 provinces.
211
37
MORI MIZUE
‘Costume’:
Formal costume is to be worn during Great Festivals, the Great
Tasting, and New Year.
‘Public Documents’:
In imperial edicts, the phrase ‘The emperor who rules as a resplen-
dent kami’ is to be used.
Guidelines for documents from the Ministry of State to the
emperor; documents relating to the Great Tasting.
Before the words ‘Great Shrine’, a space must be left open to show
respect.
Regulations relating to the Divine Seal.
‘Prisons’:
No executions are to be carried out during Great Festivals.
‘Miscellaneous’:
The day of the Great Tasting must be declared an annual festival
(sekku).
The Ministry of Kami Affairs

Japan’s ritsuryō system was based on contemporary Chinese law. The
Japanese Ministry of Kami Affairs (Jingikan), however, was a Japanese
innovation which diverged radically from Chinese precedent. Although
on paper this ministry enjoyed the same status as the Ministry of State
(dajōkan), it did not have any policy-making powers, and was in practice a
sub-office of the Ministry of State, carrying out its orders. The Ministry of
Kami Affairs was responsible for the performance of official kami rituals in
accordance with detailed regulations laid down in a special body of ‘kami
law’ (jingiryō), and further specified in so-called shiki procedures. The gen-
eral outline of kami law was in place already in Tenmu/Jitō’s Kiyomihara
code (689), and took on a more permanent form with the issuance of the
Taihō code in 701. Responsible for the implementation of these laws and
regulations was the Ministry of Kami Affairs, which employed one head,
two assistant heads, two secretaries, and two clerks, while controlling the
services of thirty kami households, twenty diviners, thirty attendants and
two servants.
The activities of this ministry had two main goals: first, to sustain
the magico-religious powers of the emperor himself, and thus to ensure the
38
1111 stability of the state; and second, to demonstrate to the country at large
2 that all ritual prerogatives belonged to the emperor. The former consti-
3 tuted perhaps the most important task of the ministry, and those who
4 breached its ritual rules were severely punished. The ministry informed all
5 court officials of the ritual calendar, and made sure that the rules of purity
6 and abstinence were strictly observed by all concerned. The head of
7 the ministry, the jingihaku, was personally in charge of procuring the
8 all-important offerings for all ritual occasions.
9 With regard to the ministry’s second aim, it is noteworthy that
1011 during Tenchi’s reign (between the beginning of the Taika reforms, 645,
1 when he was the crown prince, and the promulgation of the so-called
2 Ōmi code in c.668) the priestly clans Nakatomi and Inbe, who had
13111 traditionally been in charge of court ritual, became court officials with
4 public positions and corresponding salaries. The Nakatomi clan-name
5 (which translates as ‘intermediaries [between man and the kami]’) had
6 been granted first to Tokiwa no Ōmuraji, a retainer of the Yamato court,
7 during the reign of Emperor Kinmei (539–71). The Inbe (‘taboo keepers’)
8 initially controlled groups of so-called jewel-makers (tamatsukuri) in
9
various parts of the country, and at an early stage performed a central
20111
role in court ritual together with the Mononobe. Sending Nakatomi
1
and Inbe officials to shrines in the provinces as imperial envoys consti-
2
tuted a first step towards of the establishment of an official, nation-wide
3
system of kami ritual. The practice of periodically assembling the ‘hundred
4
5 officials’ (i.e. all court officials) for kami worship had also begun under the
6 Ōmi code, which constituted the first attempt at written law in Japan. It
7 seems that there was even a small-scale ‘kami office’ (kamitsukasa) that can
8 be seen as a predecessor of the later Ministry of Kami Affairs.
9 The Nakatomi were a relatively recent clan of the tomo no miyatsuko
30111 category (see above). There is no evidence to suggest that they originally
1 performed a priestly role, nor that they had any strong connection to a
2 particular shrine or deity. It is assumed that the Nakatomi began their
3 career as ritual assistants at the royal court, without an independent power
4 base. However, after the downfall of the Mononobe clan the Nakatomi
5 took over many of their positions, and came to dominate the world of court
6 ritual. This coincided with the beginning of the development of a more
7 centralised Japanese state with direct involvement of the emperor in
8 everyday government. It appears that the Nakatomi, through their domin-
9 ance over, for example, the Kashima and Katori shrines (both of which
40111 had originally been controlled by the Mononobe), increased their influ-
1 ence at the court. They actively organised local groups specialised in the
211 production of offerings to state-sponsored shrines such as Ise, Kashima and
39
MORI MIZUE
Katori, and in that way succeeded in fashioning a growing ritual estab-

lishment under their own control.
The four ranks of officials (constituting a total of seven posts) under the
jingihaku in the Ministry of Kami Affairs were executive officials, which
meant that it was not laid down in law from which clan its incumbents
were to be selected; but since these officials were involved with rituals
performed by the emperor himself, it was an unwritten rule that they were
chosen from a select group of priestly clans. Shortly before the issuance
of the Taihō code (701), the Nakatomi clan was divided into two clans
by imperial decree. One retained the name of Nakatomi, and its head,
Omimaro, was given responsibility for ritual affairs; the other was given
the new clan-name Fujiwara, and was to become the dominant political
power of classical Japan. In practice, this decree gave the Nakatomi
a hereditary position as officials of the Ministry of Kami Affairs. Also,
it was laid down that specified ritual tasks were to be carried out by a
limited number of clans: the Nakatomi, the Inbe, the Funhitobe of
Yamato and Kawachi, and the Urabe. The Funhitobe (‘scribes’, also read
Bunhitobe, Fubitobe, Fumibitobe) were official scholars and scribes of
immigrant origin. Various groups of Urabe (‘diviners’) answered to the
Nakatomi and specialised in tortoise shell divination. In further detailed
procedures (shiki), it was determined that the Sarume clan would offer
dancing girls (answering not to the Jingikan but the ‘Needlework Bureau’,
nuidonoryō, within the Women’s Palace, and of a lower status than the
Nakatomi and Inbe), and that specified clans would procure specified kinds
of ritual attire from specified estates whose taxes were reserved for kami
worship (kanbe).
With a modern term, all of these clans are known as ‘kami clans’ (jingi
shizoku). They were regarded as priestly clans involved in imperial ritual,
and with the exception of the Funhitobe and the Urabe, they all traced
their ancestors back to deities who had played leading roles in the kami-
asobi in front of the Cave of Heaven. On this occasion the ancestor of the
Nakatomi, Ame no Koyane, recited a ritual prayer (norito) imploring
Amaterasu to leave the Cave of Heaven; Futodama, the ancestor of the
Inbe, set up a himorogi tree decorated with cloth, jewels and a mirror; and
Ame no Uzume, the ancestor of the Sarume, performed a lewd dance which
greatly amused the assembled kami, and through their laughter tickled
Amaterasu’s curiosity enough to lure her out of the cave. All of these ances-
tral kami were also included in Ninigi’s entourage at the time of his descent
from heaven. In this way, the kami-asobi in front of the Cave of Heaven
served as a myth of origin of the various kami clans, and simultaneously
as a sacred precedent and model for the ritual worship of Amaterasu, or
indeed the kami in general. The positions of the kami clans were (at least
40
1111 in theory) unchangeable because of the very fact that the rituals per-
2 formed by the emperor in person at the imperial palace took the form of
3 a re-enactment of kami myth.
4 The most important of these imperial rituals were mitamashizume and
5 niiname, both performed around the winter solstice. In the former, dancing
6 girls (called sarume and mikannagi) performed rites for the reinvigoration
7 of the emperor’s body and spirit; with the emperor’s spirit, the spirit of
8 the rice was given new life. During niiname, which was performed on the
9 following day, the emperor partook of first fruits from the recent harvest
1011 in a shared meal with the deities, and was thus revived as a new-born ‘rice
1 king’ fully prepared for the new growing season.
2 The mikannagi or ‘sacred maidens’ were pre-adolescent priestesses who
13111 served twenty-three of the thirty-six deities enshrined in the palace. They
4 were granted new-built accommodation, a plot of land for sustenance, and
5 servants, as well as irregular allowances comparable to a second- or third-
6 grade official, and with each new appointment, the kami shrines to be
7 served by each new appointee were rebuilt. The mikannagi served an
8 important function as the emperor’s sacred spirit mediums (miko). They
9 played a key role in a number of kami rites for the sustainment of the
20111 emperor’s magico-religious powers, performed in addition to the cere-
1 monies prescribed in the jingiryō laws. In contrast to the kami clans, who
2 were in the first place responsible for the construction and provision
3 of ritual spaces, the procurement of ritual goods and the recruitment of
4 ritual staff, the mikannagi took a direct part in the ritual practice of the
5 emperor. Even so, contemporary law referred to them only to state that
6 they ‘are subordinate to the jingihaku’. This can be explained by the simple
7 fact that ritsuryō law prescribes the conduct of the emperor’s magistrates,
8 and not of the emperor himself. In spite of the fact that the mikannagi
9 carried out the practical tasks that sustained the emperor’s religious
30111 authority, their legal status remained rather vague. They were neither court
1 officials nor ladies-in-waiting, and appear sometimes as high-ranking court
2 members, but at other times as low-ranking servants.
3 A similar problem occurs concerning the legal status of the kami clans
4 who belonged to the Ministry of Kami Affairs as kanbe or tomobe. The first
5 worked at estates whose taxes, paid in specified products, were reserved for
6 the Ministry of Kami Affairs, and the latter served the Ministry of Kami
7 Affairs as occupational groups, offering specialised skills such as dancing
8 or divination. It remains vague whether, for example, the terms Sarume
9 and Urabe in kami law were official titles (referring to individual members
40111 of kami clans who were given positions under the jingihaku), or clan names
1 (referring to clan groups under the control of the jingihaku, serving the
211 ministry as occupational groups). This problem occurred because a legal
41
MORI MIZUE
system based on the appointment of individual officials was superimposed

on the traditional practice of using clan-based occupational groups. When
groups who had in the past performed different aspects of kami ritual on
a basis of equality were fitted into a hierarchical bureaucratic system, this
automatically led to the emergence of hierarchical relationships between
kami clans. This could have drastic consequences for the less powerful
among the kami clans. The Sarume, for example, in spite of their expert-
ise, failed to build a position for themselves within the Ministry of Kami
Affairs, and disappeared completely from the stage of history in the course
of the early Heian period.
The Nakatomi, on the other hand, occupied an ever greater proportion
of the leading posts within the Ministry of Kami Affairs, and soon domin-
ated its every corner. One reason for this was the support they enjoyed
from the secular Fujiwara; but their priestly function of reciting ritual
prayers (norito) was also an important factor behind their success. Norito
were composed for recitation in front of the kami on every ritual occa-
sion.19 Originally they were recited in a low voice, out of earshot of those
who attended the ritual, and they were not written down in order to
prevent their exposure to human eyes. However, in state rituals (which
included nineteen annual ritual occasions, as well as occasional enthrone-
ment ceremonies, Great Purification, and interim offerings, all supervised
by the Jingikan), norito were utilised to broadcast the fact that each ritual
was carried out under the ritual authority of the emperor, by the Nakatomi
as the emperor’s representatives. For this reason, the norito came to be
addressed not only to the kami but in equal measure to the officials present
at the occasion.
While the court rituals performed by the mikannagi constituted what can
perhaps be described as the secret ‘inner sanctum’ of the Ministry of Kami
Affairs, the state rituals were public affairs where the ministry’s officials
took centre stage. These rituals followed detailed regulations laid down in
kami law, and were performed by officials in the name of the emperor; in
contrast to the rituals performed by the mikannagi, the emperor himself did
not attend in person. In actual fact, most of the state rituals took place at
the Ise shrines or shrines in Yamato province, and were performed by local
priests; the contribution from the Ministry of Kami Affairs was limited to
the procurement of norito and special offerings. The recitation of these
norito proclaimed the fact that the ritual was performed under the auspices
of the emperor, and explained the links between the legends and rites of
the shrine in question and the myths and legends laid down in the Kojiki
and the Nihon shoki. Also, the offerings conferred by the ministry’s envoys
supported the shrines economically, raised the scale and tone of their
rituals, and incorporated them in a nation-wide body of ritual.
42
1111 There were two rituals that were truly national in scale: kinensai (also
2 known as toshigoi) and tsukinami. Kinensai seems to have originated as
3 a ritual of offering and praying for the new harvest to the local deity of
4 the Yamato court’s earliest territory, while tsukinami appears to have its
5 earliest roots in a ritual in worship of the kami of the hearth. In ritsuryō
6 times, Item 9 of kami law stated that for the performance of these two
7 rituals, all priests of higher and lower rank (kannushi and hafuribe) were
8 to assemble at the Ministry of Kami Affairs, where the Nakatomi were to
9 read a norito, and the Inbe distributed offerings to their respective shrines.
1011 These rituals involved great numbers of people and huge economic costs.
1 The rituals themselves were a continuation of ancient agricultural clan
2 rites, in which local kami were beseeched to guarantee an abundant crop;
13111 but their purpose as state rituals was to make apparent the ritual preroga-
4 tives of the emperor. In accordance with this general aim, the deities
5 addressed were not specified; instead, the norito addressed ‘the kami of
6 heaven and earth’ in general.
7 In the norito read at the kinensai, the assembled priests were ordered to
8 ‘emulate the performance of the kinensai at the Ministry of Kami Affairs,
9 receive the offerings distributed by the Inbe (as gifts from the emperor
20111 himself, mediated by his officials), and offer them to the various kami’.
1 The kinensai ceremonies performed at the various shrines took the form
2 not of direct worship by the emperor, but of rituals performed by local offi-
3 cials subordinate to the emperor, under the control of the Ministry of Kami
4 Affairs. This construction is known as the ‘system of kinensai offerings’
5 (kinensai heihaku seido).
6 In this manner, the norito of the Nakatomi and the offerings of the Inbe
7 did not only constitute the specific ritual tasks of these respective clans,
8 but also functioned as parts of a larger mechanism aimed at absorbing local
9 shrines into a nation-wide system of state ritual. The Nakatomi and Inbe
30111 were able to secure leading positions within the Ministry of Kami Affairs
1 by successfully integrating their traditional tasks in the new system of
2 state ritual. The Nakatomi, especially, performed the role of the ministry’s
3 spokesmen, and dominated its external relations. This soon proved to be
4 an excellent starting position in the race for control over the ministry as
5 a whole.
6 A ceremony that involved the ‘hundred officials’ was the purification
7 ritual known as ōharae (‘Great Purification’), which took place on the last
8 day of the sixth and twelfth months of the year. The ōharae consisted of
9 a rite for the purification of the emperor himself, and a rite for the removal
40111 of all impurity that had accumulated in the palace area due to the delib-
1 erate or accidental offences and misfortunes of the emperor’s officials. As
211 part of the first rite, the Nakatomi offered a purificatory wand (nusa), and
43
MORI MIZUE
the Funhitobe handed the emperor a purificatory sword and recited a

Chinese purification formula of Taoist origin. The latter rite was performed
at a special ‘purification site’ in the grounds of the Ministry of Kami Affairs,
in the presence of all court officials and their families. It consisted of
the recitation of the ‘formula of great purification’ (ōharae no kotoba) by
the Nakatomi, and the performance by the Urabe of a purification ritual
known simply as harae.
Incidental purification rituals were performed occasionally in the
provinces (shokoku ōharae), and on occasions such as a daijōsai, purifica-
tion of the entire country took place (tenka ōharae). Shokoku ōharae were
performed not at local shrines, but at provincial and district offices.
Kami law itemised the quantities and specifications of goods to be offered
on the occasion of an ōharae, and identified the officials responsible for
their procurement. Through local government offices it was ensured that
rituals of the same scale and content were performed in all parts of the
country. A Nakatomi ritualist was sent to each of the more than sixty
provinces to recite the ōharae no kotoba. The purification formula of the
Nakatomi was linked to the imperial myths even more closely than the
other norito. The formula refers to Susanowo’s offences against Amaterasu
which led her to retire into the Cave of Heaven, and to Izanaki’s lustra-
tion after his descent into the subterranean world of death. Also, it
recounts the Heavenly Grandson’s descent from heaven, and describes how
all impurity is removed through the acts of a series of deities.
As a state ritual, purification or harae was performed at government
offices. It was a rite that could be carried out anywhere where purity needed
to be restored. Through the Ministry of Worship, the Nakatomi became
specialists in the performance of this rite, and they would later offer it to
a great variety of clients for a great variety of aims. With their appropria-
tion of the purification rite, the Nakatomi had secured an invaluable tool
that ensured their survival for centuries to come. In contrast, the Inbe were
in charge of the distribution of commodities from the imperial court, and
lost their foothold in court society with the discontinuation of the system
of nation-wide offerings when the ritsuryō economy collapsed.
Shrines: the kami and the ritsuryō state

In order to establish a ritual order worthy of the ritsuryō state, the Ministry
of Kami Affairs instituted the so-called ‘system of kinensai offerings’ and
designated prominent shrines throughout the land as ‘official shrines’
(kansha). These shrines formed the network through which the official
rituals for emperor and state were put into practice. Seen from the receiv-
ing end (the local shrine worshippers), it was as though a nation-wide net
44
1111 stamped ‘public’ was cast over their old, customary rites. Soon, the number
2 of official shrines began to increase, and eventually reached a level that
3 rendered the system of kinensai offerings unsustainable.
4 This network of nation-wide state offerings was managed on the ground
5 by local executive officials. The question I will address myself to here is
6 how those involved in existing local kami cults (whom we can perhaps
7 define as the ‘users’ of the age’s Shinto) may have perceived the network
8 and substance directed at them by state institutions at this time.
9 The establishment of a system of provinces and districts, necessary for
1011 the implementation of ritsuryō law, undermined the traditional powers
1 of local chiefs (known as kuni no miyatsuko) over their old lands. This
2 change represented a shift from local government by groups (clans) to local
13111 government by individuals (appointed governors). To make good use of
4 the traditional religious authority of the old kuni no miyatsuko, they were
5 appointed by the court as officials of provincial branches of the Ministry
6 of Kami Affairs. In their new function, they are generally known as ‘new
7 kuni no miyatsuko’.20 The secular functions of these chiefs were taken over
8 by district governors (gunji or kōri no tsukasa). Gunji appointees were also
9 selected from old kuni no miyatsuko lineages, but they had been stripped
20111 of their independent power bases, and were no more than local adminis-
1 trators following orders from the provincial governor (kokushi or kuni no
2 tsukasa). District governors and ‘new kuni no miyatsuko’ were appointed for
3 life from a limited number of clans known as ‘kuni no miyatsuko clans’,
4 which were listed in a document from 702 (Kokuzōki). While enjoying
5 the stability of appointment for life, their practical powers were limited
6 in various ways, and their status was much lower than that of officials in
7 the capital.
8 Parallel with the implementation of this system of provinces and
9 districts, we find that the divine treasures sent by the old kuni no miyat-
30111 suko to Isonokami shrine were returned. This occurred in 674, during
1 Tenmu’s reign, and can be interpreted as a sign that by this time the powers
2 of the kuni no miyatsuko had dwindled to such an extent that the imperial
3 court no longer regarded them as a threat.
4 Even so, in the everyday practice of local government, the influence of
5 local chiefs, often grounded in religious authority, must have been consid-
6 erable. Local chiefs customarily performed ritual functions, and the rituals
7 they led were widely seen as vital for the maintenance of order and pros-
8 perity within local society. This fact is clearly expressed in tales recorded
9 in provincial ‘gazetteers’ (fudoki), compiled from 713 onwards to inform
40111 the court about local traditions and resources. The few gazetteers that have
1 been preserved tell us about land-owning chiefs who were confronted with
211 the anger of local kami when reclaiming new lands, and describe how these
45
MORI MIZUE
conflicts were resolved by drawing up ritual contracts, promising the kami

worship and offerings in return for permission to till the land. A famous
example is the tale of Matachi of the Yahazu clan, recorded in the fudoki
of Hitachi province (Namekata district). When Matachi reclaimed new
rice land to the west of the district office, countless horned snakes appeared
and wreaked havoc in the village. Matachi, enraged, confronted them and
drove them back. He set up a stick at the boundary of the new fields and
promised to respect the area beyond as the domain of the kami. There he
built a shrine, and he and his descendants served as its priests. Here, we
hear how local landowners doubled as priests of local kami, and thus main-
tained order and prosperity through their ritual practice.
However, the influence of local elites was not looked upon with pleas-
ure by the ritsuryō state. The court took measures to weaken the powers of
local officials, while at the same time utilising their authority as local
chiefs. Old kuni no miyatsuko, for example, were appointed as ‘new kuni no
miyatsuko’ serving as officials of the provincial branch of the Ministry of
Kami Affairs. Such posts were made hereditary, and involved the duty to
present the court with one horse on the occasion of each ōharae. However,
the ‘new kuni no miyatsuko’ had no executive powers, nor was there any
ritual or shrine structure over which they might have presided. In effect,
these new titles were little more than honorary posts without any real
content. In some cases, appointments were given to women from old kuni
no miyatsuko clans who had served as ladies-in-waiting. Only once, in 702,
were kuni no miyatsuko ordered to assemble at the Jingikan for the distrib-
ution of offerings at kinensai, but at later occasions only priests (kannushi
and hafuribe) were ordered to attend. The ‘new kuni no miyatsuko’ were
never tied in with the system of official shrines, and soon disappeared as
a transitional phenomenon once the ritsuryō system came into its own.21
The district governors, on the other hand, had an executive role, and
their posts were not hereditary. In the practice of local government,
however, the court depended completely on their authority and military
power, and had little choice but to leave the running of the districts
completely to them. Local kami rituals formed an important element of
their assignment. Not only were they closely connected with their most
important task – the encouragement of agriculture – but there was also a
close relationship between the procurement of offerings for kami ritual on
the one hand, and taxation on the other. It was for this reason that the
management of rice fields for the ritual growing of crops for the daijōsai
and the procurement of offerings for ōharae were part of the duties of the
district governors. Moreover, immediately after the issuance of the Taihō
code those governorships which included within their district a prominent
shrine supported by the court were rendered hereditary by imperial decree.
46
1111 The reason given for this change was that these districts were so-called
2 ‘kami districts’ (shingun), or districts that included a major shrine; but in
3 actual fact, it had proved impossible to run large-scale shrines if the
4 governor in charge of the district did not have real executive powers. These
5 facts show that the main aims of the system of official shrines in the early
6 days of the ritsuryō state were to make good use of the religious authority
7 of local chiefs, and to integrate them and the rituals they presided over in
8 the new centralised government.
9 What sort of rituals, then, were performed in the villages of Japan under
1011 the ritsuryō system during the eighth century? We have very few sources
1 on village ritual during this period, but some information can be gleaned
2 from the seventh volume of the Yōrō code (drafted in 718 and enacted
13111 in 757). An item on ‘spring rituals at common rice fields’ (shunji saiden)
4 in this code (as well as in a commentary on it, Ryōshūge),22 mentions a
5 village ritual corresponding roughly to the kinensai at court. It describes
6 this ritual as a ‘ceremony of imbibing sake’, and states that it was performed
7 ‘in order to honour the village leaders and take good care of the old’.
8 Preceding this ceremony, the villagers were assembled to listen to the
9 proclamation of the nation’s laws. Reading between the lines, we can glean
20111 from this item how local kami rites were used by the court to impress its
1 legal authority on villagers. Also, it provides an example of the reinter-
2 pretation of such rites to make them fit in with the Confucian values on
3 which the ritsuryō system was based. However, nothing of all this had any
4 influence on the rituals proper, and there is no suggestion of any direct
5 interference by the court in local kami rites, nor any hint of a court attempt
6 to take control of local shrines.
7 Supporting village kami ritual were ‘common rice fields’ (fields owned
8 and cultivated by the village as a community), and a place of assembly
9 known as the yashiro – which at this time was not a permanent shrine
30111 containing a kami, but rather a common meeting place used for a variety
1 of purposes. At the ‘spring and autumn rituals at the common rice fields’
2 the villagers invited the local kami and offered them a feast. Offerings to
3 the kami were then shared out between the villagers and consumed
4 together in a rite known as naorai. Expenses were shared between villagers,
5 and priests (mostly one male and one female) were chosen for the occasion
6 according to village custom. Young and old, men and women all had their
7 tasks; it appears that the men were mostly responsible for the gathering of
8 foodstuffs and the catching of prey to be offered, and for the preparation
9 of the ritual site, while the women were in charge of the cooking of the
40111 offerings (mike) and the brewing of sake (miki).23
1 However, after the enactment of the Yōrō code in 757 the costs of the
211 spring and autumn rituals became public expenses, and the village head
47
MORI MIZUE
was made accountable for them. The resources used for these rituals were
now defined as tax. As the external sponsor of village ritual, the court
attached various conditions to their performance; for example, the use of
meat was prohibited, and injunctions were made against excessive merry-
making. Overseeing the use of tax resources for village ritual was made
part of the task of the lowest officials of the ritsuryō hierarchy, and checks
were introduced to prevent the ‘squandering of public funds’.
The aim of this policy was to utilise the central meeting places of village
communities as a channel for the education of villagers as ‘law-abiding
citizens’. The court saw village rituals primarily as an opportunity to spread
its Confucian state ideology, and the encouragement of kami worship or
its standardisation were of secondary importance at best. This explains why
the actual content of local kami ritual was never an issue. The same was
true of the so-called ‘official shrines’ which received court offerings on the
occasion of kinensai. The presentation of court offerings to local kami was
no more than a supplementary rite, added onto an unchanged local ritual
under the responsibility of local priests. It is also dubious whether the
national myths were transmitted effectively at these occasions.
What was different at official shrines, however, was the fact that there,
individual priests from local priestly lineages were appointed as ‘priest
officials’ (shinshoku or hafuribe) and made responsible for the supervision
of the offerings provided by the Ministry of Kami Affairs. These priest
officials continued performing ritual functions as members of their priestly
group, but were treated differently from their fellows: they were removed
from the register of peasants, and transferred to a special list of priest
officials (hafuribe myōchō) resorting under the Ministry of Kami Affairs.
Moreover, over time it became more and more common for the court to
make ‘interim offerings’ in response to crises such as droughts, which led
to an increase in the number of occasions at which the court or the provin-
cial governor made offerings to official shrines. This, in turn, led to the
building of permanent structures for the storing of official offerings, which
in general were overseen by the local priest officials.
If a shrine gave evidence of possessing special kami powers, its deity was
rewarded with ‘kami households’ (kanbe) and ‘kami lands’ (shinpō) whose
tax revenues were allocated to the shrine in question, as well as with ‘kami
ranks’ (shin’i or shinkai) corresponding to bureaucratic, military, or imperial
ranks. Priests who performed rituals for the protection of the state were also
given court ranks and were allowed to dress as court officials, for example
by carrying a shaku or ceremonial baton. This marked the appearance of
managerial figures with special privileges within groups that had tradition-
ally worshipped the same kami. From the very beginning, female priests
were barred from ritsuryō officialdom, and even though they served in direct
48
1111 contact with the kami and held positions equal or superior to male priests
2 within the world of ritual, they were excluded from managerial roles – this
3 in contrast to earlier practice, when kin groups included both paternal
4 and maternal lines, and women played an active role in the management of
5 clan affairs.
6 Summing up, we have seen that as official worship was superimposed
7 on the kami rites of local communities, managerial figures with official
8 authority emerged from among local ritual groups. Referring to our defin-
9 ition of religious systems, we might define these people as the ‘purveyors’
1011 of Shinto during this period. At the same time, yashiro acquired lands
1 and real estate, thus providing a network that allowed the kami system
2 to develop further. Taken together, these two factors contributed to the
13111 emergence of shrines as we know them today.
4 During the late eighth century, the influence of the provincial and
5 district authorities on village shrines through supervision and economical
6 support intensified even further. Provincial and district officials would
7 check expenses for communal meals, and district governors increasingly
8 attended rituals. This also led to a gradual increase in the number of
9 official shrines and, soon, there was hardly a locality in the land that did
20111 not have such a shrine within its boundaries. One factor behind this
1 increase was a diversification of local elites. The reclamation of new lands
2 had given rise to new elites, who competed with the old in various ways.
3 In these struggles, the ancient ‘traditions’ around clan genealogies and
4 ritual prerogatives surfaced once more as political tools. Already from the
5 Wadō period (708–15) onwards the court had adopted a new policy for
6 appointing district governors, and while individual ability had weighed
7 heavily before Wadō, after this time appointments tended to go to those
8 who held hereditary positions of power. As a result, many local elites tried
9 to have their kin group recognised as a branch of a central clan. This often
30111 involved the claim that their kin group worshipped the same clan deity,
1 and was accompanied by a request for court recognition of their shrine as
2 an official shrine. By calling the court’s attention to the sacred origins of
3 their shrine, the miracles performed by its kami, and its potential for
4 causing trouble when ignored, local groups appealed to the court for kami
5 ranks, kami lands, and the accompanying rise in status.
6 To be recognised as an official shrine, a shrine had to be recommended
7 to the Ministry of State by the provincial governor. The Ministry of State
8 then informed the Ministry of Kami Affairs of its decision. The provincial
9 governor had the duty to ‘revere’ the kami in his province and to repair
40111 and maintain their shrines and, in effect, the granting of official recogni-
1 tion to shrines was left to his judgement. The rise in the number of official
211 shrines was not the result of a preconceived plan on the part of the court
49
MORI MIZUE
to impose hierarchical order on the shrines in the land; apart from Ise,
which had a special status, all official shrines were treated as equal. There
were no clear conditions for the official recognition of shrines, and their
increase was triggered primarily by political developments in the provinces,
and natural events and accidents. The ‘Procedures of the Engi Period’
(Engishiki, completed 927, implemented 967) includes a ‘List of Kami’
(Jinmyōchō) showing that by the tenth century, no less than 2,861 shrines
containing a total of 3,132 deities had attained official status.24
As the number of official shrines multiplied, the system of kinensai
offerings became an empty shell. The only legal requirement made of
official shrines was for its priests to attend the annual kinensai cere-
mony at the Ministry of Kami Affairs and receive court offerings there.
However, sending a delegation to the capital for this purpose every year
proved a heavy burden. There was no punishment for those who failed to
collect the kinensai offerings and, soon, attendance plummeted. As shrine
buildings decayed and official rites were abandoned, the question of res-
ponsibility arose. However, contemporary law proved of little help in
resolving the question whether the local head priest, the district governor,
the provincial governor or the Ministry of Kami Affairs itself was
responsible for this state of affairs.
From the point of view of the Ministry of Kami Affairs the increase of
official shrines was in accordance with the aim of developing a nation-
wide system of kami worship; but on the other hand, the distribution of
kinensai offerings to such large numbers of shrines proved problematic. The
Ministry’s incapacity to deal with the increased numbers of official shrines
may well have been one reason why non-attendance was not followed up.
In 798, an attempt was made to break the gridlock by distinguishing
between ‘national official shrines’ (kanpeisha) and ‘provincial official
shrines’ (kokuheisha). Worship of the first, which were all located in the
Home Provinces, was carried out by the Ministry of Kami Affairs, while
the latter became the full responsibility of the provincial governors. This
solution, inspired though it was by practical concerns, signified the end
of the court’s policy to absorb the ritual power generated by kami cults
throughout the country. After this date, the supervision of the Ministry of
Kami Affairs over the ‘national official shrines’ intensified, but at the same
time more and more shrines were redefined as ‘provincial official shrines’,
and thus disappeared beyond the ministry’s horizon.
Simultaneously the practice of making ‘interim offerings’ (i.e. irregular,
occasional offerings) and awarding kami ranks to deities who had displayed
extraordinary kami powers (called myōjin, ‘kami of name’) increased. This
led to the emergence of a new system of shrine ranks which took the place
of the system of official shrines in the course of the ninth century. However,
50
1111 this system of myōjin shrines was no more premeditated than its predecessor
2 had been. The myōjin worshipped by the Ministry of Kami Affairs were
3 spread throughout the country, and were often defined as ‘national official
4 shrines’; but myōjin rituals (myōjinsai) were mostly carried out in response to
5 specific events such as droughts or epidemics, and were ‘interim’, irregular
6 affairs. In contrast to the kinensai system of making regular offerings through
7 local priests, here the Ministry of Worship made specific offerings, with
8 a specific request, to a chosen deity. While the former is known as hanpei,
9 ‘distributing offerings (through local priests, for regular worship)’, the latter
1011 is termed hōhei, ‘making offerings (directly to kami, with a specific request)’.
1 The ritual contents of myōjinsai varied widely, and were clearly different
2 from earlier official practice. Myōjinsai included Buddhist practices such as
13111 the reading of sutras in front of the kami, and the ordination of monks and
4 nuns as an offering to the kami. The conferment of kami ranks was left
5 to the judgement of the provincial governor, and these ranks soon came to
6 be used as a tool to demonstrate the governor’s authority. The frequent use
7 of this tool led to a rapid inflation of kami ranks, and they had lost most of
8 their value by the mid-tenth century.
9
20111
The ritsuryō system and the emergence of clan deities
1
2 The Japanese ritsuryō system differed from its Chinese original in that it
3 was grafted onto a pre-existing clan system. Clan order was expressed
4 through the Japanese invention of a Ministry of Kami Affairs. It took the
5 form of a body of myths and legends stating that clan hierarchies origin-
6 ated in the Age of the Gods, and protected the privileges of elite groups
7 in the Home Provinces in various ways.
8 The clans of Japan were relatively loose kin groups, whose members
9 could be related through both paternal and maternal lines. However,
30111 Chinese ritsuryō law was based on the premise of strictly patrilinear clans.
1 It is in the course of early efforts to apply Chinese law to Japanese society
2 that we see the appearance of ancestral clan deities (ujigami) worshipped
3 exclusively by patrilinear clan groups.
4 When a Chinese-style bureaucracy was introduced in Japan, the court
5 tried to impose coherence on Japan as a nation by bringing the major local
6 kami together in a national pantheon. In its national history, the Nihon
7 shoki, the various kami were given a place in a mythical framework that
8 presented the history of imperial rule as a continuation of sacred events
9 from the Age of the Gods.
40111 Moreover, the development of foreign diplomacy focused the court’s
1 attention on the kami that were believed to control the shipping routes –
211 foremost among them the kami of Munakata and Sumiyoshi. Ever greater
51
MORI MIZUE
efforts were invested in the worship of these deities as protectors of Japan.

When envoys were sent to the continent, offerings were made through the
Ministry of Kami Affairs not only to deities who controlled the seas, such
as Munakata and Sumiyoshi, but also to Ise and the main shrines in the
Home Provinces. In this way, the deities of official shrines were trans-
formed from tutelary deities closely connected to clearly defined areas,
to protector deities of the whole of Japan. While this may, at first sight,
seem to be a promotion of these deities, it also weakened their original
functionality within territorial clan ritual.
Changes in the life style of court bureaucrats also influenced the style
of kami worship. The city of Heijōkyō (Nara), founded in 710, was
modelled on the Tang capital Changan, and was built for the single purpose
of housing the court and its bureaucracy. Life in Heijōkyō and the trans-
formation of the clan relations in the capital deeply influenced the kami
beliefs held by its inhabitants.
The men who held leading positions within the various clans were
required to settle in Heijōkyō for the execution of their public duties. This
removed them from their relatives and fellow clansmen, so that they were
involved in the affairs of local kami worship only indirectly, from a long
distance. At an early stage, the clan head (uji no kami) and his wife or
sister (toji) were the main performers of clan ritual; but after the males
were moved to the capital, clan matters in the provinces (including clan
ritual) increasingly became the domain of the toji alone. Also, kami rituals
in the capital soon came to be conducted in man-made rather than natural
surroundings. While before, kami had been perceived in terms of natural
phenomena such as mountains, rivers, forests and animals, they now grad-
ually lost their ‘wild’ feel. Clan rituals besought the kami connected with
the land for good growing conditions and a good crop, but under ritsuryō
law, the land had become public property and, legally, the clansmen were
no more than tenants of their own land. Moreover, if a clan leader in the
capital fell into disgrace this often led to the displacement of his entire
clan. As a result, many ancient shrines fell into disrepair due to the
dispersal of their worshippers.
The court bureaucracy regarded official business as public, but clan
rituals as private affairs. To attend, clan members had to apply to the court
for leave from their public duties. Those who had moved to Heijōkyō,
mostly because of official appointments, were separated from their commu-
nities and inevitably lost their sense of unity with their clan and its kami.
Having to cope as isolated individuals must have caused many some kind
of identity crisis. Heijōkyō was, from the start, designed as a Buddhist
capital, and had no major shrines. It has been pointed out that the same
social changes that affected kami worship in this period may well have
52
1111 enhanced the appeal of Buddhism, whose teachings open for individual
2 liberation from individual suffering. An individualisation of ritual practice
3 can also be seen in purification rites at this time. Whereas before, purifi-
4 cation had been a communal affair, now the rivers and streams of the
5 capital were taken into use as sites of individual purification rites, in which
6 impurity was seen as a personal source of misfortune.
7 For those who had been called to the capital and given new posts,
8 often quite unrelated to their clan traditions, their traditional ties both
9 with their own and the imperial clan were already becoming little more
1011 than the stuff of legend, with little bearing on their present lives. At court,
1 the appeal of Chinese bureaucratic ideals intensified with the rise to influ-
2 ence of people with first-hand experience of the continent, and it was
13111 perhaps only a matter of time before the traditional clans, with their
4 attachment to old values, were overtaken and left behind. These circum-
5 stances resulted in a strong desire on the part of the old clans to revive
6 once more their ancient legend-based ties with the imperial lineage
7 and, in this way, to carve out a permanent place for themselves within
8 the bureaucratic structure. It was this desire that stood at the cradle of the
9 cults of clan deities.
20111 The emergence of these cults reveals much about the religious system
1 of the age. Not only was a sense of local belonging among clan members
2 weakening rapidly; changes in the conception of blood ties also weakened
3 clan solidarity and diminished the significance of clan ritual. Under ritsuryō
4 law, clans were defined as patrilinear groups from which candidates for
5 court appointments could be selected. Court officials were selected from a
6 limited number of clans, defined as strictly patrilinear kin groups, and
7 appointments were based on the internal hierarchy within these clans; the
8 court compiled its own clan genealogies for this purpose. A clearly defined
9 group consisting of the paternal lineage was singled out from what was
30111 formerly a broader, more flexible kin group, which had included both
1 paternal and maternal relations. This was of great importance for patterns
2 of inheritance, and led to a strong emphasis on the paternal line of descent
3 from father to son. This, in turn, encouraged maternal lines to establish
4 their own branch lineages.
5 However, the resulting fragmentation of clans only led to even more
6 heated competition for bureaucratic positions. In a situation where the
7 old clans felt that their position within the bureaucratic system was under
8 threat, the reconstruction of clan structures became an urgent problem.
9 It was as the ritual focus of such a reconstruction that clan members
40111 acquired ‘clan deities’ (ujigami) – deities worshipped exclusively by the
1 patrilinear kin group. Clan deities were not an ancient phenomenon;
211 they were deliberate creations inspired by the problems of clans during this
53
MORI MIZUE
time of change. The term appears in the sources for the first time in the
late eighth century, and seems to have come into general use in the ninth.
The clan that first established this pattern was the powerful Fujiwara clan,
who worshipped its clan deities at the Kasuga shrine.
The Fujiwara, who established themselves as a new aristocratic lineage
during the early days of the ritsuryō system, did not have an ancient tradi-
tion of worshipping a particular deity, nor did they dispose of a particular
clan area. Shortly after the capital had been moved to Heijōkyō, the
Fujiwara and their close relations gathered at the kami hill of Kannabiyama
(later known as Mikasayama), a short distance to the east of the city,
to establish a sacred site where they invited the deity Takemikazuchi
to descend. This deity, whose name means ‘thunderbolt’, was originally
worshipped at Kashima in the Kanto plain; now, the Fujiwara prayed to
him for the protection of the court and the prosperity of their lineage.
Together with this deity the Fujiwara also invited Futsunushi, the deity
of the Katori shrine (also in the Kanto); somewhat later, they added
the ancestor deities of the Nakatomi clan, Ame no Koyane and his wife
Himegami, from Hiraoka in Kawachi (near modern Osaka). The Kasuga
shrine was finally completed in 768, when an imperial decree ordered the
construction of shrine buildings for these four deities.
By the ninth century the Kasuga shrine functioned as the tutelary shrine
of the Fujiwara clan, and among the shrine’s four deities Ame no Koyane
had come to occupy a central position. When the capital was moved, the
Fujiwara invited spirits (bunrei) from the Kasuga shrine to the new site and
worshipped them there, while they retained the Kasuga shrine itself as their
‘original shrine’ (honsha).25 The Kasuga deities had originally been invited
from other sites, and were primarily genealogical ancestor deities; they were
not tied up with a specific locality but rather remained closely connected
with the Fujiwara clan, wherever they were.
In the ninth century, other clans also created their own clan deities
by superimposing a patrilinear ancestor on the local territorial kami
worshipped by the clan in its region of origin. These clan deities were
worshipped as ancestral deities who protected their descendents. In a
number of instances, legends recounting how a thunder deity married
a human ancestress were drawn up as a starting point for clans’ genealo-
gies. Sometimes, ancestral rituals were carried out in the vicinity of burial
mounds of clan forebears, or objects found at such burial mounds were
enshrined in clan shrines. Strikingly, many shrines that originated in
the eighth and ninth centuries, such as the Kamo, Hirano, Hachiman
and Hie shrines, house a ‘family’ of kami, including a wife (himegami) and
children (mikogami).
This kind of ancestor worship was to become one of the funda-
mental elements of Shinto. The late eighth century saw an incident that
54
1111 stimulated this type of kami worship even more: Empress Shōtoku’s
2 attempt to cede the throne to the Buddhist monk Dōkyō in 768.
3 Shōtoku (r. 764–70) was a nun when she ascended the throne, and she
4 relied heavily on Dōkyō in her efforts to establish Buddhist rule. She was
5 accompanied by monks during her daijōsai ritual, and revered Dōkyō as a
6 ‘Dharma king’ (hōō). However, when she attempted to cede the throne to
7 him she met with determined resistance from the aristocracy and, in the
8 end, Dōkyō was exiled. The reason why aristocrats were so violently
9 opposed to Dōkyō’s accession was not that they resisted his Buddhist
1011 policies – they had accepted these for a number of years without any
1 protests. Rather, they clung to the hereditary nature of imperial rule; quite
2 naturally so, since they based their own legitimacy on the same hereditary
13111 principle. If the empress were to renounce the right of her lineage to the
4 throne, this would also undermine their own claims to power, and this had
5 to be prevented at any price.
6 This incident served as a powerful reminder for the aristocrats that their
7 political authority was grounded not in their military power, but in their
8 mythical links with the imperial lineage. Also, it became clear to them that
9 Buddhism carried within it the possibility of invalidating the hereditary
20111 principle on which their authority was built. Learning from this experience,
1 a strict separation between kami and Buddhist rites was prescribed for all
2 imperial ceremonies. A central figure in this was the jingihaku Ōnakatomi
3 no Kiyomaro (702–88), a son of the above-mentioned Omimaro (Kiyomaro
4 received the privilege to add Ō-, ‘great’, to the Nakatomi clan-name in
5 769).26
6 First of all, a taboo on Buddhism was included in the rules of absten-
7 tion that applied to court ritual.27 Also, an even stricter taboo on things
8 Buddhist was instituted at the Bureau of the Consecrated Imperial Princess
9 (saigūryō) at Ise, the compound where an imperial princess lived a ritually
30111 pure existence in order to lead the Ise priests in the tsukinami and the
1 kanname rituals at the Ise shrines. Here, Buddhist clerics, rites, and even
2 terms were tabooed on a daily basis. Further, shrine temples built by local
3 priests as well as Buddhist structures and temple lands within kami districts
4 were laid down and disowned, allegedly because they gave rise to ‘curses’
5 from the kami. The lands concerned were ritually purified and returned
6 to kami use. In conjunction with these measures, the Ministry of Kami
7 Affairs strengthened its supervision over the Ise shrines by establishing a
8 centrally-controlled priestly organisation which prevented local priests
9 from making arbitrary changes to Ise ritual. The new position of ‘master
40111 of rituals’ (saishu) was created, and Kiyomaro himself became its first
1 incumbent. The post of shrine governor of the Ise shrines (daijingūji or gūji)
211 as well as executive positions in Ise province were monopolised by the
55
MORI MIZUE
Ōnakatomi clan. These measures placed new emphasis on the emperor’s

status as Amaterasu’s descendant, and confirmed that, in the ritual prac-
tice of the emperor, primary importance had to be given to worship of the
imperial ancestral deities, and secondary importance only to Buddhism.
The main aim of the separation of kami and Buddhist rites was to re-
emphasise the ties between the imperial lineage and the aristocratic clans;
but an important by-product was a new awareness of the existence of a rit-
ual system separate from Buddhism: Shinto. The tabooing of Buddhism by
the emperor as part of the most prominent state rituals established the
notion that the kami were fundamentally hostile to Buddhism, and that
Buddhism was alien to Japan’s original way of worship. Also, it caused the
emperor to be wrapped in an ever tighter web of taboos, in order to preserve
his primeval purity as a sacred person. Efforts to evoke the ties that were
thought to have bound together the imperial lineage and the clans since
the Age of the Gods can also be found in poems from Japan’s first poetry
collection, the Man’yōshū – e.g.:
Shikishima no / Yamato no kuni ni / akirakeki / na ni ou tomo no o /

kokoro tsutomeyo
Beware, you leaders of our clan
which bears a most illustrious name
in this wide land of Yamato!28
(Ōtomo no Yakamochi)
It is not impossible that the very compilation of this poetry collection was
informed by the wish to give expression to these ties. However, this sacral-
isation of the emperor also elevated his position to a level that, conversely,
undermined the position of the aristocratic clans as his attendants.
The convergence of the position of the emperor with the Ise shrines was
given a new impulse by Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806). This emperor not
only strove to emulate Chinese emperorship, but also held Ise in deep
reverence, and ordered the compilation of ‘ritual procedures’ of both the
Inner and the Outer Shrine of Ise (Kōtaijingū gishikichō and Toyuke-jingū
gishikichō, both completed in 804). These works fixed the scale of the Ise
shrine complex and its ritual forms in writing. Also, they reveal that
Kanmu regarded Ise not so much as the seat of Amaterasu as the highest
goddess on the Plain of High Heaven, but rather as an ancestral mausoleum
(Ch. zongmiao, J. sōbyō) in worship of Amaterasu as the imperial ancestress,
comparable to the mausolea of Chinese noble lineages.
Worship at Ise had long been an imperial prerogative, but now it
was unambiguously prohibited in law for all but the emperor to present
offerings there. This law must have been inspired by Chinese practices of
56
1111 ancestor worship. It represented a break with the past, when the allies of
2 the imperial lineage had assisted the emperor in his worship of the imper-
3 ial ancestress and thus given expression to the myth that they shared in
4 Amaterasu’s divine decree. Now, Ise became a distant place beyond the
5 reach even of the emperor’s closest retainers.
6 These changes under Kanmu’s reign laid the foundation for the percep-
7 tion of major shrines as ancestral mausolea. In such mausolea, not only the
8 founding ancestor but also successive generations became objects of ritual
9 worship. Soon, not only Ise but also other shrines came to be designated as
1011 imperial mausolea; the Hachiman shrine, whose deity had become identi-
1 fied as Emperor Ōjin, was one such shrine. Thus the concept of ancestral
2 mausolea also had the effect of relativising the position of the Ise shrines.29
13111 The imperial succession was passed down in a straight line from father
4 to son, without any room for interference from court aristocrats. The
5 sacredness of the emperor was no longer explained mythically, by referring
6 to the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, but was maintained through the rituals
7 performed and taboos observed by the emperor himself. This explains the
8 fact that, for example, important changes were made to the daijōsai on
9 the occasion of the succession of Emperor Heizei (r. 806–9), such as the
20111 addition of a misogi purification, and the distribution of special offerings
1 to Ise and other shrines. These changes rendered the ceremonial more
2 religious and mysterious, and thus enhanced the sacredness of the emperor.
3 At the same time, the new forms of ritual introduced by Kanmu under-
4 mined the claims to prominence of clan elites, because they did derive
5 their raison d’être from Kojiki and Nihon shoki myths. Indeed, during this
6 period, ancient clans disappeared from the stage of history one after
7 another. Seen in this light, the clan genealogies and traditions that were
8 recorded in the ninth century (Kogoshūi by Inbe no Hiromichi, 807; Shinsen
9 shōjiroku, 815, and Sendai kuji hongi, late ninth century)30 were mere
30111 mementoes of ancient traditions about to disappear. In a similar way, the
1 regulations for the ritual worship of the Ministry of Kami Affairs laid down
2 in the Engishiki, and the attached long list of shrines and deities, were
3 rapidly becoming little more than a past ideal.
4 In the second half of the ninth century, the Fujiwara gained dominance
5 over political life at court as imperial regents (sesshō, kanpaku) and as
6 maternal relatives of the emperor. Increasingly, such private family rela-
7 tions with the emperor became a decisive factor in court politics. This also
8 left its mark on public ritual, which became more and more focused on
9 the protection of the residence of the emperor and his relatives, now in
40111 the capital Heiankyō (Kyoto, founded in 794).
1 Even if clan deity cults did help to preserve clan identity, they proved
211 less effective in the clans’ struggle for influence in court society. Political
57
MORI MIZUE
Misogi and harae

After Izanaki had visited his deceased wife Izanami in the ‘Land of
Darkness’, he returned to the ‘Land of the Middle’ where he washed
off the impurity (kegare) from that land of death at ‘a small river
mouth’ in Himuka in Kyushu. The removing of pollution with the
help of water is called misogi. The Kojiki and the Nihon shoki tell us
that during his misogi, Izanaki first produced ‘deities of evil’ (maga-
tsu-hi no kami), and next ‘deities to rectify evil’ (naobi no kami); as
the final stage of his purification, the ‘three most august children’
of Izanaki (Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi and Susanowo) were born when
he washed his right eye, his left eye, and his nose.31 This legend
explains why most shrine precincts include a clear stream. During
the ancient period misogi was performed before rituals, and kami
were invited to descend to a ritual site only after all present had
rinsed their bodies of all pollution. The Great Kings of Yamato,
too, performed misogi as part of their enthronement ceremonies. The
modern practice of washing one’s hands and rinsing one’s mouth
before entering shrine grounds can be said to be a remnant of this
ancient rite of performing misogi before rituals. The custom of setting
up a basin with running water especially for this purpose at shrine
entrances (temizuya, chōzuya) is relatively recent, however; the
first such basin was put up at the Tōshōgū shrine in Nikkō, founded
in 1636.
A second type of purification rite is harae. Harae originated as a
punishment imposed on individuals who had broken community
rules. Its mythical precedent was the punishment of Amaterasu’s
unruly brother Susanowo, whose misconduct had caused Amaterasu
to retire to the Cave of Heaven. The Kojiki and the Nihon shoki
describe how the assembled kami imposed a fine on Susanowo,
pulled out the nails of his hands and feet, and banished him. The
payment of damages in the form of ‘purification goods’ (harae-tsu-
mono, haraebashira) was an essential element of harae. The Nihon
shoki mentions, in the chapter on Emperor Kōtoku’s reign, that
when people died on the way home from corvée labour, locals
‘detained the companions of the deceased and compelled them to
do purgation’ (i.e. pay purification goods). The same applied when
people cooked their rice by the roadside, broke borrowed pots, or
58
1111
2 allowed their mares to give birth in people’s houses.32 Rather than
3 a ‘purgation’, harae in this context represents a fine for bothering
4 local inhabitants. As purification goods, valuables such as swords
5 and cattle were used.
6 Misogi and harae were originally quite unrelated concepts. Yet, the
7 deities produced by Izanaki’s misogi were called ‘the great deities of
8 the harae site’ (haraedo no ōkami). One possible explanation for this
9
is that after the codification of secular law under the ritsuryō system,
1011
harae was increasingly understood as a religious purification rite, and
1
as such blended with misogi. Harae became a method to deal with
2
offences of a religious rather than a secular nature. Purification
13111
4 goods, too, changed character. The term came to refer to human
5 figurines, or, even simpler, stripped twigs (haraegushi), onto which
6 one’s impurity and sins were transferred, and which were then
7 thrown into a stream or burnt.
8 Both misogi and harae were originally performed after the occur-
9 rence of disasters and accidents. However, under ritsuryō kami law
20111 ōharae was performed twice annually for the prevention of disasters,
1 before their occurrence. Ōharae was based on the idea that even
2 though nothing disastrous had happened as yet, various offences
3 must have been committed over time; therefore it was necessary to
4 cleanse the environment regularly to prevent the accumulation
5 of such offences to dangerous levels. It is not clear at what point in
6 history harae became part of all kami rituals as an essential prepara-
7 tory rite. We can, however, note that this practice is based on the
8 same idea as the performance of ōharae at the court.
9
30111
1
2
3 influence depended not on myths and traditions, but on one’s concrete
4 relationship with the emperor of the day. The same applied for the careers
5 of clan deities; the kami of Kasuga, for example, attained fame beyond the
6 Fujiwara clan because they were connected to the emperor as his ‘maternal
7 ancestor deities’. For the same reason, the Kasuga rituals became official
8 rituals sponsored by the court.33
9 As the ritsuryō system stagnated, Japan’s political system became
40111 completely dominated by the court aristocracy – notably the Fujiwara.
1 However, even though ritsuryō law had in most respects become a dead
211 letter, the ritual procedures it prescribed retained their authority, and the
59
MORI MIZUE
Ministry of Kami Affairs survived, albeit much transformed. Now, its

main task was no longer to supervise the old state rituals, but rather
to assist in the running of court rituals paid for through the Ministry of
State. In the new political constellation of this age, the ministry’s old
task of unifying public ritual practice under the aegis of the central
government was no longer meaningful, and the ministry was absorbed
into the increasingly private ritual establishment of the imperial house and
the aristocracy.
Notes
1 See, for example, Matsumae Takeshi, ‘Early kami worship’, in Delmer M.
Brown, ed., The Cambridge history of Japan I (Cambridge University Press 1993).
2 See Ōba Iwao, Shintō kōkogaku kōza (6 vols, Yūzankaku 1972–81), and
Kageyama Haruki, Shintaizan (Gakuseisha 1971).
3 Ryusaku Tsunoda and Wm. Theodore de Bary, eds, Sources of Japanese Tradition
I (Columbia University Press 1958), p. 6.
4 On the early history of Ise, see Tanaka Takashi, Jingū no sōshi to hatten (Kokusho
Kankōkai 1985) and Okada Seishi, Kodai ōken no saishi to shinwa (Hanawa
Shobō 1970).
5 W.G. Aston, Nihongi (Tuttle 1972), I p. 151.
6 Ibid., I p. 176.
7 Yoshie Akiko (Nihon kodai no saishi to josei, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1996) argues
that the increasing emphasis on the religious powers of females limited their
role in society, and resulted in their exclusion from political life. See also
Kuratsuka Akiko, Fujo no bunka (Heibonsha 1994).
8 See Wada Atsumu, Nihon kodai no girei to saishi, shinkō (3 vols, Hanawa Shobō
1995).
9 On kabane, see Saeki Arikiyo, Shinsen shōjiroku no kenkyū (4 vols, Yoshikawa
Kōbunkan 1971–82) and Yamao Yukihisa, Kabane no seiritsu to tennō
(Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1998).
10 On the Yamato-takeru legend and its Nachleben, see Isomae Jun’ichi, ‘Myth in
metamorphosis: Ancient and medieval versions of the Yamatotakeru legend’,
MN 54–3, Autumn 1999.
11 W.G. Aston, Nihongi, II pp. 66–7.
12 Cf. W.G. Aston, Nihongi, II pp. 106 and 195.
13 See e.g. Kuroda Toshio, ‘Shinto in the history of Japanese religion’, JJS 7–1,
Winter 1981.
14 On these and related matters, see Joan Piggott, The emergence of Japanese king-
ship (Stanford University Press 1997).
15 Nihongi, I p. 77.
16 See Okada Seishi, Kodai ōken no saishi to shinwa (Hanawa Shobō 1970). In
English, see Robert S. Ellwood, The feast of kingship: Accession ceremonies in
ancient Japan (Sophia University Tokyo 1973).
17 On the ofusuma, see Aston, Nihongi, I p. 70. For criticism of Orikuchi and
Okada, see Okada Shōji, Ōnie no matsuri (Gakuseisha 1990).
60
1111 18 The association of Ninigi with rice lies in his very name; Chamberlain trans-
2 lates his full name in the Kojiki (Ame-nigishi Kuni-nigishi Ama-tsu-Hidaka
3 Hikoho no Ninigi) as ‘Heaven-Plenty Earth-Plenty Heaven’s Sun-Height
Prince Rice-ear Ruddy Plenty’ (The Kojiki, p. 129).
4 19 On norito, see Donald L. Philippi, Norito: A translation of the ancient Japanese
5 ritual prayers (Princeton University Press 1990).
6 20 See Niino Naoyoshi, Kuni no miyatsuko to agatanushi (Shibundō 1965).
7 21 However, the kuni no miyatsuko of Izumo and Kii formed an exception. These
8 held appointments both as ‘new kuni no miyatsuko’ and as district governors
9 of the kami districts, and thus succeeded in retaining a position of power in
1011 their old clan lands. Both were obliged to pledge their loyalty to the court
in a special ceremony after their appointment. Strikingly, the kami they
1 revered as their ancestors were the foremost among the ‘Earthly Kami’ who
2 opposed the ‘Heavenly Kami’ (the ancestors of the imperial and many court
13111 clans) in the myths of Kojiki and Nihon shoki.
4 22 Item 19 in Book 7 (Court Ceremonial), and fascicle 28 in Ryōshūge.
5 23 See Yoshie Akiko, Nihon kodai no saishi to josei (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1996).
6 24 On the Engishiki, see Felicia G. Bock, Engi-Shiki: Procedures of the Engi Era
7 (2 vols, Sophia University Tokyo 1970–2).
25 Kasuga spirits were invited to the new capital of Nagaokakyō in 784, and to
8 Heiankyō (Kyoto) in 850–1. In Heiankyō, they were enshrined in the ōharano
9 shrine, where they were worshipped in the same manner as at Kasuga. On
20111 Kasuga, see Allan Grapard, The protocol of the gods: A study of the Kasuga cult
1 in Japanese history (University of California Press 1992).
2 26 On the relation between this separation between kami and Buddhist rites and
3 the Dōkyō incident, see Takatori Masao, Shintō no seiritsu (Heibonsha 1979).
The fact that this separation was limited to the emperor is pointed out by Satō
4
Mahito, ‘Daijōsai ni okeru shinbutsu kakuri’, Kokugakuin zasshi 91–7.
5 27 See Okada Shigekiyo, Imi no sekai – sono kikō to hen’yō (Kokusho Kankōkai
6 1989).
7 28 Man’yōshū 4466, translation from Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai, The Man-
8 yōshū, p. 179.
9 29 On the relative down-grading of Ise in norito see Miyake Kazuo, Kodai kokka
30111 no jingi to saishi (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1995). On the notion of great shrines
as mausolea, see Hayakawa Shōhachi, Chūsei ni ikiru ritsuryō (Heibonsha 1986).
1
30 Kogoshūi, compiled by Inbe no Hironari, contains an account of the myths as
2 handed down in the Inbe clan, and a protest against the growing influence of
3 the Nakatomi, who were increasingly displacing the Inbe. Shinsen shōjiroku was
4 compiled on the basis of genealogical information about all clans and their
5 branches. Genealogies such as the Ōnakatomi-shi keichō and the Inbe-shi keichō
6 are also thought to have been compiled around this time. Sendai kuji hongi
7 builds on traditions of the Mononobe clan, and contains among other things
8 genealogies of kuni no miyatsuko clans. See Saeki Ariyoshi, Shinsen shōjiroku no
kenkyū (4 vols, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1971–82).
9 31 B.H. Chamberlain, The Kojiki (Tuttle 1981), pp. 45–6.
40111 32 W.G. Aston, Nihongi, II pp. 221–2.
1 33 As rituals of such ‘maternal ancestor deities’, which did not feature in ritsuryō
211 kami law, the Engishiki mentions the festivals of Kasuga, Umenomiya, Hirano
61
MORI MIZUE
and Ōharano. Rituals of this kind, which were imperial but not based on
ritsuryō law, are known as ōyake matsuri (‘official rituals’). See Okada Shōji,
Heian jidai no kokka to saishi (Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai 1994) and
Nijūnisha Kenkyūkai, ed., Heian jidai no jinja to saishi (Kokusho Kankōkai
1986).
62
1111
2
3
2
4
5 THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD
6
7 The kami merge with Buddhism
8
9
1011 Itō Satoshi
1
2
13111
4
5 With regard to the history of kami worship, two trends characterised the
6 medieval period (which is here taken to have begun with the decline of
7 the ritsuryō system in the tenth and eleventh centuries). First, the court
8 policy to establish a centralised system of kami worship collapsed, and the
9 kami cults of different political and social groups (the court, local elites,
20111 warrior groups, occupational groups) developed into different directions.
1 Second, kami cults and Buddhism amalgamated, and combinatory cults
2 became prevalent. Parallel with this second development, theological
3 ‘Shinto doctrines’ of increasing sophistication were formulated. These two
4 trends, and the interplay between them, shaped medieval Shinto.
5 During the ancient period, kami ritual was a local or clan-based prac-
6 tice that followed a cyclical pattern. Its aim was to ensure the prosperity
7 and peaceful existence of the community, be it clan or state. Kami worship
8 was a communal affair, and did not address the concerns of individ-
9 uals. However, when kami became widely identified as manifestations
30111 of Buddhist divinities, their function, too, came to resemble that of
1 buddhas and bodhisattvas: now, individual believers addressed their
2 hopes and wishes for this life and the next to kami as they did to Buddhist
3 divinities.
4 As we have seen in Chapter 1, the distinction between private and
5 public ritual had become vague already during the late classical period –
6 as indicated, for example, by the fact that the clan rituals of the Fujiwara
7 at Kasuga had become part of the official ritual calendar. But now, this
8 distinction was blurred also in the opposite direction, as private (indi-
9 vidual) rituals came to be performed at formerly strictly public (communal)
40111 shrines. Also, the collapse of the ritsuryō system of funding official shrines
1 through allocating the taxes of ‘kami households’ (kanbe) left the shrines
211 with an increasing degree of financial autonomy. This forced shrines to
63
I T Ō S AT O S H I
attract believers from beyond their original communities, and new private
rituals were fashioned and propagated for this purpose.
These ritual and social changes, in turn, demanded theological explan-
ation. It was against this background that medieval schools of kami thought
such as Ryōbu Shinto and Ise Shinto arose. The theory-building of these
schools can, perhaps, best be described as the adaptation and application
of Buddhist thought. It was in this context that the term ‘Shinto’, which
had been little more than a synonym of ‘kami’, first began to take on moral
and sectarian meanings.1 The notion arose that the kami were the most
appropriate divinities to bring salvation to Japan and the Japanese, superior
even to the buddhas. The seeds of the anti-Buddhism of the early modern
period were sown already at this early date.
Due to these profound changes, kami worship had been transformed
almost beyond recognition by the end of the medieval period.
Official shrine worship in the medieval period

Under ritsuryō law, kami worship was centralised under the aegis of the
Ministry of Kami Affairs through its distribution of offerings to ever
growing numbers of official shrines. However, by the end of the classical
period this system had become unsustainable. In the tenth century, the
policy to control shrines nationally was abandoned for a more realistic
approach. From this time onwards, offerings were made only to shrines that
had close ties with the imperial house or with powerful aristocratic lineages
such as the Fujiwara. Most of these shrines were located in the Home
Provinces, and in economical terms, this new policy resulted in a huge cut
in costs. The new system of court kami worship is known as ‘the system
of twenty-two shrines’ (nijūnisha seido).2
How and when were these twenty-two shrines selected? Already by
the late ninth century, regular offerings were made to the sixteen shrines
of Ise, Iwashimizu, Kamo, Matsuno’o, Hirano, Inari, Kasuga, Ōharano,
Ōmiwa, Isonokami, Yamato, Sumiyoshi, Hirose, Tatsuta, Niu Kawakami
and Kifune. These offerings were made in response to droughts or spells of
wet weather, and in anticipation of good growth in the coming year. In the
early eleventh century, during the reign of Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011),
the shrines of Hirota, Yoshida, Umenomiya, Kitano and Gion were added.
The list of twenty-two shrines was completed when the Hiyoshi (or Hie)
shrine was added later in the eleventh century. During the period of
Heike dominance (1156–85), there was an abortive attempt to include
the Itsukushima shrine in this list. This shrine of warfare and shipping
had maintained close ties with the Taira or Heike clan since the age of
Taira no Kiyomori (1118–81), who frequented it after his appointment as
64
THE KAMI MERGE WITH BUDDHISM
1111 governor of Aki province in 1146, and initiated a large-scale pilgrimage by

2 the retired emperor (Go-Shirakawa) in 1174. The fact that this attempt
3 failed shows that the system of twenty-two shrines had become a closed one
4 by this time.
5 In addition to local agricultural deities from the provinces of Yamato and
6 Yamashiro, the list of twenty-two shrines included shrines to ancestral
7 deities of the imperial lineage (Ise, Iwashimizu, Sumiyoshi and Hirota),
8 shrines to clan deities of the Fujiwara (Kasuga, Ōharano and Yoshida),
9 and shrines to the clan deities of the mothers of Emperors Kanmu and
1011 Montoku (Hirano and Umenomiya). Hiyoshi or Hie was the tutelary
1 shrine of Mount Hiei, a mountain on the outskirts of Kyoto occupied by
2 the huge Tendai temple complex, and Hirano and Gion were recent shrines
13111 founded to pacify and control ‘angry spirits’ (goryō), a form of ritual that
4 flourished during the early Heian period (see below). Overall, this list
5 clearly developed as an extension of the private ritual practice of the
6 emperor and the Fujiwara at court.
7 For a period of time, court offerings to these shrines were regular
8 and substantive. However, with the economic and political decline of the
9 court both the number of shrines and the amount of offerings decreased
20111 gradually and, by the fifteenth century, offerings from the court had ceased
1 altogether. Even so, the notion that the twenty-two shrines were the most
2 prominent in the land persisted into the early modern period.3
3 Other networks for public shrine worship developed in the provinces.
4 Here, the running of provincial government had changed radically during
5 the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The provincial governors, who were
6 selected from aristocratic circles in the capital, chose to remain at the court
7 rather than settle in the provinces to which they were appointed, and
8 in practice, provincial affairs were left to local officials selected from the
9 circles of local landowners. These officials developed two systems of shrine
30111 worship, focusing on ‘provincial shrines’ (sōsha) and ‘first shrines’ (ichi no
1 miya). The first were shrines constructed at the provincial office especially
2 for the purpose of public rituals. Spirits of all the kami in the province were
3 invited to receive offerings there. The latter was a title given to the shrine
4 regarded as the most prominent in the province – in practice often selected
5 because of its proximity to the provincial office. In some cases, the provin-
6 cial office also selected a ‘second shrine’ (ni no miya) and even a ‘third
7 shrine’ (san no miya).4
8 These provincial shrines and first shrines came to occupy a central posi-
9 tion in the spiritual lives of the landowning elites that assembled at the
40111 provincial offices. Of special importance were the rituals performed at first
1 shrines. Most prominent among these were rituals of a military character
211 such as horse races and archery on horseback (yabusame), and agricultural
65
rituals such as dengaku (a ritual form of theatre) and sumo wrestling. This
combination of military and agricultural rites reflected the ideology of the
provincial landowning elite. Also, one’s level of participation in kami
rituals depended on one’s status and influence, and the confirmation of
local hierarchical relations was a prominent aspect of these rituals5 – a fact
that explains why the shrines selected as first shrines tended to have a
strong local character. When later in the medieval period provincial hier-
archies collapsed and power struggles between landowners intensified,
the right to select and supervise first shrines came to be hotly contended.
The names of the province’s first shrine and other prominent local shrines
appear frequently in the written oaths exchanged between local warriors
and landowners, side by side with the most prestigious national shrines.
This indicates that local elites conceived of shrine ritual as a source of
religious legitimation for their control of local resources.6
The warrior groups formed by local elites were originally made up
of unrelated individuals kept together only through a hierarchical line of
command, but soon took on the additional character of quasi-kin groups
in which alleged blood ties bound members together. In this process,
warrior groups adopted clan deities or protector deities as a further symbol
of group solidarity.7 Some of the deities revered in first shrines also took
on this function.
When Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–99) established his national
military government in Kamakura and became the first shogun in 1192,
he also built a new ritual institution which he placed at the apogee of
the network of provincial shrines and first shrines: the Tsurugaoka
Hachimangūji (‘shrine temple of Hachiman at Tsurugaoka’).8 The history
of this shrine goes back to Yoritomo’s ancestor Minamoto no Yoriyoshi
(988–1075), who had invited a spirit of the Hachiman shrine temple at
Iwashimizu to Kamakura after a successful military campaign in 1063, but
it was Yoritomo who transferred this shrine temple to its present site and
enlarged it. Hachiman was identified as the spirit of Emperor Ōjin, and
the Seiwa Genji lineage to which the Minamoto belonged worshipped him
as their ancestor deity. Also, Hachiman’s martial character had caused
him to become the protector deity of the warrior class as a whole. Regular
rituals at the Tsurugaoka complex included yabusame and hōjōe, a Buddhist
ritual of raising merit by releasing captured animals. As a whole, the com-
plex served to demonstrate the military and political might of Yoritomo’s
government, and gave visual expression to the autonomy of his govern-
ment from the court in Kyoto.
Thus shrine rituals had become an important element of the culture of
local elites and warrior groups by the early medieval period. In contrast,
it is thought unlikely that shrine rituals were performed by the lower strata
66
1111 of the population. This changed only after the appearance of so-called
2 ‘shrine guilds’ (miyaza) in the later middle ages.9
3 As agricultural productivity increased, larger villages emerged in most
4 rural areas, and especially in the Home Provinces. The late medieval period
5 saw the appearance of a new type of village community known as sōson.
6 While old type villages had consisted of extended family groups, these new
7 communities are better described as groupings of separate households
8 where decisions were taken by a village council.10 Such villages (mura), or
9 groups of villages (gō), had shrines which functioned as a focus for the
1011 community. The rituals of these shrines were organised and carried out by
1 the village shrine guild. The members of the shrine guilds were prominent
2 villagers known as ‘elders’ (otona, toshiyori), and the level of participation
13111 in the rituals of the village shrine was determined by the status of each
4 household. These rituals, then, were strongly exclusive in character. On
5 the other hand, the membership of shrine guilds was fluid to a certain
6 degree; in some cases, it was even bought and sold as a marketable
7 commodity. Also, some rural communities had ‘village guilds’ (muraza),
8 which involved all community members in the running of shrine ritual.
9 Most shrine guilds were organised on the principle not only of house-
20111 hold status but also of seniority. This is suggested already by the term
1 ‘elders’ (otona, toshiyori) for its members. Opinion is divided over the ques-
2 tion of which of these two principles is the older. However, in general it
3 appears that the system of ranking households according to status devel-
4 oped when family groups, organised on the basis of seniority, merged into
5 larger villages consisting of more than one family group. The coexistence
6 of two organising principles in shrine guilds arose naturally from this
7 process of village formation.
8
9
Amalgamation of kami cults and Buddhism
30111
1 In modern Japanese society, Shinto and Buddhism appear as two clearly
2 distinct entities. However, this distinction was imposed on the Japanese
3 religious landscape only by the ‘shrine-temple separation edicts’ (shinbutsu
4 bunri rei) of 1868 and the ensuing wave of anti-Buddhist destruction
5 (haibutsu kishaku). During the pre-modern period, Buddhist and kami
6 beliefs intermingled to give rise to a distinctive religious universe. This is,
7 in modern writings, described as ‘the amalgamation of kami cults and
8 Buddhism’ (shinbutsu shūgō). It is important to remember that this state
9 of amalgamation has been the norm throughout most of the history of
40111 Japanese religion; the present state of separation of Shinto and Buddhism
1 has lasted little more than a century. Therefore, the amalgamation of kami
211 cults and Buddhism is a central topic in the history of the kami in Japan.11
67
The relation between kami and buddhas has gone through many
changes. The amalgamation of kami and buddhas did not begin immedi-
ately after the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the mid-sixth century.
Kami and buddhas first began to merge in the Nara period (710–94), and
reached a first conclusion in the late Heian period (794–1192) with the
spread of the notion that the kami are emanations or ‘traces’ (suijaku), left
on Japanese soil by Buddhist divinities who constitute their ‘original
source’ (honji). In subsequent centuries, further theological speculation on
the kami led to more complicated and sophisticated forms of amalgama-
tion, which found expression not only in religious writings but also in other
cultural fields. Towards the end of the medieval period (in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries), Shinto writings began to show a movement away
from Buddhism. This developed into an aggressive anti-Buddhist rhetoric
during the early modern period (1600–1867). In the reality of religious
life, however, amalgamated cults and beliefs remained prevalent until well
into the modern period.
It is not sufficient to regard these amalgamated cults and beliefs simply
as an overlay, added in some loose manner to ancient indigenous cults and
beliefs. In spite of what many Shinto theologians have claimed, ‘Shinto’
has not existed throughout Japanese history as some unchangeable reli-
gious bedrock supporting the structure of Japanese culture. Buddhism
penetrated deeply into Japanese life, and has been the dominant religious
tradition in the country for most of its history; and Buddhism, too, has
undergone such radical changes during its long presence in Japan that
many have expressed doubts whether its Japanese forms can still be called
Buddhism at all.12 In fact, there are many elements of Buddhist origin even
in the thought and ritual of the Shinto of today, which, after all, took
shape during the long period of amalgamation that will be discussed here.
First of all it may be useful to discuss the backgrounds of two technical
terms used in the Japanese literature to refer to phenomena of amalgama-
tion: shinbutsu shūgō and honji suijaku. The first is in general use as a term
referring to the merging of kami cults and Buddhism in general. Although
it is of modern origin, its roots can be traced back to the medieval period.
Yoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511), a central figure in medieval Shinto,
referred to the Shinto theories ascribed to Kūkai (774–835) and Saichō
(767–822) as Ryōbu Shūgō Shinto, ‘Shinto that amalgamates [the kami]
with the two mandalas’. The mandalas in question are the Womb (Taizō)
and Diamond Realm (Kongōkai) mandalas, which are central to esoteric
Buddhist thought and practice. This phrase was to live on into the early
modern period as a generic designation for all Buddhist Shinto thought.
It was sometimes abbreviated to Shūgō Shinto, which can perhaps be trans-
lated as ‘amalgamated’ or ‘syncretic Shinto’. In the early modern period,
68
1111 it further gave rise to the designation Ryōbu Shinto, ‘Shinto of the two
2 mandalas’, which has now become the established term for Buddhist
3 Shinto, and especially for Shinto rites and theories that have strong links
4 with the esoteric Buddhist Shingon school – in contradistinction to so-
5 called Sannō Shinto, linked to the Tendai school. To refer to phenomenon
6 of Shinto–Buddhist amalgamation in a wider sense, the new compound
7 shinbutsu shūgō was coined. It is important, however, that the term shūgō
8 (like its closest English equivalent, ‘syncretism’) has long carried with it
9 negative associations of impurity and arbitrariness. It is to avoid such asso-
1011 ciations that in English-language literature, the word ‘amalgamation’ is
1 now widely preferred as a translation of shūgō.
2 The second term, honji suijaku, refers to the theory that the ‘original’,
13111 ‘eternal’ buddhas and bodhisattvas (honji, ‘original sources’) temporarily
4 appear among us as kami in order to bring us salvation. Suijaku literally
5 means ‘to leave a trace, a footprint’, and thus describes the kami as traces or
6 footprints left in our world of suffering by Buddhist divinities. As a scrip-
7 tural basis for this theory, scholar monks referred to the chapter ‘Life Time
8 of the Thus Come One’ in the Lotus sutra, where Śākyamuni reveals that
9 he attained enlightenment not in this life, at the city of Gayā, but ‘immeas-
20111 urable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas
1 of kalpas’ ago, implying that the historical Buddha was, in reality, no more
2 than a temporary manifestation of the eternal Buddha, whose existence
3 knows no limits. In the Chinese Tiantai school, this passage and the related
4 theory about Śākyamuni’s ‘buddha bodies’13 was explained in terms of honji
5 (Ch. bendi) and suijaku (Ch. chuiji), and in Japan, this Chinese Buddhist
6 notion came to be applied to the kami.
7 However, rather than being inspired directly by this Tiantai doctrine,
8 honji suijaku in Japan drew on the much more basic idea, shared by
9 all Buddhists, that divinities can make ‘temporary appearances’ (J. keshin)
30111 in different guises and at different places. As Buddhism spread from India
1 to other lands, local kami or historical figures were often identified as
2 such ‘temporary appearances’ of buddhas and bodhisattvas as a way to
3 root Buddhism in foreign cultures. Thus, honji suijaku was not a uniquely
4 Japanese phenomenon; nor was its application to native divine figures
5 exclusive to Japan. In the Chinese apocryphal Qingjing faxingjing (‘Pure
6 dharma practice sutra’), for example, it is argued that Laozi, Confucius,
7 and his most prominent disciple, Yanhui, are emanations of bodhisattvas
8 sent by Śākyamuni, and that the famous monks Baozhi and Budai (J. Hōshi
9 and Hotei) are emanations of respectively Avalokiteśvara (J. Kannon) and
40111 Maitreya (J. Miroku). In Japan, similarly, the Buddhist culture-heroes
1 Shōtoku Taishi, Gyōki and Kūkai were posthumously identified as emana-
211 tions of Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrı̄ (J. Monju) and Vairocana (J. Dainichi).
69
As we saw in Chapter 1, Buddhist divinities were, at first, worshipped in

Japan as foreign kami, different in name but not necessarily in character
from the indigenous deities. For a period of time, Buddhism in Japan devel-
oped alongside kami cults, without the relationship between the two being
raised as an issue.14 The first signs of such a relationship emerged in the
eighth century, when the first so-called ‘shrine temples’ (jingūji) were
founded. As the name suggests, these were temples attached to shrines.
During the course of the Heian period such temples were founded at the
majority of major shrines, which often subsequently came to be controlled
by their shrine temples. The first such temples about which we have con-
clusive sources are the Kehi Jingūji (in Echizen province), the Wakasahiko
Jingūji (Wakasa province) and the Tado Jingūji (Ise province), all dating
back to the eighth century. It is noteworthy that these shrine temples were
all located outside the Home Provinces, away from the centres of court cul-
ture. The foundation documents of these temples explain that the kami of
Kehi, Wakasahiko and Tado had, through an oracle, expressed the wish to
be saved from this world of suffering, into which they had been born as
kami because of karmic causes. They hoped to attain salvation through
the powers of Buddhism, and asked for a temple to be built at their shrine
for the performance of Buddhist rituals.15
These foundation documents reveal that the kami were regarded as
sentient beings who were subject to suffering in the same way as humans.
In Buddhist doctrine the highest of the six realms of transmigration is the
realm of devas (J. tendō), and it seems that in Japan the kami were included
in this realm. The notion that the kami wish to escape from their kami
state through Buddhism represents the first stage in the amalgamation of
kami and Buddhist divinities. These kami, however, retained many of their
kami characteristics. Wakasahiko, for example, caused an epidemic to draw
attention to his suffering – a typical example of the use of a curse (tatari)
by a kami to instruct worshippers on the correct method of worship. Here,
typical kami behaviour is being written into a Buddhist discourse.
A practice that originated at this time was the reading of sutras in front
of kami shrines. This ritual was performed to alleviate the suffering of
the kami, and to allow them to ‘enjoy the Buddhist Law’ (hōraku). As an
early example, we may mention a tale from the Nihon ryōiki (c.822) which
describes how the Lotus sutra was read for Taga no Ōkami, to save him
from his kami state. A related practice that spread around the same time
was the copying and donating of sutras to kami shrines.
The spread of shrine temples and practices such as sutra reading and sutra
copying for kami indicates that, by this time, Buddhism had penetrated into
local society deeply enough to cause a certain tension with pre-existing
kami cults, and that this inspired various explanations of the relationship
70
1111 between the two. A clear distinction can be made between this type of
2 amalgamation in the provinces, and the so-called ‘protector deities of the
3 [Buddhist] Law’ (gohō zenshin) worshipped at the court.16 These latter
4 were central kami, closely linked to court Buddhism and its rituals for the
5 protection of the state – in contrast to the former, which were all regional
6 deities rooted in local communities. The notion of ‘saving the kami from
7 their kami state’ was an expression of the wish of local communities for
8 relief from disasters that were ascribed to curses from the kami, and arose
9 when Buddhism began to penetrate regional societies. However, while
1011 most scholars agree that this notion emerged in the provinces and spread to
1 the centre from the periphery, it has been pointed out that it existed also in
2 contemporary China, and that its emergence in Japan may well have been
13111 due to Chinese influence.17 In that case, its origins cannot be sought only
4 in the dynamics of religious events in provinces, but must also be under-
5 stood as the result of the dissemination of central religious expertise to the
6 provinces. Here, popular Buddhist ‘missionaries’ such as Gyōki (668–749)
7 and his group must have played an important role in the propagation of
8 ideas and practices of kami-Buddhist amalgamation.18
9 In the eighth century, we also notice the appearance of a new kind of
20111 kami that was closely connected with Buddhism in a rather different
1 manner from the ones we have encountered above: the kami Hachiman.
2 Hachiman (or Yahata, as his name was also read during the early history
3 of his cult) is a deity of many riddles. He does not figure in the Kojiki or
4 the Nihon shoki, but suddenly appears rather prominently in historical
5 sources from the Nara period. Then, on the occasion of the founding of
6 the large Tōdaiji temple in Nara, Hachiman shot to national fame with
7 astonishing speed. As noted above, Hachiman was later identified with
8 Emperor Ōjin, and as such revered as an imperial ancestor on a par with
9 Amaterasu; at the same time he also enjoyed widespread worship among
30111 warriors as a martial deity.
1 The region of origin of the Hachiman cult, Usa in north-eastern Kyushu
2 (Buzen province), was strategically placed at the end of one of the main
3 sea routes from the Home Provinces through the Setonaikai sea to Kyushu,
4 and was of great political importance to the court. Also, due to its prox-
5 imity to Korea, this area seems to have been subjected to strong and
6 prolonged influence from the continent. Nihon shoki mentions that monks
7 and healers from ‘Toyo’ (the later provinces of Buzen and Bungo in north-
8 west Kyushu) were called to the sickbed of Emperors Yūryaku and, more
9 than a century later, Yōmei, implying that these healers disposed over tech-
40111 niques from the continent that were unknown in the rest of Japan. Also,
1 many temples were built in Buzen from the Hakuhō period (645–710)
211 onwards. It appears that Buddhism entered this region directly from the
71
continent, and it is therefore thought that the religion established itself

here earlier than elsewhere in Japan. It is not difficult to imagine how, in
this kind of environment, Hachiman may well have taken on a Buddhist
character at an early date. There is little consensus, however, on the nature
or provenance of the early Hachiman cult, and many questions remain
unanswered. Perhaps the most credible theory holds that it developed
under Buddhist influence from a cult of giant rocks on Mount Maki in
Buzen province.
Hachiman acquired links with the court only in the Nara period19 and,
as mentioned above, rose to prominence in relation with Emperor Shōmu’s
project of founding the Tōdaiji temple and casting a large bronze image of
Vairocana as its central buddha. When in 747 this enormous undertaking
ran into difficulties, Hachiman stated in an oracle that he would ensure the
success of this project: ‘I shall make the molten copper as [easy to handle as]
water and melt my body with the grass, wood and earth [used in the making
of the image] so that there will be no impediment [to completing the
temple]’ (Usa takusenshū). Not much later, Hachiman was escorted to
the capital, and in 749 he was enshrined in a purpose-built sanctuary near
Tōdaiji. As to the reasons why Hachiman’s priests would have supported
the founding of the Tōdaiji in this manner, not much more is known
than that his cult had contained many Buddhist elements from an early
date. Shoku Nihongi reports that Hachiman received copies of sutras, ten
monks and a pagoda from the court in 741, and other sources tell us that a
shrine temple dedicated to Maitreya (J. Miroku) was built to the west of
Hachiman’s Usa shrine in 737. Another indication of the Buddhist nature
of Hachiman’s cult is contained in the title of the female ritualists who
escorted him from Kyushu to Nara: ‘kami nuns’ (negi-ni).
Looking back on the process of amalgamation of kami and buddhas,
Hachiman was clearly a different case from the kami who asked to be
delivered from their kami state. His offer to assist the Tōdaiji project
and his subsequent appearance in Nara must have been a literal godsend
for Emperor Shōmu and his Buddhist policies. Also after these events,
Hachiman continued to stand in the vanguard of the kami-Buddhist
amalgamation process.
The kami as emanations of Buddhist divinities

Kami who protected Buddhism, of the type pioneered by Hachiman, spread
rapidly from the early Heian period onwards. Their presence was most
conspicuous at temples that were closely connected to the imperial court.
The Fujiwara clan temple Kōfukuji in Nara, for eaxmple, had Kasuga as
its protector deity, the Shingon headquarters on Kōyasan had Niu Myōjin
72
1111 and Kōya Myōjin, and the Tendai complex on Mount Hiei had Ōbie and
2 Obie (‘Great and Small Hie’). These various deities were believed to
3 protect the temple precincts from evil influences. Some were local kami,
4 and others were ‘invited’ from elsewhere; all were said to have expressed
5 faith in the Buddhist Law and vowed to serve the local Buddhist com-
6 munity as its protector deities. These kami form a close parallel to Vedic
7 deities such as Brahmā (J. Bonten) and Indra (J. Taishakuten) that were
8 absorbed into Buddhism as protector deities much earlier in India. They
9 were more fundamentally Buddhist in character than the kami who merely
1011 wished to be saved by Buddhism.
1 An expression of the progressing rapprochement between kami and
2 Buddhism at this time was the practice of granting kami the title of ‘bod-
13111 hisattva’. Again, this practice can be traced first in the Hachiman cult. The
4 title Hachiman Daibosatsu (‘Great Bodhisattva Hachiman’) appears to
5 have been coined as early as the late eighth century.20 Also later, the title
6 remained largely peculiar to Hachiman. It seems that its conferment was
7 actively sought by the Usa Hachiman shrine, and was probably closely con-
8 nected with Hachiman’s particular character as a Buddhist deity.
9 In 859, the monk Gyōkyō of the Nara temple of Daianji received an
20111 oracle from the ‘Great Bodhisattva Hachiman’ while doing worship at
1 the Hachiman shrine in Usa. In accordance with this oracle, Hachiman
2 was, in the following year, transferred to a new shrine at Otokoyama in
3 the Home Provinces: the Iwashimizu Hachiman shrine. At first, this
4 shrine was staffed exclusively by monks, and more than a decade passed
5 before any kami priests were appointed. Thus, Iwashimizu was a rare
6 example of an institution that was both temple and shrine at the same
7 time. This type of institution was known as a miyadera or ‘kami temple’.
8 Members of Gyōkyō’s lineage, the Ki, became the hereditary abbots (bettō)
9 of Iwashimizu. This position of bettō of a miyadera had, in itself, a strik-
30111 ingly ‘amalgamatory’ character: while being ordained monks, these abbots
1 were also married men with families, in the manner of kami priests.
2 The appearance of miyadera stimulated the further amalgamation of the
3 kami and Buddhism, and the tenth century saw the appearance of honji
4 suijaku theory. The first instance of such a theory in Japan has been found
5 in a document from 937, which states: ‘That [Usa] shrine and this
6 [Hakozaki] shrine are located in different places, but are identical as
7 “traces” (suijaku) of an emanating bodhisattva (gongen bosatsu)’.21 The term
8 gongen used here literally means ‘temporary appearance’, and was in use as
9 a translation of the Sanskrit term avatāra. It soon came to be widely used
40111 for kami that were identified as Buddhist emanations.
1 Although Hachiman at Usa was described as a suijaku already at this
211 early stage, the same notion only came to be applied more widely to other
73
kami in the eleventh century. An early example is in a letter from 1004

by Ōe no Masahira (952–1012), where he refers to the kami of Atsuta as
a gongen (Honchō monzui). In subsequent decades, this title was given to
many deities at sites of mountain practice such as Kumano and Hakusan.
Also, more and more kami were identified as emanations of specific
Buddhist divinities. The earliest examples of this date back to the early
eleventh century, but such identifications became more common only a
century or so later. Hachiman, for example, came to be identified as an
emanation of Amida (or occasionally of Śākyamuni), and the kami of Hie
as an emanation of Śākyamuni. This practice of assigning specific ‘original
sources’ to kami gradually spread throughout Japan and, as indicated by
Table 2.1, soon all major shrines were identified as ‘traces’ of named
buddhas and bodhisattvas.
The integration of kami in the Buddhist pantheon also brought about
great changes in the iconography of kami. As a parallel to the sculptures of
Buddhist divinities that occupied central positions in all temples, however
small, kami sculptures began to appear in the early Heian period. As we
have seen in the previous chapter, the kami had originally been imagined
as invisible spirits who for the sake of ritual interaction were invited to ‘take
possession of’ natural objects such as rocks, trees or even entire hills, or
of man-made objects such as mirrors that served as yorishiro or ‘kami con-
tainers’. However, already at an early stage some kami had taken on more
human features, and were personified as ancestors who dwelt permanently
in shrines much like aristocratic palaces. Now, under the influence of
Buddhism, the kami came to be depicted in sculpture, mostly as male
or female aristocratic laymen, but also occasionally as Buddhist monks.
Another iconographic novelty was introduced on kami mirrors. As honji
suijaku theories spread, it became common to carve drawings of the
honji of kami onto the reverse side of their yorishiro mirrors. Such draw-
ings are known simply as kyōzō, ‘mirror pictures’. Also, round or fan-
shaped metal plates were produced carrying reliefs of kami’s honji, known
as kakebotoke, ‘hanging buddhas’. Such Buddhist kami mirrors and kake-
botoke were collectively referred to as mishōtai, ‘[kami’s] real bodies’, and
were produced in great quantities throughout the medieval and early
modern periods. The early modern period also saw the spread of so-called
shrine mandalas (miya mandara), which, under the influence of Esoteric
Buddhism, depicted the precincts of famous shrines as sacred mandalas.
In some of these mandalas the honji of the shrine’s main kami is shown
hovering over the main shrine hall.
We have seen how the amalgamation of kami and Buddhism proceeded
from the practice of saving kami with the help of Buddhism, to the adop-
tion of kami as protector deities of Buddhism, via the designation of certain
74
1111 Table 2.1 Buddhist identifications of shrines

2
3 Shrine name Honji Sources
4 Ise 1 Rushana, Dainichi Daijingū shozōjiki,
5 Nyorai Tōdaiji yōroku
6 2 Kuse Kannon Seiji yōryaku, Gōdanshō
7 3 Kannon Bosatsu Kojidan
8 Kasuga
9 first hall Fukūkenjaku Kannon, Kasuga daimyōjin honji
1011 Śākyamuni chūshin
1 second hall Yakushi Nyorai,
2 Miroku Bosatsu Kasuga-sha shiki
third hall Jizō Bosatsu
13111 fourth hall Jūichimen Kannon,
4 Dainichi Nyorai
5 wakamiya Monju Bosatsu,
6 Jūichimen Kannon
7 Kumano
8 Shōjōden Amida Nyorai Chōshūki
9 Nishi no Miya Senju Kannon
20111 Naka no Miya Yakushi Nyorai
1 Waka no Miya Ōji Jūichimen Kannon
2 Zenji no Miya Jizō Bosatsu
Hijiri no Miya Ryūju Bosatsu
3
Chigo no Miya Nyoirin Kannon
4 Komori no Miya Shōkannon
5
6 Hachiman 1 Muryōju Nyorai Zoku honchō ōjōden
2 Amida trinity Hakozaki-gū ki
7 3 Śākyamuni trinity Minami-gun Daianji
8 tōchūin engi
9
Hie
30111
Ōmiya Śākyamuni Ryōjin hishō
1 Ni no Miya Yakushi Nyorai Hōbutsushū
2 Shōshinji Amida Nyorai Sanke yōryakki
3 Hachiōji Senju Kannon
4 Marōdo Jūichimen Kannon
5 Jūzenji Jizō Bosatsu
6 San no Miya Fuken Bosatsu
7
8
9 kami as bodhisattvas, to the identification of kami as ‘footsteps’ of Buddhist
40111 ‘original sources’. However, even at this last stage, not all kami were
1 regarded as emanations of Buddhist divinities. It is important to note that
211 the perception of kami as suffering sentient beings in need of the saving
75
powers of Buddhism persisted throughout the medieval period, and even

beyond. The coexistence of these two perceptions of kami was dealt with
by categorising the kami into ‘kami who are Buddhist emanations’
(gonshin) and ‘real kami’ (jisshin).22 These latter did not have a Buddhist
‘original source’, but were simply sentient beings in need of salvation, on
a par with us humans.
However, even these ‘real kami’ were sometimes regarded as ‘temporary
appearances’ of buddhas. In these cases, it was explained that a buddha
can, under some circumstances, appear in this world as an ordinary sentient
being who shares in the suffering of this world, in order to spread salva-
tion more effectively. When a buddha appears in this world as a kami (be
it as a gonshin or a jisshin) in order to save sentient beings, it was said with
a Chinese phrase that he ‘dimmed his light and mingled with the dust’
(wakō dōjin).23 In other words, the buddha was thought to have tempered
the bright light emitted from his body, and descended to the impure, dusty
world of transmigration in the form of a kami. It was explained that
Buddhist divinities chose to appear as kami because that was the most
effective way to achieve their aim of bringing salvation to Japan. Here, we
can see that the dissemination of honji suijaku ideas had far from under-
mined belief in the kami; to the contrary, it was argued by some that as
saviours of sentient beings in Japan, the kami should be valued even higher
than the divinities of Buddhism themselves.
A passage from Keiran shūyōshū, compiled by the Tendai monk Kōshū
(1276–1350) in the early fourteenth century, offers an example of this. In
reply to the question ‘why kami always appear as snakes’, this text explains:
The kami are forms of wakō dōjin, and therefore they resemble
worldlings and take on the same shape as worldlings, namely the
form of the extreme of the three poisons. The extreme of the three
poisons becomes the form of uncreated, original [enlightenment]
(musa honnu), and this always has the body of a snake.24
Here, the traditional image of kami as snakes (exemplified by the snake-

deity of Miwa) is given new significance as an embodiment of the ultimate,
true state of the sentient beings: the three poisons (greed, hate and
ignorance) transformed into uncreated enlightenment. This and similar
texts point at the kami as beings that stand closer to us ‘worldlings’,
and that can teach us a more fundamental and profound truth than the
buddhas themselves.25
Another type of cult that was closely connected with kami-Buddhist
amalgamation and honji suijaku theory was that of ‘angry spirits’ (goryō).26
These cults were based on the belief that the spirits of political figures who
76
1111 had died under tragic circumstances or had been unfairly executed during
2 the eighth and ninth centuries had returned to the capital to take revenge,
3 and had to be ritually pacified. What is important here is that these cults
4 pioneered the idea that spirits of the dead could lay curses, and that their
5 emergence contributed to the further development of kami–Buddhist
6 amalgamation.
7 Originally the laying of curses (tatari) was understood to be a method
8 for the kami to communicate their will to the people. Tatari usually took
9 the form of epidemics. Some kami were associated particularly closely with
1011 disease (ekishin, ‘disease deities’), and exorcist rites against such kami (such
1 as harae) formed an important part of ritual practice. However, the idea
2 that ancestral spirits or spirits of deceased people could lay curses does not
13111 appear to be so old. This notion became possible when, as we have seen
4 above, the kami came to be regarded as human-like figures during the
5 establishing phases of the ritsuryō system. When the gap between kami and
6 humans narrowed, the kami’s ability to lay curses must have been trans-
7 ferred to human spirits. This occurred during the transition from the Nara
8 to the Heian periods, when many courtiers met untimely deaths as real or
9 suspected rebels. When fate turned on their executioners, the fear arose
20111 that their spirits had returned to lay curses.
1 The earliest examples of courtiers who were feared as ‘angry spirits’ after
2 their deaths date from the mid-Nara period (Fujiwara no Hirotsugu, fl. 740,
3 and Prince Inoue, 717–75). However, it was only during the reign of
4 Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806) that goryō cults boomed. A central figure in
5 goryō history was Crown Prince Sawara (750–85), who became implicated
6 in the murder on Fujiwara no Tanetsugu (737–85). Sawara was stripped of
7 his position as crown prince and exiled to Awaji, and died on his way
8 there. A wave of incidents and disasters that occurred after his death
9 was attributed to his spirit, and sutras were read in an attempt to pacify
30111 it. Also, Sawara was restored to his former rank, and when this proved in-
1 sufficient he was even given the posthumous title of Emperor Sūdō. After
2 these events every political upheaval during the early Heian period was
3 followed by a spate of goryō rumours and rituals. Notorious ‘angry spirits’
4 from this period were Prince Iyo (fl. 807), Tachibana no Hayanari (fl. 842)
5 and Fun’ya no Miyatamaro (exiled in 844).
6 While, at court, these events were interpreted and dealt with as polit-
7 ical, personal attacks, the population at large reacted in a different manner.
8 For them, the string of curses that descended on the capital appeared not
9 so much as acts of revengeful individuals, but rather as a wave of ‘disease
40111 deities’. To deal with this threat, rituals to avert the activity of such deities
1 were devised and carried out among the general population of the city.
211 At first, the court tried to ban such events, but as popular pressure proved
77
too great the court performed a first public goryō ceremony (goryōe) in the
capital in 863. Attendance at this ceremony was open to all, and it was
an extremely lavish and large-scale event in worship of six notorious angry
spirits (Prince Sawara, Prince Iyo, Fujiwara no Kisshi, Tachibana no
Hayanari, Fujiwara no Hirotsugu and Fun’ya no Miyatamaro). Later, goryōe
became a regular part of the ritual calendar and amalgamated with other
cults of disease deities.
These cults of angry spirits as disease deities produced many new deity
figures. Among them, Gozu Tennō (‘Bullhead Deva King’), who was
worshipped at Gionsha in Kyoto (the present Yasaka shrine) stands out as
a figure of markedly amalgamatory characteristics. This deity’s history in
Japan was shallow, and his roots are thought to lie in Chinese traditions
of Yin-Yang thought and astrological divination (see below). The angry
spirit that made the most lasting impact on the Japanese religious land-
scape was the courtier and poet Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), who
was sidelined from court affairs and eventually died in the provincial
outpost of Dazaifu. Michizane was feared as the most powerful angry
spirit of all during the first half of the tenth century, but later took on a
less destructive guise as Tenman Tenjin, the main deity of the Kitano
Tenmangū shrine in Kyoto. His cult, known as the Tenjin cult, went
through many transformations, and is as popular today as ever – but now,
he is revered as a deity of academic achievement rather than disease.
All the angry spirits we have discussed here were first of all disease
deities, but the Heian period also saw the establishment of other types of
spirit cults. There was, for example, an upsurge in beliefs and rituals around
ghosts (mononoke) who were thought to cause mischief of a more general
nature. Another figure that rose to prominence at this time was the long-
nosed goblin called tengu, who originated as a demon bent on destroying
Buddhism. When, later in the medieval period, emperors such as Sutoku
(r. 1123–41) and Go-Toba (r. 1183–98) met dramatic deaths, they too were
believed to have turned into angry spirits, and Sutoku, especially, came to
be associated with the figure of the tengu. The tengu continued to be feared
throughout the medieval period as the most dangerous angry spirit of all.27
Japan as a ‘land of the gods’

Characteristic of medieval Shinto is the production of a vast amount
of theological texts, often referred to in academic writing as ‘medieval
Shinto thought’ (chūsei Shintōsetsu) and ‘the medieval Nihongi’ (chūsei
Nihongi).28 We shall see that although these texts built on earlier honji
suijaku theories, they were not a straightforward continuation of classical
Shinto thought. The medieval period was an age when kami adopted a
78
1111 great variety of appearances, and when kami beliefs and rituals had a
2 profound influence on intellectual thought, literature, art, and people’s
3 behaviour in general.
4 An important factor behind the age’s preoccupation with the kami was
5 the demise of the classical state and the emergence of a new, medieval
6 state structure. While the classical state had been based on Chinese ritsuryō
7 law, the medieval political structure was modified to suit the conditions
8 peculiar to Japan as a territory, a ‘place’ (ba) fundamentally different
9 from other places – notably China. The eleventh to thirteenth centuries
1011 inclusive (the Insei and Kamakura periods) can be regarded as an age of
1 transition between these two state structures. It was during this transitional
2 phase of Japanese history that medieval Shinto thought first emerged, and
13111 in order to explain the nature of this thought it will first of all be neces-
4 sary to discuss changes in the perception of history, territoriality, and
5 imperial authority that occurred in parallel with the country’s political
6 restructuring during this period.
7 The political and social chaos of the eleventh and subsequent centuries
8 encouraged the spread of eschatological pessimism among all layers of the
9 population. It was believed that Japan had entered the age of the ‘Latter
20111 Days of the Law’ (mappō), when Buddhism had lost its efficacy as a vehicle
1 for salvation. A political offspin of this belief was the idea that the imper-
2 ial lineage would come to an end with the hundredth generation, and that
3 Japan as a state would perish with its imperial rulers.29 Needless to say, this
4 notion formed a threat to the authority of the emperor (irrespective of the
5 question whether he had any real power or not), whose position at the top
6 of the political system had never been questioned before, and of those who
7 exercised political power in his name. In response to this threat, attempts
8 were made to reconstruct and revive imperial authority. In the search for
9 a new legitimation of imperial power Buddhism played an important role.
30111 Large temples such as the Tendai head temple Enryakuji on Mt Hiei and
1 the Tōdaiji in Nara, which before had been dependent on the court both
2 financially and politically, now became increasingly independent power
3 blocks whose power was based on their control of extensive landed estates
4 (shōen). The establishment of these new Buddhist power blocks found
5 expression in a new view on the relationship between the imperial court
6 and the large Buddhist establishments. The two came to be regarded as
7 the two wheels of a cart, each as vital as the other to the stability of the
8 vehicle of the state.
9 In this view of the state, the emperor was not only a descendant of the
40111 kami, but also a protector of Buddhism. At the same time, he himself was
1 dependent on the protection of Buddhism, for it was through the religious
211 power of Buddhism that his position was secured into the future. In ritual
79
terms, this new perspective on Japanese emperorship led to a rise in status

for esoteric Buddhist court rites during the Insei period (1086–1192).
During this period, Japanese Buddhism underwent a series of changes that
rendered it significantly different from its Chinese antecedents. It is not
possible to discuss these Buddhist developments here in any detail, but
it must be mentioned that it was at this time that the so-called New
Buddhism of the Kamakura period (1192–1333) originated, and that theor-
ies of ‘original enlightenment’ (hongaku) arose within the Tendai school.30
The contents of these new Buddhist teachings varied widely, but one thing
they had in common was that they all emphasised the particularity of Japan
as a ‘place’ with special characteristics, which required a ritual practice and
a theology suited to its own distinct identity.
It was within these Buddhist theological explorations that the posi-
tion of the kami became an issue, and honji suijaku theories and Shinto
thought arose. These trends are perhaps reflected most clearly in the
notion that Japan was a ‘land of the gods’ (shinkoku).31 Japan had already
been described as a land of the gods in the Nihon shoki (in the chapter
on Jingū Kōgō), and the expression itself must have originated in the
seventh or early eighth century. At this time the notion served to legit-
imise imperial rule, and to define the position of the Japanese ritsuryō
state in relation to China and Korea. However, in subsequent centuries
it had all but disappeared from active use, to resurface only during the
Insei period.
At this time, a number of different images of Japan coexisted side by
side. The most influential of these held that Japan was located in the
periphery of the Buddhist universe. Japan was often described as an
‘outlying land, like scattered grains of millet’ (zokusan hendo), situated so
far away from the centre of the Buddhist universe that the beneficence of
Buddhism could reach it only in a much weakened form. In this world
view, the inhabitants of Japan were inferior beings with a limited capacity
for progression on the Buddhist path.
Parallel to the emergence of this image of Japan, we encounter an image
of the world as consisting of three centres, each with its own periphery.
In order of diminishing importance, these three centres were India, China
and Japan – the three countries through which Buddhism was transmitted.
Here, Japan was at least identified as a centre of Buddhist culture com-
parable (if not equal) to India and China. In other words, the fact that
Buddhism had established itself as firmly in Japan as in the other two
centres of Buddhism was grasped upon as a matter of pride that raised the
status of Japan in the world.
Japan was once more defined as a land of the gods within the context
of this understanding of the world as consisting of three great Buddhist
80
1111 centres. According to honji suijaku theory the kami of Japan were eman-
2 ations of various buddhas and bodhisattvas, and so, as a land of the gods
3 Japan was at the same time a Buddhist land – and, importantly, a Buddhist
4 land in a distinctly Japanese way. This notion was expressed, for example,
5 in Shingon fuhō san’yōshō (compiled in 1060 by the Shingon monk Seizon,
6 1012–74), where Japan is defined in a punning way as ‘the original land
7 of Dainichi’ (Dainichi-hongoku or Dainippongoku).32 One may well regard
8 the perception of Japan as a country on the periphery of Buddhism as a
9 negative self-image, and that of Japan as a land of the gods as a positive
1011 one; ultimately, they are two sides of the same coin.
1 Be this as it may, it is clear that Japan’s self-image during the late Heian
2 and Kamakura periods was a composite one. Even if we isolate the notion
13111 of Japan as a land of the gods as an element of this composite image, we
4 find that those who used the phrase at this time did not do so to argue
5 that Japan was superior to all other nations. This changed only after the
6 two failed Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281. After Japan’s miraculous
7 escape from what could have been two devastating attacks, the idea that
8 the country was a land of the gods took on new meaning, while the image
9 of Japan as a small and inferior land in the borderlands of Buddhist
20111 civilisation retreated.
1 Returning to the search for a new legitimation of imperial authority
2 during the Insei period, we find that new definitions of emperorship often
3 focused on the so-called three regalia (sanshu no jinki): the jewel (yasakani
4 no magatama), the mirror (yata no kagami) and the sword (ame no murakumo
5 no tsurugi). These three objects first came to be recognised as the emblems
6 of imperial legitimacy from the mid-Heian period onwards. Their roots go
7 back to the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, which recount how Ninigi received
8 these objects from Amaterasu prior to his descent from heaven. How-
9 ever, Nihon shoki mentions the bestowal of these objects not in the main
30111 text, but only in a parallel ‘variant’, while another work of clan legend,
1 the Inbe’s Kogoshūi, makes mention of only the mirror and the sword.
2 At the Heian court large numbers of swords and mirrors were kept as
3 valuable treasures, but no specific sword or mirror was singled out as a
4 sacred object of a particular divine origin.33 At this time, the concept of
5 a set of three divine treasures had yet to emerge.
6 The sanctification and mystification of the three regalia, and especially
7 of the mirror, began during the mid-Heian period. A mirror that was
8 believed to contain Amaterasu’s spirit had, during the early Heian period,
9 been kept in the Unmeiden hall at the palace, but here it was stored rather
40111 than worshipped, and it was not the object of any special ritual practice.
1 This mirror caught people’s attention only after a fire in 960, which
211 destroyed most of the palace including the Unmeiden and its treasures,
81
when it was found miraculously unscathed among the ashes. In spite of

the fact that the mirror did not fare so well in two later fires in 1005 and
1040, it became the subject of miracle tales, and there were rumours that
it had escaped the fire of 960 by flying away through the air. Its raised
status as an object of miraculous powers appears clearly in dance perform-
ances staged at the Naishidokoro (here a designation for the Unmeiden
and the adjacent Kashikodokoro hall taken together). These dances,
known as Naishidokoro no mikagura, were first initiated by Emperor Ichijō
(r. 986–1011) and became a regular event under Emperor Shirakawa
(r. 1072–86).34 These dances, based on the story of Amaterasu’s retreat
into the Cave of Heaven, were but one instance of the suddenly increased
interest in worship of Amaterasu during the Insei period.
It was another incident, however, that focused attention on the regalia
as the essential tokens of imperial legitimacy. In 1183, when the Taira were
chased from the capital by Minamoto no Yoshinaka (1154–84), they took
both the young Emperor Antoku (r. 1180–3) and the three regalia with
them to Western Japan. In the sea battle of Dan no Ura (1185), the Taira
were destroyed, Antoku drowned, and one of the regalia, the sword, was lost
to the waves. These events were deeply shocking to the court aristocracy
and strengthened the idea that the imperial lineage was approaching its
final demise.
Such incidents involving the three regalia proved to strengthen rather
than weaken their appeal as objects of divine powers. As a sense of crisis
enveloped the imperial lineage, the importance of the regalia as symbols
for the reconstruction of imperial power increased. During the Kamakura
period, the three regalia came to be thought of as inseparable from the
position of the emperor, and in the subsequent Nanbokuchō period (1338–
92), when two branches of the imperial house fought a protracted war
over the imperial throne, the physical possession of the regalia as proof of
imperial legitimacy became a prime fighting cause.
The aura of sacredness that enveloped the three regalia inspired a large
body of esoteric texts on the nature of these magical objects. A thread that
runs through the vast majority of these texts is their linking of the regalia
with the Buddhist Wish-Fulfilling Gem (J. nyoi hōju, Skt. cintāman.i).35
Esoteric theories about the three regalia as a set, or about each of the
regalia separately, formed an important element of the Shinto thought that
began to develop around this time. Such theories taught, for example,
that the mysterious ‘Divine Seal’ which features prominently in ritsuryō
kami law was a treasure (variously described as a jewel, a document, or
even a map of Japan) bestowed on the imperial lineage by the Demon King
of the Sixth Heaven of Desire (Dairokuten Maō). Some of these texts
construed intricate links between the imperial mirror on the one hand,
82
1111 and the mirrors worshipped at the two main shrines and many sub-shrines
2 at Ise on the other. Also, esoteric diagrams illustrating the esoteric signifi-
3 cance of the regalia were drawn up and transmitted in great secrecy.
4 Another result of the developments described here was a renewed
5 interest in the Nihon shoki. This work had been all but forgotten since the
6 mid-Heian period, but was rediscovered in the twelfth century, first of all
7 in the context of poetry writing. Texts on poetics and poetry commen-
8 taries from this time frequently refer to the Nihon shoki.36 However, the
9 quotations contained in these texts are rarely taken from the main text of
1011 the Nihon shoki, but more often refer to a fluid body of legends cited under
1 the title of Nihongi. This was characteristic also of the Nihon shoki revival
2 of the Insei period as a whole.
13111 The poetical interest in the Nihon shoki during the Insei period was a
4 direct result of the practice of reciting waka as part of official Nihon shoki
5 lecture series. Six such series took place at the court during the ninth and
6 tenth centuries, with intervals of some thirty years.37 More generally,
7 however, this interest was informed by a concern for the origins of waka
8 poetry. The simple fact that waka, like the kami, were a typically Japanese
9 phenomenon without Chinese precedents meant that the question of their
20111 origin was inextricably linked with the question of the origin of Japan
1 itself. Here we see parallels with the ‘Japanisation’ of Buddhism and the
2 emergence of the notion that Japan was a land of the gods – both of which
3 also had their origins in the Insei period. Also, the understanding of the
4 world as consisting of three comparable centres of civilisation inspired
5 the idea that the waka of Japan were equivalent to the shi poems of China
6 and the dhāran.ı̄ spells of India. Waka came to be seen as Japanese-language
7 spells, infused with the same magical powers that characterised the dhāran.ı̄
8 and mantra of Esoteric Buddhism – and indeed, waka served as such spells
9 in medieval Shinto and Shugendo traditions. This idea is identical in struc-
30111 ture to honji suijaku theory in that typically Japanese phenomena (the kami;
1 waka) are explained as localised equivalents of Indian ones (Buddhist
2 divinities; Buddhist spells).
3 It is hardly surprising, then, that the same period produced a large
4 number of waka about kami. The first imperial poetry collection to include
5 a section of poems on kami was Goshūi wakashū (1086), but only as a minor
6 subsection within the category ‘miscellaneous poems’. In contrast, the
7 following imperial collection (Senzai wakashū, 1187) included an entire
8 fascicle dedicated to kami poems. This remained the same in all subse-
9 quent collections. The rapid expansion of kami poetry had its background
40111 in the practice of organising frequent poetry assemblies for kami priests
1 which, in turn, built on the conception of waka as sacred spells imbued
211 with kami power.
83
The rediscovery of the Nihon shoki in the context of Insei period poetry
was more than a mere rediscovery of this ancient work. As I briefly
mentioned above, the references to the Nihon shoki deviate in many
instances from the original Nihon shoki text. The body of legends and
theories that arose from the tangled references and cross-references
between these medieval works is often termed the (medieval) Nihongi, by
way of distinction to the classical Nihon shoki. Below, we shall see that the
twelfth century also produced the first texts of Ryōbu Shinto. Thus, the
revival of the Nihon shoki set in motion a creative process that produced
a veritable flood of both new texts and new ritual practices.38
Ryōbu Shinto: Buddhist speculations around Ise

The second half of the twelfth century onwards saw the composition of a
group of esoteric texts that are often referred to collectively as ‘texts of
medieval Shinto’. The first such texts were written by monks in the
Buddhist milieu that was taking shape around the Ise shrines. Honji suijaku
theory had been widely disseminated already by the mid-Heian period; from
the Insei (or late-Heian) period onwards, Buddhist thought was increas-
ingly concerned with questions related to Japan and its kami, and both
came to occupy a more prominent place in Buddhist doctrine. Buddhist
attention focused especially on the imperial ancestress Amaterasu. Already,
before this time, Amaterasu had in honji suijaku texts been identified as an
emanation of Kannon (Skt. Avalokiteśvara) or Dainichi (Skt. Vairocana).
The Buddhist interest in Amaterasu naturally led monks to take an inter-
est also in this deity’s shrine at Ise. However, as mentioned in Chapter 1, it
was a long-established practice at Ise to taboo Buddhism, and honji suijaku
identifications proved insufficient to overcome this taboo. However, rather
than impede Buddhist theological speculation the tension between Ise and
Buddhism presented monks with a tantalising problem that demanded
doctrinal explanation, and it inspired a series of texts that are known
collectively as ‘Ryōbu Shinto texts’. Ryōbu refers to the twin mandalas of
Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, the Taizō and Kongōkai mandalas. The name
Ryōbu Shinto refers to theories that associated these two mandalas with the
two Ise shrines (the Inner and the Outer Shrine).
One of the first Ryōbu Shinto texts was Tenshōdaijin giki (‘Guidelines for
Rituals Focusing on Amaterasu’), also known as Hōshi kashō kuden (‘Oral
Traditions of Abbot Baozhi’), and is thought to date from the late Heian
period. In the early Kamakura period it was followed by Nakatomi harae
kunge (‘Reading and Explanation of the Nakatomi Purification Formula’)
and Mitsu no kashiwa denki (‘Record of the August Oak’). These texts all
originated at an estate of the Ise shrines called Sengūin, located to the
84
1111 south-west of Ise in Shima province. Sengūin, then, can be identified as

2 the cradle of Ryōbu Shinto. There are, moreover, indications suggesting
3 that this Sengūin was closely connected with mountain practitioners from
4 Ōmine, who in turn were under the control of the Tendai temple of Onjōji
5 at the eastern foot of Mount Hiei.39 This fact alone shows that early Ryōbu
6 Shinto cannot be identified exclusively with the Shingon school.
7 The prime purpose of these Ryōbu texts was to provide a doctrinal
8 explanation of Ise, its deities and its rituals in terms of Esoteric Buddhism.
9 One important element of any such explanation was to rationalise the
1011 taboo on Buddhism adhered to at Ise. Two legends were devised to achieve
1 this. One explained that when the territory of Japan originated, the
2 ‘Demon King of the Sixth Heaven of Desire’ (Dairokuten Maō) sensed that
13111 this land would become a fountainhead of Buddhism, and therefore tried
4 to destroy it. To save the day, the legend tells us, Amaterasu deluded the
5 Demon King by vowing that she would lay down a taboo against Buddhism.
6 Thus it was thanks to this taboo, the legend concludes, that Buddhism
7 flourishes in Japan.40
8 An alternative legend recounts that when Emperor Shōmu founded the
9 Tōdaiji temple in Nara, he sent the famous monk Gyōki (668–749) to Ise
20111 to ask Amaterasu for her endorsement of this large-scale Buddhist project.
1 It seems that worship of Gyōki played an important role in the formation
2 of Ryōbu Shinto; several early texts of Ryōbu and Ise Shinto were ascribed
3 to Gyōki, and Gyōki was also said to have drawn the first map of Japan
4 (known as Gyōki-zu) – a belief closely related to the notion of Japan as
5 ‘the original land of Dainichi’, mentioned above. In the legend of Gyōki’s
6 pilgrimage to Ise, we are told that Amaterasu appeared to Gyōki and
7 communicated an oracle to him, revealing her fundamentally Buddhist
8 character. The fact that both of these legends feature already in Nakatomi
9 harae kunge indicates that they originated at a very early stage, presumably
30111 to legitimise the approaches made by monks to the Ise shrines.
1 Important events that contributed to the formation of these legends were
2 a series of Ise pilgrimages by Tōdaiji monks, led by Chōgen (1121–1206).
3 These large-scale pilgrimages, the first of which took place in 1186, were
4 undertaken to pray for (and later offer thanks for) the completion of
5 the rebuilding of the Tōdaiji in Nara, which had been burnt to the ground
6 by Taira no Shigehira in 1180. The legend of Gyōki’s Ise pilgrimage, in
7 particular, is thought to have originated in connection with these events.
8 Chōgen’s pilgrimages set a precedent that was followed by many other
9 Buddhist parties, and the subsequent wave of Buddhist pilgrimages to Ise
40111 must have been an important factor in the development of Ryōbu thought.
1 The speculations and theories of Buddhist monks also triggered new
211 developments in the theology of Ise shrine priests. This influence is most
85
apparent in the writings of priests of the Outer Shrine of Ise, who were of
the Watarai lineage. The Outer Shrine of Ise (Gekū or Toyuke daijingū) and
its deity, Toyuke, had traditionally been treated as inferior to the Ise Inner
Shrine (Naikū or Kōtaijingū) and its deity Amaterasu. However, the Watarai
argued that their shrine was equal, or even superior to the Inner Shrine.
To press their point they even sued the Inner Shrine in 1295, after the Inner
Shrine’s head priest had protested against the Outer Shrine’s ‘novel’ use
of the character ‘imperial’ in its own title in an official document.41 On this
occasion the Outer Shrine used a group of ‘secret texts’ as evidence to prove
that Toyuke was an imperial ancestor and thus equal to Amaterasu. These
secret texts included the works that later came to be known as ‘the Five
Books of Shinto’ (Shintō gobusho).42 The theories included in these works
are known as ‘Ise Shinto’ or ‘Watarai Shinto’.
The texts of Ise Shinto deal mostly with the sacred origins of the Inner
and Outer Shrines of Ise and their auxiliary shrines and sub-shrines, and
contain detailed explanations of the buildings and rituals of these shrines
and their religious meanings. They belong to the genre of ‘foundation
legends’ (engi), documents that set out the origins of a shrine or temple,
and on the basis of those origins explain its significance as a sacred site.
The texts of Ise Shinto contain some ancient traditions peculiar to the Ise
shrines, but also draw heavily on Chinese theories of Yin and Yang and
the Five Phases of matter (wood, fire, earth, metal and water), for example
by identifying the Outer Shrine with the phase of water and the Inner
Shrine with fire. Since Chinese theory states that ‘water conquers fire’, this
implied that the Outer Shrine was superior to the Inner Shrine. Also, these
texts argued that the Outer Shrine deity Toyuke was identical to Ame no
Minakanushi, a deity mentioned in Kojiki and Nihon shoki (though in the
latter not in the main text) as the first deity of the cosmogony. By stressing
the seniority of Ame no Minakanushi over Amaterasu, once again the
Outer Shrine was argued to be superior to the Inner Shrine.
An important figure in the formation of Ise Shinto was Watarai Yukitada
(1236–1305). Yukitada played a leading role in the 1295 lawsuit over
the character ‘imperial’, and was of central importance in systematising
Ise speculations into a coherent set of doctrines. It has been argued that
Yukitada must have been closely involved in the compilation of the secret
texts (attributed to ancient Watarai ancestors) referred to on the occasion
of this lawsuit, including those texts that were later termed ‘the Five Books
of Shinto’. While it is unlikely that Yukitada was the author of all of these
texts, it is highly probable that he had a hand in the redaction of at least
some of them. Yukitada’s successors Watarai Tsuneyoshi (1263–1339) and
Ieyuki (1256–1356) built upon his work, and completed Ise Shinto as a
coherent doctrinal system by the end of the Kamakura period.
86
1111 Ryōbu Shinto played an essential role in the formation of Ise Shinto.
2 Many scholars have argued that Ise Shinto constituted a reaction against
3 honji suijaku thought, quoting from its secret texts (Yamato-hime no mikoto
4 seiki and others) the phrase: ‘One must hide one’s breath concerning
5 Buddhism’. However, this phrase must be understood as a reference to the
6 longstanding ritual taboo on Buddhism at Ise, and does not necessarily
7 imply an anti-Buddhist stance. It is true that Buddhist phrases and Buddhist
8 monks were tabooed in the context of kami ritual at Ise but, at the same
9 time, Buddhism played an important role in the communal affairs and
1011 private lives of Ise priests, as is shown for example by the considerable
1 numbers of Inner and Outer Shrine priests who took monastic vows after
2 their retirement from shrine service. The lineage-based and private
13111 involvement of Ise priests with local Buddhist temples provided a solid basis
4 for Buddhist speculation about the Ise shrines. Both Ryōbu and Ise Shinto
5 shared the ‘sacred space’ of Ise not only as their stage but also as their main
6 theological concern. Moreover, one of Ise Shinto’s central figures, Watarai
7 Tsuneyoshi, was in close contact with the monk Dōjun (?–1321) of the
8 Shingon Sanbōin school, via the retired emperor Go-Uda. There is much
9 to suggest that more than anything else, it was the exchange between these
20111 two figures that advanced the esoterisation of the Ise shrines.
1 The formulation of kami theories around Ise by Buddhist monks and Ise
2 priests entered a new stage during the last decades of the Kamakura period.
3 This was occasioned by new advances to the Ise shrines made by monks
4 of the Esoteric Buddhist, Zen and Ritsu (Skt. Vinaya) schools. Of partic-
5 ular importance was the school of Eison (1201–90), who was a leading
6 figure in both Shingon Esoteric Buddhism and the Ritsu school. Eison
7 made three pilgrimages to Ise, founded a temple (Kōshōji) on Inner Shrine
8 territory, and expanded his influence in Ise from there. Eison’s Saidaiji
9 lineage played an essential role in the further history of both Ryōbu and
30111 Ise Shinto as a centre of ritual initiations into their secrets.43 Other
1 Buddhist lineages that performed a similar function were the Sanbōin
2 lineage (a branch of the Shingon Ono lineage) and the An’yōji lineage
3 (a branch of the Rinzai Zen Shōichi lineage).44
4 As a result of the rapprochement between these various Buddhist lin-
5 eages and the Ise shrines, a large number of Ryōbu Shinto texts were com-
6 posed from the late Kamakura period onwards. Most of these texts, such as
7 Reikiki (‘Record of Subtle Qi’), Ryōgū gyōmon jinshaku (‘Profound
8 Commentary on the Architecture of the Two [Ise] Shrines’), and Ryōgū
9 honzei rishu makaen (‘The Original Vow of the Two Shrines Explained
40111 According to the Great Vehicle of the Rishukyō’), were attributed to the
1 Shingon patriarch Kūkai (774–835), who was claimed to have been
211 the founder of Ryōbu Shinto. Some of these texts even state that Kūkai and
87
Amaterasu emanated from the same ‘original source’ and were ultimately
identical.45 The most important (and voluminous) among these texts was
the Reikiki, which served as the basis for elaborate ritualised initiation ritu-
als and became the subject of a considerable number of theological com-
mentaries.
Towards the end of the Kamakura period, a number of digests were
compiled that provided an overview over the wide-ranging speculations
and theories around Ise and its deities. Watarai Ieyuki’s Ruiju jingi hongen
(‘Rubricated origins of the kami [of Ise]’) from 1320 is a work of encyclo-
pedic proportions, consisting almost entirely of quotations from texts of
Ise Shinto and Ryōbu Shinto as well as a great variety of Buddhist and
‘Chinese’ works. Around the same time, an unknown author compiled
Jindai hiketsu (‘Esoteric Secrets of the Age of the Gods’), which gives an
overview of Ryōbu theories. This work quotes widely from texts of Ise
Shinto, Ryōbu Shinto, and also Sannō Shinto – another tradition of
Buddhist kami theories, developed at the Tendai centre of Mount Hiei.
These digests suggest that Buddhist kami theories flowed freely across
sectarian dividing lines.46
During the Nanbokuchō period (1336–92), the Watarai priests of the
Outer Shrine were active supporters of the southern court, and they lost
their political influence with the downfall of that court. During this same
period, the production of theological texts at Ise stagnated, and there were
no significant new developments in Shinto thought at Ise during this time.
On the positive side, the ideas of Ise Shinto were spread widely also outside
Ise through the works of Kitabatake Chikafusa (1293–1354),47 a courtier
and general of the southern court who had learned about Ise theology from
Watarai Ieyuki. The decline of the Watarai coincided with increased activ-
ity among the Inner Shrine priests, whose lineage was called Arakida. The
Arakida composed hardly any new texts, but actively copied and preserved
the Ise and Ryōbu Shinto texts of earlier centuries. In stark contrast to the
Kamakura period, knowledge of Ise Shinto texts and theories during
the later medieval period was handed down primarily at the Inner, rather
than the Outer Shrine. Also, texts and documents of both Ise and Ryōbu
Shinto were disseminated throughout Japan through the teachings of
various Buddhist lineages.
Sannō Shinto and the ‘medieval Nihongi’

Parallel to the developments at Ise described in the previous section,
another body of kami thought known as Sannō Shinto formed around the
tutelary deity of Mount Hiei, Hie Sannō (‘the Mountain King of Hie’).48
Worship of the kami of Hie had been part of Tendai practice on Mount
88
1111 Hiei since Saichō (767–822) founded the first Tendai temple Enryakuji
2 there. During Saichō’s time there were two Hie shrines: Ni no Miya (‘the
3 Second Shrine’), where the mountain’s original territorial kami Ōyamakui
4 or Obie (‘Small Hie’) was worshipped, and Ōmiya (‘the Great Shrine’),
5 where the ‘invited’ kami Ōnamuchi or Ōbie (‘Great Hie’) was believed
6 to reside. Over time more deities were ‘invited’ to the mountain, and the
7 Hie shrine complex grew to a total of seven shrines, known as ‘the Seven
8 Shrines of the Mountain King’. Theories about the Buddhist ‘original
9 sources’ of the seven Hie shrines, formulated in the course of the mid-
1011 Heian to Insei periods, laid the foundation for the later development of
1 Sannō Shinto thought.
2 Today, the beginnings of Sannō Shinto are usually traced to the late
13111 Kamakura period. A central text from this period is Sanke yōryakki
4 (‘Abbreviated Record of the Essentials of the Mountain Lineage’).
5 Although attributed to the Tendai abbot Kenshin (1131–92), this text was
6 in fact compiled by a certain Gigen in the early fourteenth century.
7 Another text compiled around the same time is Enryakuji gokoku engi
8 (‘Origins of the Protection of the State by Enryakuji’), which recounts the
9 founding legends and later history of the Hie shrines and relates them to
20111 Tendai doctrine. This text takes the form of (often fictional) quotations
1 from earlier texts by the famous Tendai monks Saichō, Ennin (794–864),
2 Enchin (814–91), Annen (born 841) and Sōō (831–918), and the court
3 historian Ōe no Masafusa (1041–1111). On Mount Hiei, kami theories
4 were regarded as the domain of a dedicated group of monks known as
5 the kike (‘chroniclers’). While other groups specialised in exoteric teach-
6 ings and practices, esoteric teachings and practices, or the precepts, these
7 monks were in charge of ‘documents’ of various kinds, including those
8 relating to Sannō. Gigen belonged to this group; and so did Kōshū
9 (1276–1350), whose encyclopedic work Keiran shūyōshū (‘A Collection of
30111 Leaves Gathered in Stormy Streams’, 1318–48) gives us some insight into
1 the breadth of kike knowledge.49 Not all of this work has been preserved,
2 but several versions of the section on kami (shinmeibu) have come down
3 to us. It includes not only Sannō but also Ryōbu material, and is of a
4 bafflingly expansive nature. The Hiei monks clearly drew on the kami
5 theories developed earlier around Ise, and Sannō and Ise/Ryōbu Shinto
6 had much in common; but naturally, the monks of Hiei regarded Hie
7 Sannō as the supreme deity, and wove their theological web around this
8 composite divinity to link it in with Tendai doctrine.
9 While Buddhist Shinto developed most fully at Ise and Hiei, parallel
40111 developments on a smaller scale took place also at other cultic centres.
1 One of these was the Kasuga shrine, the clan shrine of the Fujiwara, which
211 formed a ‘shrine–temple complex’ together with the nearby Fujiwara clan
89
temple of Kōfukuji. Here kami doctrines appeared from the late Insei
period onwards, when the Fujiwara had already lost most of their political
powers to the rising warrior class. A central idea in Kasuga texts was that
in the Age of the Gods, Amaterasu had made a covenant appointing the
descendants of Ame no Koyane (the Fujiwara clan ancestor) as ‘assisting
ministers’ of her own descendants, the imperial lineage.50 Also, Kasuga
texts maintained that while Ise and Hachiman (as the shrine of Emperor
‘jin) were the two most prominent imperial ‘mausolea’ (sōbyō), the Kasuga
shrine was the first among the ‘shrines of provincial magistrates’ (shashoku).
This is a reference to the Chinese system of mausolea (in Chinese zong-
miao), where ruling houses worshipped their ancestors, and provincial
shrines (sheji), where the gods of the land and the five grains were revered.
Building on this Chinese parallel, Kasuga/Kōfukuji monks argued that the
three shrines of Ise, Hachiman and Kasuga were the highest of all of Japan’s
sacred places. At the basis of this ‘trinity’ lay an obvious political analogy
to the emperor (Ise), the military shogunate (Hachiman), and the Fujiwara
court aristocracy (Kasuga) as the three pillars of the state. Sets of these
three deities, each with an appropriate oracle, were depicted on scrolls
(sanja takusen, ‘oracles of the three shrines’) and became popular objects
of worship during the later medieval period.51
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Ryōbu Shinto lost its
exclusive focus on Ise and began to spread also to other cultic centres,
where local Ryōbu-type Shinto traditions were formed. One reason for this
was that Ise was ravaged by war during the Nanbokuchō period, causing the
production of theological texts to stagnate; another was that the Shingon
sect lost much of its influence in the area as a result of these troubles.
Two centres where such localised Ryōbu traditions emerged at an early
stage, were Mount Miwa and Mount Murō, both in the vicinity of Nara.
The formulation of kami theories at Miwa can be traced back to the activi-
ties of the monk Kyōen (1140–1223) of Byōdōji, during the mid- or late
Kamakura period.52 According to its own founding legend, Miwa Shinto
originated when the kami of Miwa appeared to Kyōen and revealed the
secrets of an esoteric initiation (kanjō) to him and, in exchange, received
a similar initiation from Kyōen. However, Miwa Shinto developed into a
more well-defined body of kami theory only with the appearance in Miwa
of monks of the above-mentioned Saidaiji lineage founded by Eison, who
rebuilt the old shrine temple of Miwa, the Daigorinji. This lineage also
played a prominent role in the formation of Ise-based Ryōbu Shinto, and
it is natural to assume that their arrival in Miwa was an important
factor in the systematisation and further development of Miwa Shinto,
too. This assumption is confirmed by the frequent borrowings of earlier
Ise ideas in Miwa texts.
90
1111 A text from the earliest stage of Miwa Shinto is Miwa daimyōjin engi
2 (‘Origins of the Great Deity of Miwa’) from 1318. This text stresses that
3 the kami of Miwa and Amaterasu are two spirits of the same godhead,
4 emanating from the Womb and Diamond Realm mandalas (which depict
5 different aspects of the World Buddha Dainichi or Vairocana), respectively.
6 Clearly, Miwa Shinto constituted an attempt to apply central notions from
7 Ise Ryōbu Shinto to Miwa. Miwa Shinto later spread far beyond Miwa
8 itself, and flourished throughout the medieval period as, perhaps, the most
9 ubiquitous of all Ryōbu Shinto lineages.
1011 The Shinto thought of Murō, an isolated site in the mountains between
1 Miwa and Ise, was in later ages referred to as Goryū Shinto. An apocryphal
2 ‘testament’ (Goyuigō) of the Shingon patriarch Kūkai, which is currently
13111 dated to the mid-Heian period, stated that Kūkai had buried a Wish-
4 Fulfilling Gem (J. nyoi hōju, Skt. cintāman.i), given to him in China by his
5 master Huiguo (746–805), on the ‘Peak of Assiduous Practice’ at Murō.
6 This legend served to explain the prominence of the remote mountain
7 temple of Murōji as a centre of Shingon rituals focusing on this magical
8 gem. Ritual practices around the Wish-Fulfilling Gem became prominent
9 first during the Insei period, and flourished in many shapes and forms
20111 during the rest of the medieval period. This gem was linked theologically
1 with the jewel that formed part of the imperial regalia, and via this route,
2 also with Amaterasu. These associations formed the foundations on which
3 Goryū Shinto was construed.53 The designation Goryū (‘August Lineage’)
4 was based on the lineage’s legendary origin in an initiation received by
5 Kūkai from Emperor Saga (r. 809–23). Other Ryōbu Shinto lineages, of
6 which we know little more than the fact that they existed, are generally
7 regarded as branches of Goryū Shinto. Examples are the Kanpaku, Suwa,
8 Susanowo and Ise lineages (of which the last is to be distinguished from
9 Ise or Watarai Shinto).
30111 The secret theories and rituals of these Ryōbu lineages were handed
1 down in the manner of Esoteric Buddhist lineages, through oral initia-
2 tions from master to disciple. Although oral, these initiations were often
3 accompanied by written slips of paper (kirikami) containing the essentials
4 of the transmitted ritual, its uses, its origin and its line of transmission.
5 Especially within the Goryū lineages, collections of kirikami were compiled
6 towards the end of the medieval period (Hachijuttsū injin, Tateyoko injinshū).
7 Some of the kirikami (also known as injin) included in these collections
8 may date back as far as the late Kamakura period, and they provide
9 precious information about the transmission of Buddhist kami practices.
40111 These ritual initiations (J. kanjō, Skt. abhis.eka) were often elaborate
1 affairs, and receiving them was regarded as an important event in a monk’s
211 career. Kanjō initiations relating to kami included the Ame no iwato kanjō
91
(‘Cave of Heaven Initiation’), the Sanshu no jinki kanjō (‘Three Regalia

Initiation’), the Waka kanjō (‘Waka Poetry Initiation’), the Ise kanjō
(‘Ise Initiation’), and many others; collectively, these are known as ‘Shinto
initiations’.
As indicated already by the inclusion of waka in the topic list of Shinto
initiations, the influence of Ryōbu Shinto theory also extended into the
field of literature. Within medieval literature and scholarship, the writing
and transmitting of commentaries on older texts occupied a central posi-
tion. As different lineages of hereditary scholars emerged, each specialising
in their own genre or even in a single text, the commentaries handed
down in each lineage could easily take on more significance than the orig-
inal texts they were supposed to explain. This trend was further reinforced
by the fact that these original texts were often open-ended, so that sections
of commentary could, over time, become part of the original text. The
tradition of writing commentaries extended also to texts of the kami
tradition, such as Nihon shoki, Reikiki, Nakatomi harae (the Nakatomi purifi-
cation formula, a slightly abbreviated form of the ōharae no kotoba or
‘formula of great purification’) and Kuji hongi. In addition, theories relating
to the kami can be found in many medieval commentaries on works of
classical literature, Buddhist scriptures and Chinese philosophical texts.54
Theories from Ryōbu and Sannō Shinto lineages gradually filtered
into medieval literary genres such as poetry and poetics, collections of
tales (setsuwa), military chronicles, and Noh. For example, the above-
mentioned anecdote about Amaterasu and the Demon King of the Desire
features in the military chronicle Taiheiki, the Noh piece Dairokuten, a
dance piece entitled Nihongi, a popular didactic tale (otogizōshi) entitled
Shintō yurai no koto, and others. This indicates that these theories were not
exclusively the domain of secret transmissions and initiations at temples
and shrines. Through readings and performances, and via commentaries,
these theories reached a broad audience and offered a wealth of material
for new literary activity.
Medieval Shinto thought not only influenced medieval literature but
was also influenced by it. Legends and theological speculations about the
kami span the bulk of medieval writing, from theological Shinto texts
to collections of tales, military chronicles and otogizōshi. In contrast to
Buddhist thought, kami theories lacked a solid doctrinal base; perhaps
it was this very lack of solidity that allowed them to penetrate into all
genres of Japanese writing in this way. It is well known that medieval
Shinto was heavily influenced by Buddhist and Chinese thought but,
during the later medieval period, the influence of medieval literature
was at least as important as a source of inspiration for new kami legends
and theories.
92
1111 Of particular importance here was the relationship between kami

2 thought and Japanese poetical theory. Most of the newly formulated
3 legends and theories that are now collectively known as the ‘medieval
4 Nihongi’ appeared first in commentaries on the Kokin wakashū (c.905),
5 Japan’s first imperial anthology of poetry. The references to kami in mili-
6 tary chronicles and Noh drew not on theological Shinto texts, but rather
7 on these Kokin wakashū commentaries.55 Thus, medieval poetry commen-
8 taries were perhaps the main driving force behind the rapid development
9 and expansion of kami thought during this period.
1011
1
Kamakura Buddhism and the kami
2
13111 Throughout the medieval period, the relationship between kami and
4 Buddhist divinities was conceived of as one between ‘emanations’ (suijaku)
5 and their ‘original sources’ (honji). This view was held not only by reli-
6 gious professionals, but was shared also by other layers of the population.
7 Therefore, the notion of honji suijaku was an important topic also for the
8 Buddhist innovators of the Kamakura period. Among these, some simply
9 adopted this notion without protest – as examples, we might mention Jōkei
20111 (a Hossō monk, 1155–1213) and Myōe (a Kegon monk, 1173–1232), who
1 are both regarded as renewers within ‘Old Buddhism’.56 Others, as we noted
2 above, not only adopted traditional honji suijaku thought but were also
3 active in formulating new kami theories on the basis of this thought; Eison
4 and the monks of the Rinzai Zen school come to mind as prominent exam-
5 ples. These attitudes contrast with those of the Pure Land schools, such
6 as the followers of Hōnen (1133–1212) and Shinran (1173–1262), the
7 Lotus school of Nichiren (1222–82), and the Sōtō Zen school of Dōgen
8 (1200–53). These Buddhist thinkers were caught in a dilemma: on the
9 one hand, they could not fully accept the honji suijaku view of kami and
30111 buddhas without weakening the strength of their arguments against
1 existing Buddhism, while on the other hand, they could not completely
2 abandon this view without alienating large sections of the population.
3 Hōnen rejected all religious practices except the chanting of Amida’s
4 name (nenbutsu). It follows logically from this stance that he also rejected
5 faith in the kami. Although there is no evidence that Hōnen himself
6 actively argued against kami worship, moves against such worship were,
7 from time to time, initiated by his followers, and the Pure Land school’s
8 ‘neglect of the kami’ was a recurrent theme in attacks on this school by
9 schools of ‘Old Buddhism’. The same applies to Hōnen’s disciple, Shinran.
40111 Shinran, too, took the standpoint that his followers should not worship
1 the kami; but, on the other hand, he also recognised the existence of deities
211 who protected the nenbutsu practitioner, and reprimanded those among
93
his followers who openly repudiated the kami. This was, at least partly,
for fear of offending not only the power blocs of established Buddhism,
but also the local warriors and peasants who formed his main recruiting
ground.
While Hōnen and Shinran themselves eschewed kami-related practices,
their successors tended to include honji suijaku theories in their teachings
as an important tool for the propagation of Pure Land Buddhism. The Jishū
school, which had its roots in a branch of Hōnen’s Pure Land school, is a
striking example of this. The founder of this school, Ippen (1239–89),
claimed that he had received an oracle from the kami of Kumano (who
was widely believed to be an emanation of Amida), and travelled from
temple to temple, shrine to shrine to spread his message of salvation.
Within the True Pure Land school, Shinran’s great-grandson Zonkaku
(1290–1373) wrote a work in which he explained which kami are eman-
ations of Amida and can be of use in attaining rebirth in the Pure Land
(Shoshin honkaishū, late Kamakura period).57 A distinctive feature of this
text is the clear distinction it makes between kami who are Buddhist
emanations on the one hand, and ‘real’, i.e. non-Buddhist kami on the
other. By means of this distinction, Zonkaku tried to reconcile kami
worship with his school’s rejection of all practices other than the nenbutsu.
Dōgen, too, rejected the principle of honji suijaku, but soon after his
death the Sōtō school took a more open approach. Keizan Jōkin (1264–
1325) in particular, who as the founder of Sōjiji (the head temple of the
largest Sōtō lineage) was later recognised as the second patriarch of Sōtō
Zen, invited both local kami and deities with roots in Chinese Yin-Yang
thought to Sōtō temples as protector deities. Doctrinal explanations of the
role of these protector deities naturally drew on honji suijaku theory.
Nichiren, on the other hand, actively sought to include the kami in his
theology of devotion to the Lotus sutra. He revered Amaterasu and
Hachiman as protector deities of the Lotus sutra’s ‘True Law’, and recom-
mended the kami of Hie and a host of other minor kami to his followers
as benevolent deities who protect the Lotus practitioner. Nichiren argued
that these deities had abandoned Japan because of the decline of the True
Law, and prophesied that they would return to protect the land once the
True Law had been restored. After Nichiren’s death, a faith in thirteen
deities taking turns to protect the Lotus sutra spread among his followers.
Much later, towards the end of the Muromachi period, a special form of
so-called ‘Lotus Shinto’ (Hokke Shinto) developed among Nichiren
followers.58 This Buddhist form of Shinto was heavily influenced by
Yoshida Shinto (see Chapter 3).
Looking back on these developments, we find that all schools of
Kamakura Buddhism adopted the notion of honji suijaku in some form
94
1111 or other. Also, it appears that the accommodation of kami within each
2 school’s original teachings was one way of reaching a wider audience,
3 especially among lower layers of the population.
4
5
Shugendo
6
7 Mountain worship existed in Japan already before the arrival of Buddhism.
8 The mountains were regarded as a sacred area and were, in general, off-
9 limits to all but those with special religious powers. With Buddhism arrived
1011 the practice of performing religious austerities in the mountains. In the
1 Nara period especially, esoteric rites from the continent contributed to a
2 rapid increase in the number of mountain practitioners. Initially, the court
13111 repressed such practitioners as ‘privately (i.e. illegally) ordained monks’
4 (shidosō), but its attitude changed with the establishment of the Esoteric
5 Buddhist schools of Shingon and Tendai in the early ninth century. These
6 schools used mountain areas such as Kōyasan and Hiei as centres for
7 religious training. Increasingly, mountain practitioners found employment
8 at the court as ritual specialists, and a growing number of them enjoyed
9 court protection.
20111 In this way, mountain worship was amalgamated with Esoteric Buddhism
1 from an early date. It soon grew apart from village kami worship and
2 developed into a distinct religious system of its own, known as shugendō
3 (hereafter Shugendo). Important names in its formative period were En
4 no Ozunu, Taichō (682–767), Mangan and Shōdō. These founding figures
5 soon became the subjects of an ever-expanding web of legends and miracle
6 tales, leaving it well-nigh impossible to separate fact from myth and assess
7 their historical roles in the early stages of Shugendo’s development. What
8 is certain, is that mountain practitioners such as these opened up moun-
9 tains throughout the country as sites of religious training. Legend names
30111 En no Ozunu as the patriarch of the Shugendo tradition of Mount
1 Katsuragi, Taichō as the patriarch of Mount Hakusan, Mangan of Mount
2 Hakone, and Shōdō of Nikkō. All these centres produced large numbers
3 of mountain practitioners throughout the classical and medieval periods.59
4 After the mid-Heian period, increasing numbers of monks and nuns took
5 to an itinerant life style away from the larger temples. In their quest for
6 rebirth in a Pure Land, many of these monks and nuns spent long periods
7 of time as hermits in remote mountain regions. To them the large temples
8 appeared as a part of secular society, which had to be abandoned in order
9 to gain true salvation. These itinerant monks and nuns were called hijiri,
40111 and the sites where hijiri formed groups and conducted a communal life
1 became known as bessho, ‘places separate [from the temple]’. The moun-
211 tain practitioner and the hijiri resemble each other in that both can be
95
described as half monk and half layman. Together with Shugendo practi-
tioners (known as yamabushi or shugenja), the hijiri played an important
role in the evolvement of religious centres in the mountains.60
During the same period, the large temples lost the security of their clas-
sical state-sponsored existence with the decline of the ritsuryō system. To
survive economically, temples began to advertise the magical powers of
their main divinities in order to attract lay pilgrims. At the same time, rites
for the personal salvation of believers increased in popularity. Combined,
these two trends resulted in the development of pilgrimages to sacred
sites. From the late Heian period onwards pilgrimages became an import-
ant religious practice among the court aristocracy. During the Insei
period retired emperors made regular, large-scale pilgrimages to Kumano.
The retired emperors Uda (970) and Hanayama (late tenth century)
pioneered this practice in the late tenth century, but it became institution-
alised from Shirakawa’s pilgrimage in 1090 onwards; Shirakawa made nine
Kumano pilgrimages, Toba twenty-one, Go-Shirakawa thirty-three, and
Go-Toba twenty-eight. The pilgrimage route around the ‘thirty-three
Kannon temples of Western Japan’ developed around the same time. Even
Ise, where all private worship was forbidden by law, set its first steps on the
road to becoming a pilgrimage destination during this same period.
From the Kamakura period onwards, the practice of making pilgrim-
ages gradually spread from the court aristocracy to other layers of the
population. Lower-ranking shrine priests and yamabushi known as ‘masters’
(oshi or onshi) acted as professional middlemen between pilgrims and sacred
sites, organising pilgrimage groups and serving as pilgrims’ guides. These
middlemen travelled widely throughout the country, advertising the legends
and miracle tales of their sacred site to attract custom.61 To illustrate their
preaching, illustrated scrolls and so-called ‘pilgrimage mandalas’ (sankei
mandara) depicting pilgrimage sites were produced in great numbers.
Most active among those who preached faith in the powers of sacred
mountain sites such as Kumano were the mountain practitioners or
yamabushi themselves. In addition to their role as itinerant preachers,
yamabushi also acted as specialists in all kinds of magical rituals, often
of an exorcist nature. During the later medieval period they also gained a
reputation for their military and ninja skills. In southern Kyushu, for
example, ruling Shimazu daimyō employed warriors with a yamabushi
background to lead their armies.62
In the course of the medieval period, Shugendo gradually came under
the control of large temples of Esoteric Buddhism. By the onset of the Edo
period (1600–1868) nearly all Shugendo centres were under the control
of one of two lineages: the Honzan-ha governed by the Tendai temple
Shōgoin, and the Tōzan-ha, initially under the Kōfukuji in Nara but later
96
1111 under the Shingon temple Daigoji Sanbōin. In addition to these, a

2 yamabushi from Mount Hiko in Kyushu with the name of Akyū-bō Sokuden
3 (dates unknown) systematised the teachings and practices connected with
4 this mountain, and succeeded in developing its Shugendo traditions into
5 an autonomous religious organisation.
6
7
The ‘Way of Yin and Yang’
8
9 Next to Buddhism, theories on Yin and Yang and the Five Phases of matter
1011 were perhaps the intellectual import from the continent that had the most
1 profound influence on Japanese intellectual and religious life. Greatly
2 simplified, these theories explained that all matter can take on Yin (‘dark’)
13111 or Yang (‘bright’) qualities, and that these two qualities should ideally
4 maintain an intricate balance. Moreover, all matter was thought to move
5 through a regular cycle of ‘phases’ over time, taking on, in turn, the prop-
6 erties of each of the five basic elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
7 These two theories combined to produce a sophisticated body of cosmo-
8 logical thought, and lay at the basis of an understanding of the cosmos and
9 its workings that was shared throughout the Chinese cultural sphere.
20111 In Japan, these theories gave rise to an indigenous ‘Way of Yin and Yang’
1 (onmyōdō). This ‘Way’ had its origin in the classical ritsuryō bureaucracy,
2 in the so-called ‘Bureau of Yin and Yang’ (Onmyōryō) that specialised in
3 the three fields of astronomy, the calendar and Yin and Yang. The ‘Yin
4 and Yang’ division of this ministry was charged with different forms of
5 divination adopted from Sui and Tang China, all based on Yin and Yang
6 and the Five Phases. One method, known as chokusen, involved the turning
7 (in a roulette-like manner) of plates engraved with calendrical signs;
8 another, called ekizei, the casting of sticks representing the eight trigrams
9 from the Book of Changes (Yijing). However, as described in detail in
30111 Chapter 1, Japan also had a Ministry of Kami Affairs (Jingikan) whose func-
1 tions overlapped with those of the Bureau of Yin and Yang. The Ministry
2 of Kami Affairs used an earlier form of Chinese divination known as kiboku,
3 which entailed the interpreting of cracks that appeared in tortoise shells
4 when heated over a fire. It appears that at first, the ‘Yin and Yang’ divi-
5 sion of the Bureau of Yin and Yang performed a subordinate, supplementary
6 role under the Ministry of Kami Affairs. Over time, however, this division
7 developed its own rituals under the influence of Esoteric Buddhism, and
8 formulated an extensive body of rules of conduct based on chokusen divina-
9 tion. These rituals and rules laid the foundation for the Japanese Way
40111 of Yin and Yang. We can perhaps describe this ‘Way’ as a religious tradi-
1 tion developed in the religious environment of classical Japan from the
211 bureaucratic tasks of this ‘Yin and Yang’ division.
97
The Way of Yin and Yang influenced kami ritual in many complicated
ways from an early date. In fact, theories of Yin and Yang and the Five
Phases had found their way into kami thought and ritual already before
the institution of the Bureau of Yin and Yang. As the Way of Yin and Yang
took shape as a religious tradition, it naturally overlapped with kami ritual
in many aspects. This was perhaps most marked in the field of ritual purifi-
cation. During the late Nara and early Heian periods, the Ministry of Kami
Affairs carried out a number of public purification rituals, most notably
‘Great Purification’ (ōharae) in the sixth and twelfth months, and the
‘Banquet on the Roads’ (michiae) performed at the entrances to the palace,
the capital, or even the whole of the Home Provinces to avert epidemics.
However, these rituals were discontinued and replaced by similar rituals
performed by the Bureau of Yin and Yang in the course of the mid-Heian
period. As performance of the ceremony of Great Purification ceased, the
‘formula of great purification’ (ōharae no kotoba) recited on these occasions
was adopted (under the new name of ‘formula of the Nakatomi’, Nakatomi
harae) by ‘Yin and Yang’ specialists, who recited it as part of private purifi-
cation rituals to treat illness or to guarantee the safe delivery of a child.
The emergence of such ‘Yin and Yang’ rituals brought about great changes
in existing kami ritual, and many elements of modern Shinto ritual can
be traced to their influence.
Service at the Bureau of Yin and Yang required specialist knowledge and
was, at least initially, beyond the ken of the average official. During the
early years of the ministry’s existence, it employed mainly foreign immi-
grants and monks who had returned to lay status. The early Heian period
saw the appearance of specialised officials and, as with most functions
within the ritsuryō bureaucracy, positions within the ministry were grad-
ually monopolised by a small number of clan lineages. In the second half
of the tenth century, Kamo no Yasunori (917–77) and Abe no Seimei
(921–1005) gained prominence over all other lineages at the ministry.
From the late tenth century onwards, the Kamo and Abe clans gained
exclusive control over all official ‘Yin and Yang’ matters. Some of those
who lost their longstanding positions within the ministry to the Kamo
and the Abe established themselves as private ‘masters of Yin and Yang’
(onmyōji), and ‘Yin and Yang’ rituals spread to itinerant monks who
performed rituals of divination and exorcism for aristocrats, warriors and
peasants alike. This ‘Yin and Yang’ practice amalgamated with other, over-
lapping, traditions of Chinese origin in Japan. In the Nara period the court
employed Taoist exorcists, many of immigrant stock, known as jugon;63 and
from the Heian period onwards, an astrological tradition known as the
‘Way of the Planets and Stellar Mansions’ (sukuyōdō) developed within
Esoteric Buddhism.64 These various traditions continued to exist side by
98
1111 side throughout the classical and medieval periods, and gave rise to an
2 extremely complicated body of divinatory and exorcist theories and prac-
3 tices which extended its influence to all layers of the population.
4 Behind the expansion of the ‘Yin and Yang’ thought and ritual lay an
5 ever growing system of rules of conduct for the avoidance or removal of
6 impurity (kegare), which governed every detail of life at the Heian court.
7 On the level of the state, this preoccupation with impurity was given
8 expression through, among others, the annual exorcist rituals at the four
9 entrances to the capital, and through annual purification rituals at seven
1011 river rapids around Kyoto (nanase harae). These rituals were intended to
1 forge multiple rings of supernatural protection around the person of the
2 emperor, his palace, the capital and the Home Provinces. The notion that
13111 the emperor and his court were a focus of purity which was gradually
4 diluted into the periphery, be it social or geographical, gave rise to persist-
5 ent discrimination against peripheral social groups, areas and foreign
6 lands.65
7 ‘Yin and Yang’ thought governed everyday life at court both spatially
8 and temporally. The practice of ‘changing direction’ (katatagae), for
9 example, was based on the belief that malevolent deities (e.g. Daishōgun,
20111 Konjin) resented movement into specified directions at specified times.
1 Complicated rules were followed to avoid the wrath of these deities, and
2 there were strict taboos on movement or building work in offensive
3 directions at offensive times.66 Also, it was believed that fate had laid down
4 a number of ‘days of misfortune’ (suijitsu) for every individual. ‘Masters of
5 Yin and Yang’ handed down techniques for calculating such days and
6 averting their dangers.
7 During the medieval period, the various continental techniques of
8 divination and exorcism that had reached Japan in waves ever since the
9 ancient period, amalgamated in complicated patterns. During the classical
30111 period, such techniques were, first and foremost, operated by the court, but
1 during the medieval period they spread to the population at large, where
2 they intermingled with folk custom to produce a tapestry of local practices
3 that included all layers of society.
4 An example of such a practice is the use of purificatory figurines (hito-
5 gatashiro). Many such figurines, roughly carved from wooden planks
6 and sometimes decorated with coarsely drawn faces in ink, have been
7 excavated from the area of the old capital of Heijōkyō in Nara. It is thought
8 that aristocrats and officials transferred their impurity onto these figurines
9 at rituals of great purification, by stroking them over their bodies and
40111 then discarding them on a river bank. Later, these figurines came to be
1 used in so-called karin-barae (‘riverside purifications’), large-scale rituals
211 of exorcism which involved both masters of Yin and Yang and Esoteric
99
Ema (‘pictured horses’)

Ema are paintings of horses on wood, offered to shrines or temples.
Their origin can be traced back to the ancient custom of offering
living horses to the kami. The practice of sacrificing oxen and horses
and offering them to the gods originated on the continent, and refer-
ences to it can be found already in the first-century History of the
Early Han (Hanshu). In Japan, such sacrifices are mentioned in
the Nihon shoki (in the chapter on Empress Kōgyoku). It is a matter
of controversy when such rituals were introduced to Japan, but we
know that in times of drought oxen and horses were sacrificed and
offered to the ‘kami of Han’ (kanjin), and that such sacrifices were
common in villages during the Nara period.
Such rituals seem to have ceased when Emperor Shōmu prohib-
ited the taking of animal lives as part of his Buddhist policies in the
mid-eighth century. Instead, wooden images or paintings of horses
and oxen came into use. Although paintings of horses seem to have
become part of kami ritual already at this early stage, the term
ema itself does not appear before the eleventh century. At this
time, the custom of offering such paintings to shrines had already
become well established. The medieval period saw the appearance
of ema depicting not only horses but also kami or buddhas, various
animals, ships, and scenes from local life. Also, large ema were
produced to demonstrate the economical resources of their donor.
Today, ema are on the way to becoming objects of folklore, but
they have yet preserved some of their religious function in modern
shrine life.
Buddhist monks. Today, we find the same custom in rites of folk religion
throughout Japan, often under the name nagashi-hina (‘dolls set adrift’).
Another ritual element of Chinese origin that soon gained prominence
in kami ritual is the use of amulets and exorcist tablets (jufu). Such tablets,
which have their roots in Chinese Taoist and folk practice, were intro-
duced to Japan as early as the Nara period, and later spread through
Shugendo and Yoshida Shinto (see Chapter 3).67 Magical spells and
inscriptions from the continent formed a central part of the practice of
yamabushi and kami priests alike.
100
1111
2 Omikuji (‘lots’)
3
4 Today, lots are drawn for a large variety of reasons on all sorts of
5 occasions but, originally, the drawing of lots was a religious method
6 to determine the will of the gods. Lots were used to consult the
7 kami in distinguishing the auspicious from the inauspicious, the
8 high from the low, victory from defeat. Early methods included the
9 drawing of marked strips of paper, wood or bamboo, or the waving
1011 of a sacred stick (gohei) over a pile of scraps of paper until one
1 piece stuck to the stick. During the medieval period the drawing of
2 lots was exclusively a religious rite, but during the Edo period
13111 (1600–1867) secular lotteries of various kinds became common. The
4 present omikuji, which can be drawn by various methods at shrines
5 and temples throughout the country and make predictions and give
6 advice on one’s personal future, developed from the late Edo period
7 onwards.
8
9
20111
1 In modern Japan divination, both at Shinto shrines and elsewhere,
2 often draws on the Book of Changes, but this is a relatively recent phe-
3 nomenon. Other methods were preferred, partly because of their greater
4 simplicity, and partly because there was a belief that misfortune would
5 befall those who studied the Book of Changes before the age of sixty.68
6 However, during the Muromachi period (1338–1573) Zen monks, in
7 particular, increased knowledge of the Book of Changes in Japan. As
8 the country descended into war, this text became important as a basis for
9 military theory (heihō), and many daimyō employed specialists in its use as
30111 military advisers. Many such specialists were educated at the Ashikaga
1 academy, which flourished from the mid-fifteenth century onwards. This
2 laid the foundation for the spread of knowledge of the Book of Changes
3 in the Edo period and beyond.
4 Via these various routes, continental techniques of divination and exor-
5 cism penetrated deeply into the religious life of Japan. Practices derived
6 from such techniques played an important role in medieval kami ritual,
7 and continue to occupy a central position within shrine life to this day.
8
9
40111
1
211
101
Notes
1 See Kuroda Toshio, ‘Shinto in the history of Japanese religion’, JJS 7–1.
2 See Nijūnisha Kenkyūkai, ed., Heian jidai no jinja to saishi (Kokusho Kankōkai
1986), Okada Shōji, Heian jidai no kokka to saishi (Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai
1994), and Allan Grapard, ‘Institution, ritual, and ideology: the twenty-two
shrine-temple multiplexes of Heian Japan’, History of Religions 23–3.
3 Studies of shrines by early modern Shinto scholars (beginning with the
Yoshida in the late medieval period) all prioritise the twenty-two shrines.
A well-known example is Honchō jinjakō (‘A study of shrines in our land’,
c.1640) by Hayashi Razan (1583–1657).
4 On the emergence of the system of sōsha and ichi no miya, see Itō Kunihiko,
‘Shokoku ichi no miya, sōsha no seiritsu’, Nihon rekishi 355, and ‘Shokoku ichi
no miya-sei no tenkai’, Rekishigaku kenkyū 500.
5 See Kawane Yoshiyasu, ‘Ōdo shisō to shinbutsu shūgō’ in his Chūsei hōken
shakai no shuto to nōson (Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai 1984).
6 Nitta Ichirō, ‘Kyogen wo ōseraruru kami’, Rettō no bunkashi 6.
7 A typical example is the Chiba clan’s cult of Myōken (the bodhisattva
Sudr.s.t.i). Myōken cults spread throughout Japan from the Kamakura period as
branches of this clan settled in different parts of the country. See Itō Kazuo,
Myōken shinkō to Chiba-shi (Ron Shobō 1980).
8 See Nuki Tatsuto, Tsurugaoka Hachimangūji (Yūrindō 1996).
9 Higo Kazuo, Miyaza no kenkyū (Kōbundō 1941); Toyoda Takeshi chosakushū
(8 vols, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1983), vol. 1; and Hagiwara Tatsuo, Chūsei saishi
soshiki no kenkyū (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1975).
10 See Kozo Yamamura, ed., The Cambridge history of Japan vol. 3, medieval Japan
(Cambridge University Press 1990), chapter 7. In the glossary, this work
defines sōson (also sōmura or simply sō) as ‘self-governing organizations that
existed in rural Japan from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries.
Each sō took responsibility for its own irrigation, communal lands, law and
order, and, in some cases, defence. Decisions were reached and carried out at
group meetings (yoriai) made up of a headman and a small group of elders
selected from among the leading landholders (myōshu).’
11 Shinbutsu shūgō was introduced to the academic world as a topic for research
by Tsuji Zennosuke in 1907 (‘Honji suijaku setsu no kigen ni tsuite’, Nihon
bukkyōshi kenkyū I, Iwanami Shoten). This article was epoch-making to the
extent that later research may be characterised as criticism of, or elaboration
on, Tsuji’s arguments. On the history of research into this topic, see Yamaori
Tetsuo, Kami to okina no minzokugaku (Kōdansha Gakujutsu Bunko 1991),
especially chapter ‘Kodai ni okeru kami to hotoke’; Hayashi Jun, ‘Shinbutsu
shūgō kenkyūshi nōto’, Shintō shūkyō 117; Sone Masato, ‘Kenkyūshi no kaiko
to tenbō’, Bunka 59–1/2; and Itō Satoshi, ‘Shinbutsu shūgō no kenkyūshi’,
Kokubungaku kaishaku to kanshō 63–3. In English, see Mark Teeuwen and Fabio
Rambelli, Buddhas and Kami in Japan (RoutledgeCurzon 2003).
12 This has been argued recently by, among others, Hakamaya Noriaki, Hongaku
shisō hihan (Taizō Shuppan 1989) and Hihan Bukkyō (Taizō Shuppan 1990). For
a discussion, see Jacqueline I. Stone, Original Enlightenment and the trans-
formation of medieval Japanese Buddhism (University of Hawai’i Press 1999),
chapter 2.
102
1111 13 A central Mahāyāna doctrine explains that the Buddha, while able to take on
2 physical form, is actually an eternal existence of pure enlightenment, which
3 exists outside time. This form of the Buddha is called his ‘dharma body’. When
taking on physical form, the Buddha can choose to take on his ‘enjoyment
4
body’, the body in which he has attained enlightenment, or a variety of ‘trans-
5 formation bodies’, temporary manifestations conjured up by the Buddha to
6 help others attain enlightenment. See e.g. Paul Williams, Mahāyāna Buddhism,
7 the doctrinal foundations (Routledge 1989), chapter 8.
8 14 Ienaga Saburō, ‘Asuka Nara jidai no shinbutsu kankei’, Jōdai Bukkyō shisōshi
9 kenkyū (Hōzōkan 1966).
1011 15 In the case of Kehi Jingūji, for example, the kami of Kehi appeared in a dream
1 of Fujiwara no Muchimaro (680–737), and announced that he had become a
2 kami long ago because of bad karma and wished to escape from that state
through ‘faith in the Way of the Buddha.’ He asked Muchimaro to found a
13111 temple to that end. The story is handed down in the Fujiwara genealogy Tōshi
4 kaden.
5 16 Tamura Enchō, ‘Shinbutsu kankei no ichikōsatsu’, Shirin 37–2.
6 17 Tsuda Sōkichi (Nihon no Shintō, Iwanami Shoten 1949) has pointed out that
7 references to deities who wish to escape their deity state occur in Chinese
8 biographies of monks (Liang Gaosengzhuan, Tang Gaosengzhuan). See also
9 Yoshida Kazuhiko, ‘Tado Jingūji to shinbutsu shūgō’, in Umemura Takashi,
20111 ed., Isewan to kodai no Tōkai (Meicho Shuppan 1996).
18 Nemoto Seiji, Nara Bukkyō to Gyōki denshō no tenkai (Yūzankaku 1991).
1
However, I disagree with Nemoto when he treats the tale of Gyōki’s pilgrimage
2 to Ise (on which more below) as historical (p. 117).
3 19 Hachiman is first mentioned in two articles from Shoku Nihongi, relating to
4 incidents from 737 and 740. In both of these cases, Hachiman already displays
5 characteristics of a martial deity associated with the protection of the state.
6 It has been argued that Hachiman’s rapid rise to fame may indicate that the
7 deity was already, at this early stage, identified as Emperor Ōjin. See Nakano
8 Hatayoshi, Hachiman shinkō (Hanawa Shinsho 1985).
20 This title features in a decree from the Ministry of State (dajō kanpu) dated
9
798 (in Shinshō kyakuchokufu shō).
30111 21 A document issued by the authorities at Dazaifu, and handed down in the
1 Iwashimizu monjo. Earlier Japanese occurrences of the term suijaku exist, but
2 not in a context that identifies kami as Buddhist emanations.
3 22 Later, a third category was sometimes added: kami as embodiments of dharma
4 nature, or the absolute itself (hosshōshin). See Nakamura Ikuo, Nihon no kami
5 to ōken (Hōzōkan 1994), and Kagamishima Hiroyuki, ‘Shinbutsu kankei ni
6 okeru hosshōshin no mondai’, Shūkyō kenkyū 3–3.
7 23 Although the ultimate source of this phrase is Laozi, it entered Buddhist
discourse more directly via the Mohezhiguan, a treatise on meditation by the
8 Tiantai patriarch Zhiyi (538–97). Here, wakō dōjin is described as the ‘starting
9 point of tying a karmic link [with the Buddhist truth].’
40111 24 On this text, see Allan G. Grapard, ‘Keiranshūyōshū: A different perspective
1 on Mt. Hiei in the medieval period’, in Richard K. Payne, ed., Re-visioning
211 ‘Kamakura’ Buddhism (University of Hawai’i Press 1998). The passage quoted
103
here can be found in Shintō taikei vol. ‘Tendai Shintō ge’ (Shintō Taikei
Hensankai 1993), p. 415.
25 See also Mark Teeuwen, ‘The kami in esoteric Buddhist thought and practice’,
in John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, eds, Shinto in history: Ways of the kami
(Curzon 2000).
26 See Shibata Minoru, ed., Goryō shinkō (Yūzankaku 1984).
27 During the Boshin War of 1868–9, the court sent an imperial messenger to
the tomb of Emperor Sutoku in Sanuki province to ‘invite his spirit’ to Kyoto,
lest he would impede the imperial army in its struggle with the bakufu forces.
This incident shows that the fear of angry spirits remained real over many
centuries. Tanigawa Ken’ichi, Ma no keifu (Kōdansha Gakujutsu Bunko 1984).
28 On the use in this context of Nihongi as an alternative title for the Nihon shoki,
see below.
29 Important texts in which this idea is formulated were Yamatai shi (‘Poem of
Yamatai’), ascribed to the Chinese monk Baozhi (J. Hōshi), and Miraiki
(‘Prophesy’), ascribed to Shōtoku Taishi. See Komine Kazuaki, ‘Yamatai shi no
gengo uchū’, Shisō 829, and ‘Shōtoku Taishi Miraiki no seiritsu’, Kikan Bungaku
8–4.
30 Hongaku theories and practices were based on the notion that all beings are
fully enlightened buddhas by birth. On hongaku thought and its influence on
kami thought and practice, see Jacqueline I. Stone, Original Enlightenment and
the transformation of medieval Japanese Buddhism (University of Hawai’i Press
1999), especially pp. 40–3, and Tamura Yoshirō, Hongaku shisōron (Shunjūsha
1990).
31 Sasaki Kaoru (Chūsei bukkyō to Kamakura bakufu, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1997)
argues that this notion performed three main functions: 1) to legitimise impe-
rial rule; 2) to base imperial legitimacy on the kami’s protection of the state
and the people; and 3) to sanctify the territory of the state.
32 The same text also identifies Amaterasu and Kūkai as emanations of Dainichi.
The passage in question was often quoted in later works of Ryōbu Shinto (see
below), and served as one of the nodal points of medieval Shinto thought.
33 See Ōishi Yoshiki, Nihon ōken no seiritsu (Hanawa Shobō 1975).
34 See Gerhild Müller, Kagura, Die Lieder der Kagura-Zeremonie am Naishidokoro
(Harrassowitz 1971).
35 Wish-Fulfilling Jewels were often identified as relics of the Buddha. In the
Shingon school, a jewel said to have been brought back from China by Kūkai
and buried for the protection of the nation at Murōzan formed an important
focus for esoteric court ritual. See Brian D. Ruppert, Jewel in the ashes: Buddha
relics and power in early medieval Japan (Harvard East Asian Monographs vol.
188, 2000).
36 Examples are Fujiwara Norikane, Waka dōmōshō, Fujiwara Kiyosuke, Ōgishō,
Fujiwara Chikashige, Kokinshū jochū, and Fujiwara Norinaga, Kokin wakashū
chū. Commentaries on Nihon shoki from the same period include Fujiwara
Michinori, Nihongi shō, and Kenshō, Nihongi kachū.
37 These lecture series took place over several years, with series starting in 812,
843, 879, 904, 936 and 965; waka composed in conjunction with Nihon shoki
lectures have been preserved from 879, 906 and 943.
104
1111 38 On the significance of the Insei period revival of the Nihon shoki see Ogawa
2 Toyoo, ‘Chūsei Nihongi no taidō’, Nihon bungaku 42–3, ‘Hensei suru Nihongi’,
3 Setsuwa Bungaku Kenkyū 30, and ‘Inseiki no honsetsu to Nihongi’, Bukkyō
Bungaku 16.
4 39 See Okada Shōji, ‘Ryōbu Shintō no seiritsuki’, in Shintō shisōshi kenkyū (Anzu
5 Motohiko Sensei Koki Kinen Shukugakai 1983), and Mark Teeuwen and
6 Hendrik van der Veere, Nakatomi harae kunge: Purification and enlightenment in
7 late-Heian Japan (iudicium verlag 1998).
8 40 The same legend was also used in other contexts; see Itō Satoshi, ‘Dairokuten
9 Maō setsu no seiritsu’, Nihon Bungaku 44–7.
1011 41 The documents of this case are collected and transmitted under the title Kōji
satabumi, which can be found in Shintō taikei vol. ‘Ise Shintō jō’ (Shintō Taikei
1 Hensankai 1993).
2 42 Gochinza shidaiki, Gochinza denki, Gochinza hongi, Hōki hongi and Yamato-hime
13111 no mikoto seiki. All were claimed to date from before the Nara period, but are
4 obviously of medieval origin (mid-thirteenth century?). Other Ise Shinto texts
5 include Jinnō jitsuroku, which identifies itself as an appendix to Shinsen shōjiroku
6 (815), and three works attributed to Shōtoku Taishi: Jinnō keizu, Tenkujisho
7 and Ōdai keuki. They can be found in Shintō taikei vol. ‘Ise Shintō jō’ (Shintō
Taikei Hensankai 1993). On Ise Shinto or Watarai Shinto, see Mark Teeuwen,
8 Watarai Shinto: An intellectual history of the Outer Shrine in Ise (CNWS Leiden
9 1996).
20111 43 Kondō Yoshihiro, ‘Ise Jingū mishōtai’, in Hagiwara Tatsuo, ed., Ise shinkō I
1 (Yūzankaku 1985), and Itō Satoshi, ‘Ise no Shintōsetsu no tenkai ni okeru
2 Saidaiji-ryū no dōkō ni tsuite’, Shintō Shūkyō 153.
3 44 The An’yōji lineage was founded by Chigotsu Daie (1229–1312), a disciple of
4 Enni Ben’en (1202–80). It combined Zen with esoteric practices, and was
based in Ise. Its traditions were transmitted to Nōshin, the founder of
5 Shinpukuji in Aichi prefecture which, to this day, preserves large numbers of
6 medieval Shinto texts. See Hagiwara Tatsuo, ‘Chūsei ni okeru zenmitsu itchi
7 to Ise Jingū’, Kamigami to sonraku (Kōbundō 1978).
8 45 See Itō Satoshi, ‘Tenshō Daijin – Kūkai dōtaisetsu o megutte’, Tōyō no Shisō to
9 Shūkyō 12.
30111 46 A prominent representative of this trend was the Tendai monk Jihen, who was
1 active during the early decades of the fourteenth century. Jihen, who authored
Kuji hongi gengi and Toyoashihara shinpū waki, learnt about Ise and Ryōbu Shinto
2 from the Outer Shrine priest Watarai Tsuneyoshi (1263–1339). In the early
3 fifteenth century another Tendai monk, Ryōhen, lectured on Nihon shoki and
4 Reikiki, and the Pure Land monk, Shōgei (1341–1420), composed commen-
5 taries on these same texts.
6 47 Ise Shinto theories are prominent in Chikafusa’s Gengenshū and Jinnō shōtōki.
7 48 For an overview of Sannō Shinto, see Sugahara Shinkai, Sannō Shintō no
8 kenkyū (Shunjūsha 1992). The main texts of the tradition can be found in
Shintō taikei vols ‘Tendai Shintō jō’ and ‘ge’ (Shintō Taikei Hensankai 1990
9 and 1993).
40111 49 In English, see Allan G. Grapard, ‘Keiranshūyōshū: A different perspective on
1 Mt. Hiei in the medieval period’, in Richard K. Payne, ed., Re-visioning
211 ‘Kamakura’ Buddhism (University of Hawai’i Press 1998).
105
50 Ōmori Shirō, ‘Jindai no yūkei’, Nihon bunkashi ronkō (Sōbunsha 1975).

51 Brian Bocking, Sanja takusen: Oracles of the three shrines (Curzon Press 2002).
52 See Murayama Shūichi et al., eds, Miwaryū Shintō no kenkyū (Meicho Shuppan
1983).
53 Other Ryōbu Shinto lineages, of which we know little more than the fact that
they existed, are generally regarded as branches of Goryū Shinto. Examples
are the Kanpaku, Suwa, Susanowo and Ise lineages (of which the last is to be
distinguished from Ise or Watarai Shinto).
54 Commentaries on the Nihon shoki include Urabe Kanekata, Shaku Nihongi;
Ryōhen, Nihongi kikigaki, Nihongi shikenmon; Shōgei, Nihongi shishō; Dōshō’s
and Shun’yu’s copies of Nihon shoki shikenmon; Ichijō Kaneyoshi, Nihon shoki
sanso; and Yoshida Kanetomo, Nihon shoki shō. Commentaries on Reikiki
include the anonymous Reikiki seisakushō; Ryōhen, Reiki kikigaki; and Shōgei,
Reikiki shishō and Reikiki shūishō. Literary works containing kami theories
include Kitabatake Chikafusa, Shokugenshō; the above-mentioned Yamatai shi
and Shōtoku Taishi miraiki; and commentaries on works of classical literature
such as Kokinshū, Ise monogatari, and Wakan rōeishū. Kami theories can also be
found in Buddhist commentaries on sutras such as the Yugi-kyō or the Lotus
sutra, or on Kūkai’s apocryphal testament (Goyuigō).
55 Itō Masayoshi, ‘Chūsei Nihongi no rinkaku – Taiheiki ni okeru Urabe
Kanekazu setsu o megutte’, Bungaku 40–10.
56 Both Jōkei and Myōe felt close to the Kasuga shrine, and wrote about its kami.
On Jōkei, see Agatsuma Matashirō, ‘Jōkei no jingi shinkō’, Terakoya Gogaku
Bunka Kenkyūjo Ronsō 2.
57 On Zonkaku and the kami, see Imahori Taitsu, Jingi shinkō no tenkai to bukkyō
(Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1990).
58 On kami beliefs in the Nichiren school, see Miyazaki Eishū, Nichirenshū no
shugojin: Kishimojin to Daikokuten (Heirakuji Shoten 1958). In English, see
Lucia Dolce, ‘Hokke Shinto: Kami in the Nicheren tradition’, in Mark
Teeuwen and Fabio Rambelli, eds, Buddhas and kami in Japan (Routledge
Curzon 2003), pp. 222–54.
59 Murayama Shūichi, Yamabushi no rekishi (Hanawa Shobō 1970).
60 See Inoue Mitsusada, Nihon Jōdokyō seiritsushi no kenkyū (Yamagawa Shup-
pansha 1956), and Itō Yuishin, Hijiri bukkyōshi no kenkyū (2 vols, Hōzōkan
1995).
61 A typical text that originated in this context is Shintōshū.
62 Nagamatsu Atsushi, Shuryō minzoku to shugendō (Hakusuisha 1993).
63 See Shimode Sekiyo, Nihon kodai no jingi to dōkyō (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan
1972).
64 Sukuyōdō was based on the Sukuyō-kyō, a Chinese sutra imported by Kūkai
which draws heavily on Indian astrology. See Yamashita Katsuaki, Heian jidai
no shūkyō bunka to onmyōdō (Iwata Shoin 1996).
65 Needless to say, this contempt for foreign lands was closely related to the
notion that Japan was a ‘land of the gods’ (see above). The one exception here
was China, to which Japan was thought to be inferior. It has been argued that
the Japanese took their inferiority complex out over Korea, which they
regarded as greatly inferior to Japan. See Itō Kiyoshi, Nihon chūsei no ōken to
ken’i (Shibunkaku 1993), and Murai Shōsuke, Ajia no naka no chūsei Nihon
(Azekura Shobō 1988).
106
1111 66 See Bernard Frank, Kata-imi et Kata-tagae: Étude sur les interdits de direction
2 époque Heian, Bulletin de la maison franco-japonaise, nouvelle série 5–2/4
3 (Isseidō Shoten 1958).
67 Responsible for the widespread adoption of exorcist tablets at shrines was
4 Yoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511), who adapted Taoist tablets to shrine use and
5 accorded them a central role in Yoshida ritual.
6 68 An exception was Fujiwara no Yorinaga (1120–56). Yorinaga noted in his diary
7 Taiki that he had the onmyōdō ritual of Taizanpukun-sai carried out before he
8 embarked on his study of the Yijing to avert any negative effects. Subsequently,
9 court opinion ascribed his violent death in the Hōgen war to his hubris
1011 (Hanazono-in nikki). Imaizumi Yoshio, ‘Eki no batsu ga ataru koto’, in Chūsei
Nihon no shosō II (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1989).
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3
THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
In search of a Shinto identity
Endō Jun
It was in the early modern period (1600–1867) that the outline of Shinto
as we know it today came into focus. From the perspective of the religious
system, we have already seen that Shinto of the middle ages was indistin-
guishable from Buddhism in terms of constituents, network and substance.
In the early modern period, however, Shinto gradually re-defines itself in
contradistinction to Buddhism. It is not that both existed as separate reli-
gions; rather they coexisted, each necessitating the other. Bitō Masahide
has defined that coexistence by saying that Shinto, Buddhism and folk
religions merged and adopted the form of a ‘national creed’.1 He points
out, for example, that it was in the early modern period that all sorts
of religious elements, Shinto, Buddhist and many more besides, began to
intermingle; the ritual cycle of contemporary Japan proves to be a legacy
of this early modern period.
Let us turn our attention to the different dimensions of the religious
system. It was Yoshida Shinto that set the direction of what we have called
the network of early modern Shinto. In place of the now-defunct shrine
system of ancient Japan, the Yoshida family, after its own fashion, began
to organise shrines and priests across the length and breadth of Japan. This
reorganisation by the Yoshida became, with the support of the Edo bakufu,
the foundation of the early modern shrine system. Now, for the first time,
local shrines of medium to small size, as well as peripheral religious prac-
titioners, were all incorporated into a single national structure. Again, the
early modern network was characterised by the formation of religious
groupings transcending locality and status. This period witnessed the
formation of kō, religious confraternities affiliated to sacred mountains or
famous temples and shrines. The people who affiliated themselves to these
kō were linked to the mountains and temples through the intermediary
of religionists such as oshi and, as a result, these confraternities themselves
108
IN SEARCH OF A SHINTO IDENTITY
1111 became one of the transregional groupings that proved typical of early
2 modern Japan.
3 The creation of academic circles, such as those that grew up around
4 masters of National Learning (kokugaku), established a network that cut
5 across status distinctions as well. Through the communication between
6 circle members or disciples and through various types of publishing
7 activity, Shinto substance – once the closely guarded secret of hereditary
8 Shinto families – was now made more generally available. These devel-
9 opments, along with the organisation of shrine priests and shrines under
1011 shrine families like the Yoshida and Shirakawa, were the premise upon
1 which modern Shinto religious groups were subsequently to be constructed.
2 This was a system that allowed the broadest participation. With regard to
13111 the constituents dimension, there are striking developments in the direc-
4 tion of the ‘popularisation’ of Shinto and its reception amongst the masses,
5 both rural and urban. Until now, the principal bearers of Shinto were a
6 limited number of Shinto families and Buddhist priests, but the early
7 modern period saw the emergence of a number of new constituents, new
8 varieties of religionists and nativists, for example. At the same time, the
9 period saw anti-Buddhist tendencies, moves, that is, to expel Buddhist
20111 priests from the constituents of the Shinto system.
1 In terms of substance, academic shifts are noteworthy. Developments in
2 the methodology of textual analysis led to methodological advances
3 in Shinto study. For the first time since the middle ages, Shinto thought
4 of various types now became systematised as a focus of research by
5 Confucianists, and by specialists of Japanese literary studies and National
6 Learning. New investigative tendencies prompted questions about histor-
7 ical origins, and Shinto began to be spoken of as constituting the ‘original
8 form’ of Japanese history. The flourishing of anti-Buddhist thought, aimed
9 at expelling Buddhist elements from Shinto preaching and thinking, was
30111 one striking expression of the purification of Shinto substance.
1
2
Yoshida Shinto: reorganising shrines and priests
3
4 We can locate the budding of early modern Shinto in the collapse of
5 the various systems sustaining medieval Shinto after the Ōnin war
6 (1467–77). With regard to the imperial court, which went into decline
7 as the Muromachi period (1338–1573) progressed, we should note that
8 the court’s dispatch of emissaries to various shrines bearing offerings
9 (hōhei) ended with the outbreak of the Ōnin conflict. The daijōsai, the
40111 most sacred of the several stages of imperial enthronement rites, was
1 performed for the last time in 1466, for Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado. Many
211 other court rites and ceremonies – the eleventh month niiname harvest
109
E N D Ō J U N
celebration prominent among them – ceased to be performed from around

this time.
The ancient shrine system structured around the twenty-two shrines
(nijūnisha), first shrines (ichi no miya) and provincial shrines (sōsha) also
now fell into disuse. The special position occupied by the twenty-two
shrines in the devotion of the imperial family was always evident from
their regular receipt of imperial emissaries bearing offerings, but with the
decline of the court the practice was discontinued. In the midst of the
social anarchy induced by the Ōnin wars, the twenty-two shrines and
the first and provincial shrines lost their privately-held land which had
sustained them economically, and they now encountered serious financial
difficulties. This was part of the chaotic social context in which Yoshida
Shinto emerged to raise the curtain on the stage of early modern Shinto.
Yoshida Shinto grew against the backdrop of that particular brand of
late medieval thought known as sankyō itchi, which taught the ‘three creeds’
(sankyō) of Shinto, Confucianism and Buddhism are ultimately ‘one and
the same’ (itchi). The idea traces its origins to China, where it referred to
Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. It was transmitted to Japan in the
Kamakura period both by Japanese priests who crossed to Song China
and Chinese Song priests who came to Japan. There were also parallel
developments of Japanese origin. Shinto theories were being expounded
in the middle ages from a position of the unity of various creeds – here
the background was the tendency towards an identification of Shinto and
Buddhism (shinbutsu shūgō) – and these developments were observable in
both Ise Shinto and Ryōbu Shinto. In the middle and latter parts of the
Muromachi period, there emerged amongst the ruling elite and intellec-
tual groups a Japanese version of the ‘three creeds are one’ involving
Shinto, Confucianism and Buddhism, which effectively merged the Ise
and Ryōbu approaches. Yoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511), the founder of
Yoshida Shinto, was one man who formulated his Shinto thought in that
environment.
Kanetomo was born into the Yoshida Urabe family which served
both as jingi taifu, a court post with responsibility for imperial rites, and as
hereditary priests to the Yoshida shrine. The Urabe family was from Izu
province originally and was founded by Urabe Hiramaro (807–11). In this
early period, the family served the court with its expertise in tortoise-shell
divination. After Hiramaro’s great grandson, Kanenobu (dates unknown),
became jingi taifu, that position became the hereditary right of the Urabe
family. In the Kamakura period, the Urabe family divided into the Hirano
and Yoshida lines, but both transmitted knowledge of the Nihon shoki and
other classics as well as ritual practices, and both served the court because
of the privileged knowledge they had in these areas. In the Kamakura
110
1111 period, the Hirano family flourished but in early Muromachi – in the
2 Nanbokuchō period (1337–92) to be precise – declined, and the Yoshida
3 family rose to prominence by default, as it were. Kanetomo was initiated
4 into these traditions, and he it was who merged them with medieval Shinto
5 theories in order to create his own unique brand of Shinto.
6 Kanetomo began to expound his new theories during the Ōnin war and
7 the period of anarchy that ensued. He took advantage of the social chaos
8 that prevailed, and he rapidly won converts to his Shinto, both at court
9 and amongst the military. In 1484, with the assistance of Hino Tomiko
1011 (1440–96), the mistress of the eighth shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, he built
1 on the top of Yoshida mountain a shrine which he styled Taigenkyū saijōsho
2 or the ‘Shrine of the Great Origin’. He summoned deities from every
13111 part of Japan to his shrine – most notably those of Ise – and claimed that
4 here stood the original of all the shrines in the land since the time of
5 Emperor Jinmu.
6 It was the normal function of a priest to oversee the rites at a given
7 shrine, and to construct and expound teachings based on his understanding
8 of the shrine and its deities. The significance of Kanetomo’s activities,
9 however, was that it marked a first step towards a new type of priest, one
20111 who was not necessarily bound by the local traditions of a specific shrine.
1 The separation of shrine Shinto from Shinto based upon a specific set
2 of teachings was a striking development of the late Edo and early Meiji
3 periods, but the origins of that separation are to be found in Yoshida
4 Kanetomo’s activities of the late medieval period. We should also note
5 well the subtle intermingling of local shrine tradition and new Shinto
6 theory which Kanetomo achieved.
7 Again, Kanetomo styled himself jingi kanryō chōjō (‘Supreme head of
8 shrine and kami affairs’) and, with the support of courtiers and military
9 houses, he began to issue Yoshida notices ‘as if from the emperor’ (sōgen
30111 senji) to shrines in the Home Provinces. He began, in other words, to seize
1 for himself what had been the court’s exclusive right to issue court ranks
2 and titles to priests and shrines, and the right to appoint men of his choos-
3 ing to different localities. Further, he sought to place the Ise shrine under
4 his own control by proclaiming in 1489 that the sacred mirror of Ise had
5 removed itself into the Yoshida shrine. He clearly hoped to have his own
6 shrine displace Ise as the most important of all the shrines in the land.
7 Kanetomo’s Shinto theories are to be found in greatest detail in
8 his Yuiitsu shintō myōbō yōshū, which he claimed had been written by his
9 ancestor Kanenobu.2 In this text, he refers to his own Shinto as genpon sōgen
40111 shintō, that is, Shinto as founding principle of the universe, in contra-
1 distinction to other prevailing types of Shinto which he dismissed for their
211 obsession with shrine origins or their merging with Buddhism. Kanetomo
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E N D Ō J U N
maintained that his Shinto was the one true Shinto (yuiitsu Shinto was the
word he used) deriving as it did from the orthodox line that began with
Amaterasu and Ame no Koyane. The deity Kunitokotachi, who appears in
the Kojiki and Nihon shoki but is notable there for not actually doing any-
thing, was the great founding deity whom Kanetomo placed at the centre
of the cosmos. In terms of its content, Yoshida Shinto divides into two sets
of teachings, ‘manifest’ (kenro) and ‘discreet’ (on’yū). Manifest teachings
seek to disclose such phenomena as the creation of heaven and earth, the
happenings of the era of the gods and the lineages of the nobility. Manifest
teachings are rooted in such texts as the Kojiki, the Nihon shoki and the
Sendai kuji hongi, a compilation of tales and legends which acquired a place
of especial importance in both Watarai and Yoshida Shinto.3 For the
‘discreet’ teachings, on the other hand, Kanetomo cites three otherwise
unknown scriptures with Taoist-sounding titles as its sources, which treat
such esoteric (and ritual) matters as ‘the spirit-responses of the Three
Powers (i.e. Heaven, Earth and Man)’, the ‘empowerment of the three
mysterious properties (i.e. body, speech and mind)’, and the ‘three kinds of
spirit-treasures’. Kanetomo defined Yoshida Shinto as being comprised
of essence (hontai), form (sugata), and function (hataraki). He divided
each of these into the three subsections of Heaven, Earth and Man to
create nine component parts, which he further subdivided into eighteen.
All of creation, he argued, partook of one of these eighteen manifestations,
and thus there was nothing that did not have its origins in Shinto.
Kanetomo insisted on the unique qualities of his Shinto but, in reality,
the notion of a ‘God of Great Origin’ derived directly from Ryōbu and Ise
Shinto teachings, and the subdivision of Shinto into ‘essence, form and
function’ was a direct loan from esoteric Buddhism. To all this Kanetomo
added Yin Yang theories about the five elements and Taoist thought, too.
In Yoshida Shinto, a range of ascetic practices based on these various
doctrines was performed, but it is clear that the three main rituals of
Yoshida Shinto (named shintō goma, sōgen gyōji and jūhachi shintō gyōji) were
profoundly influenced by esoteric Buddhism and Ryōbu Shinto. Yoshida
Shinto practices were, in short, constructed out of an amalgam of
intellectual trends current during Kanetomo’s lifetime.
Yoshida Shinto thus had a forced, contrived quality to it which
inevitably enough was to lead to the fiercest of attacks, but Yoshida Shinto
had the profoundest influence on the Shinto theories of later times since
it was the first systematisation of Shinto principles. Almost all early
modern Shinto theories have Yoshida Shinto as their starting point, and
one might go so far as to suggest that Yoshida Shinto doctrines as devel-
oped by Kanetomo marked not only the summation of medieval Shinto
thinking, but the very origins of early modern Shinto thought.
112
1111 Kanetomo not only wrote but he delivered lectures as well, and many
2 of his lectures were recorded, copied and disseminated. Perhaps it was only
3 natural, given the traditions of his family, that the Nihon shoki was taken
4 up so frequently in his lectures, but that he devoted so much energy to
5 the Nakatomi harae, is worthy of especial note. The Nakatomi harae was a
6 version of the ōharae purification rite which became popular amongst Yin
7 Yang specialists after the harae purification rites of the court fell into
8 decline. They were called Nakatomi because it was the Nakatomi family
9 that used to recite the text employed in the rite. The Nakatomi harae
1011 incorporated elements of Yin Yang and Esoteric Buddhism during medieval
1 times, and such was its import in medieval religious society that there were
2 commentaries written upon it from both Ryōbu Shinto and Ise Shinto
13111 perspectives. Kanetomo himself wrote a commentary, and there are extant
4 many accounts of his own frequent lectures on this Nakatomi harae. His
5 commentaries were calculated to standardise the Nakatomi harae texts that
6 emanated from the Yoshida family.
7 Again, Yoshida Shinto exerted a profound influence on the spread
8 during the early modern period of the sanja takusen. The sanja takusen or
9 the ‘Oracles of the three shrines’ refer to the oracles of the shrines of Ise,
20111 of Hachiman Daibosatsu and of Kasuga Daimyōjin. These were inscribed
1 on hanging scrolls beneath depictions of the three deities and became the
2 object of popular veneration in Edo Japan.4 It appears the oracles had their
3 origins in the work of a Buddhist priest from the Tōdaiji, but Kanetomo
4 incorporated them within Yoshida Shinto and so played a major role
5 in disseminating faith in the oracles amongst the common people of the
6 Edo period.
7 In terms of the organisation of shrines and their priests, the imperial
8 certificates of court rank and status (sōgen senji) and the Shinto licences
9 (saikyojō) which Kanetomo began to dispense, merit attention. In earlier
30111 times, the ranks and status accorded to shrines and priests were determined
1 at court assemblies, and priests would make direct appeals to the emperor
2 for, say, advancement through rank and status, but this practice fell into
3 disuse in medieval Japan. Kanetomo began to issue rank and status certifi-
4 cates with the sanction of the imperial court, but his successors in later
5 generations no longer sought imperial sanction; the Yoshida family came
6 to exercise their own discretion. These Yoshida certificates and licences
7 were a response to two specific changes taking place against the backdrop
8 of the reorganisation of local society in the late medieval period: the
9 increasing specialisation of the shrine priest’s role on the one hand, and
40111 the emergence of a relatively new type of shrine belief, centring not on
1 local kami but on kami ‘installed’, as it were, from further afield. During
211 the period of the civil wars, the so-called Sengoku period (1467–1568),
113
E N D Ō J U N
the head of the Yoshida family, Kanemigi (1516–73), issued court rank,
status and licences to local shrines and their priests in ever greater numbers
and by, for example, embarking on frequent tours of the regions, made
efforts to accommodate local shrine priests. By monopolising the issue
of documents of an official nature, the Yoshida family came to occupy a
position of public authority vis-à-vis shrines and their priests.
One can also see evidence of Yoshida involvement in the miyaza
that were developing throughout the medieval period. Miyaza, sometimes
translated as ‘shrine guilds’, were groups of generally well-to-do shrine
parishioners who held a monopoly on the performance of rites at the local
tutelary shrine. Feudal lords, the daimyō, saw villages as a new power base
and were anxious not only to protect powerful shrines that had local village
connections but also to protect and guarantee the position of local
tutelary shrines. The activities of the Yoshida family matched perfectly the
inclinations of the daimyō. With regard to Yoshida family links to local
village shrines, these can be traced back to the year 1485 when Kanetomo
was ordered by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa to conduct surveys on the kami
at such shrines in the vicinity of Kyoto. More consequential still were the
activities of Kanetomo’s grandson, the afore-mentioned Kanemigi. Yoshida
Kanemigi established linkages with the daimyō themselves, and then
proceeded to hand out court rank and status and dispense Shinto licenses
to important shrines in the daimyō’s territory. Kanemigi’s activities in the
territory of the Kyushu daimyō, Ōuchi Yoshitaka (1507–51), are but one
example.5 In respect of local village shrines, too, Kanemigi would distribute
both types of certification. Not only was this an activity that matched
the thinking of daimyō who wished to protect their shrines, it was also a
response to the demands of the class of otona or village elder who sought
rank and status for their deities. And so it was that, while not yet on a
national scale, the Yoshida family was already beginning to assert itself
at the level of the local village shrine as well.
Kanemigi’s eldest son and successor was Kanemi (1535–1610) and he,
with his younger brother, Bonshun (1553–1632), began to consolidate the
family’s links with the men who wielded political power. A striking
example of success here concerns the fortunes of the Hasshinden shrine.
In the ancient period, the Hasshinden, or Shrine to the eight deities
who protect the imperial family, was located within the Western hall of
the Jingikan, and offerings would be placed before it on such major festive
occasions as the toshigoi, tsukinami and niiname.6 The practice ended with
the Ōnin wars. The Shirakawa Shinto family continued to venerate the
eight deities in the family residence, but in 1482 the Yoshida built a new
Jingikan Hasshinden within their shrine complex.7 In 1590, this Yoshida
Hasshinden appears to have been granted official court status. The result
114
1111 was that the Yoshida family and the Yoshida shrine secured a place within
2 the frame of imperial court ritual. Furthermore, not long after the estab-
3 lishment of the Edo bakufu, with the publication of the official regulations
4 for shrines and shrine priests (shosha negi kannushi hatto), the Yoshida family
5 acquired an official role as court intermediary for all shrines in the land
6 that did not have their own established links to the court. In this way, the
7 family was able to consolidate its official status in early modern Japan.
8
9
The Tōshōgū shrine in Nikkō and the deification
1011
of the political elite
1
2 In the process of the formation of the Tokugawa administration, that is
13111 to say, from the Sengoku period through the administrations of Oda
4 Nobunaga (1534–82) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98), religion played
5 a major role in guaranteeing the legitimacy of the newly created power.
6 In the ancient period, an administration’s legitimacy was guaranteed by
7 the idea that the land and its people belonged to the emperor, or that
8 Japan was a sacred nation by virtue of the existence of the imperial family,
9 but such ideas were hardly sufficient to legitimise those who, after the
20111 middle ages, seized power with their own hands. This new breed of men
1 sought to rationalise their positions with the new concept of tenka (realm)
2 derived from Confucian ideas about heaven (ten). The transcendental
3 concept which sustained the idea of tenka was tendō or the way of heaven.
4 There were aspects to the Confucian concept of heaven that justified revo-
5 lution, and herein lay the appeal of this idea to the new men of power.8
6 The ‘way of heaven’ was entirely distinct from the various secular powers,
7 and it was understood as the ‘unseen transcendental’ which controlled the
8 rise and fall of human fortune. This tendō concept first appeared in Japan
9 in the late Heian period, but it really only proliferated in the Sengoku
30111 period when various powers were at each other’s throats and there no
1 longer existed any single authority to guarantee stability.
2 For any who would establish anew a unified power, then, the way of
3 heaven could serve as guarantor of legitimacy. Oda Nobunaga is a case
4 in point. The form he chose to justify his own assumption of power was to
5 enter the imperial framework of authority and exercise control from within
6 while, at the same time, insisting he was tenkabito: ‘man of the heavenly
7 realm’, ‘the first of the realm’, ‘the man to whom the realm had been
8 entrusted’. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who next acceded to power, adopted an
9 approach not dissimilar. Hideyoshi established his own authority by advan-
40111 cing through the secular ranks, by acquiring, that is, rank in the imperial
1 court as kanpaku or ‘regent’, thus acting as the emperor’s proxy. However,
211 he always insisted that his actions accorded with the heavenly way.
115
E N D Ō J U N
It might be asked what the linkage was between those who now came
to power and Shinto and shrines, and how this linkage underpinned
the legitimation of respective administrations. It is well known that the
Minamoto and the Ashikaga of earlier ages deployed faith in the deity
Hachiman, their own ancestral deity, as a vital spiritual support for their
regimes. This sort of veneration Oda Nobunaga also exploited. He iden-
tified the Tsurugi shrine in the Oda estate of Echizen province as his
ancestral deity; he guaranteed the existing land of the shrine, and went
out of his way to make new donations of land and to construct new shrine
buildings.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi engaged with kami belief in a somewhat different
fashion. Being of peasant-warrior origins, Hideyoshi had no ancestral
deity of his own; he had to rely on an alternative strategy for the religious
legitimation of his power. Toyokuni shrine, built after his death, was
that different strategy. When Hideyoshi died in 1598, his body, in accord
with his last wishes, was buried at the top of Amidagamine mountain in
the Higashiyama district of Kyoto, and a mausoleum was built at the
foot of the mountain in order that it might serve as the protector
shrine for the Hōkōji temple there. Yoshida Kanemi arranged to have
Emperor Go-Yōzei (r. 1586–1611) issue the title Toyokuni Daimyōjin
(‘The magnificent deity of the land of plenty’) to the spirit of Hideyoshi;
a splendid shrine building, similar in design to the Kitano shrine in Kyoto
dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), was then erected. The
business of the Toyokuni shrine and its management were entrusted totally
to the Yoshida family so that, for example, Kanemi’s younger brother,
Bonshun, became the priest in charge. The shrine’s grand ceremonies
were open to the ‘public’ and for a while they enjoyed immense popularity.
This was the first instance of a political leader deploying his own reli-
gious authority, rather than that of his ancestors. It was also one of the
earliest known examples of hitogami faith; faith, that is, in a man-made-
god, which does not have its origins in a desire to propitiate the angry
spirit of the deceased, as was the case with the Kitano shrine and Sugawara
no Michizane. With the demise of the Toyotomi family, the Tokugawa
confiscated the shrine’s land, abolished its title, and the shrine itself fell
into decline.
The Tokugawa, too, sought deification as a means of legitimation and
Ieyasu was himself venerated as deity. When he died in 1616, leaving
instructions that he be buried according to Shinto funeral rites, a Yoshida
Shinto burial was carried out in a temporary structure on Kunōzan in mod-
ern day Shizuoka. Immediately thereafter, however, a bitter dispute erupted
over both the title to be accorded to Ieyasu’s spirit and appropriate rites
to be performed. On one side were Bonshun and his supporter, Sūden
116
1111 (1569–1633) who insisted that Ieyasu’s spirit be consecrated as a daimyōjin

2 or Magnificent kami; on the other was Tenkai (1536?–1643), a priest of the
3 Tendai lineage, who insisted that his spirit be worshipped as a Daigongen or
4 Great Avatar. In the end, the rites performed were those of Sannō ichijitsu
5 shintō as demanded by Tenkai.9 In February of the following year, imperial
6 sanction was granted for Ieyasu’s spirit to be accorded the title Daigongen,
7 once again as demanded by Sannō ichijitsu shintō. Ieyasu was accordingly
8 reburied and his spirit transferred to the mausoleum in Nikkō. At first, the
9 mausoleum was known as Tōshōsha, ‘the shrine of he who shines from
1011 the east’, but in 1645, the court issued notification of the shrine’s new miya
1 status – apart from Ise only ten other shrines in the land were styled miya.
2 Henceforth Ieyasu’s shrine could be referred to as Tōshōgū (gūis the Chinese
13111 reading of the character for miya). At the same time, the court instituted
4 the dispatch of offerings (hōhei) to the Tōshōgū. In the following year, the
5 court revived the practice of sending reiheishi (imperial emissaries bearing
6 offerings) to the Ise shrines and, at the same time, instigated a parallel
7 system of Nikkō reiheishi. This is generally understood as an attempt by the
8 bakufu to use imperial prestige to elevate the Tōshōgū to a status parallel to
9 that of Ise.10
20111 For successive generations of shoguns, pilgrimage to Nikkō was a major
1 event. This involved the shogun himself progressing to the Tōshōgū on
2 the seventeenth day of the fourth month, the anniversary of Ieyasu’s death.
3
Nikkō pilgrimage was carried out relatively frequently, at least in the early
4
part of the Edo period. Tokugawa Hidetada (r. 1605–23) progressed three
5
times as shogun, Iemitsu (r. 1623–51) nine times, and Ietsuna (r. 1651–80)
6
once. Nikkō pilgrimage was designed to shore up the shogun’s authority
7
through his veneration of Ieyasu as ancestor. The view that the pilgrimage
8
served additionally as an opportunity for the shogun to express the (sacred)
9
nature of his realm has become authoritative.11
30111
1 The Tokugawa bakufu established shrines to Ieyasu outside Nikkō and
2 Kunōzan, too, in such places as Edo castle and Ueno; Tokugawa-related
3 families and other daimyō, too, built shrines to Ieyasu’s spirit in their own
4 castles. In 1625 the bakufu built the Kan’eiji temple in Ueno to the north-
5 east of Edo to protect the city from the malevolent spirits known to reside
6 in that quarter, and constructed within the temple grounds the Ueno
7 Tōshōsha. The more influential of the shrines dedicated to Ieyasu’s spirit
8 include those in Sendai, Mito, Kawagoe and Owari. Festivals were carried
9 out regularly at these shrines – the Owari festival to the spirit of Ieyasu
40111 developed into the Nagoya festival – and, as the areas where these festive
1 activities were carried out expanded, so did the veneration of Ieyasu spread
211 to the general populace.
117
E N D Ō J U N
The Edo bakufu and the control of shrines and

their priests
The twenty-two shrines, first shrines and provincial shrines that were the
object of official worship lost their private land holdings in the anarchy at
the end of the medieval period. This process was halted by the land surveys
which Toyotomi Hideyoshi instigated. The land surveys ended once and
for all the complex system of private land holdings (shōen), but for shrines
Hideyoshi issued licences (shuinjō) which recognised and guaranteed
their land. With the subsequent establishment of the bakufu in Edo,
the Tokugawa military rulers first confiscated the licensed lands from the
twenty-two shrines but then issued their own licences in certain limited
cases; they also set aside funding for shrine buildings. At the same time,
it became the practice in some domains for daimyō to donate land anew
to the first shrines and provincial shrines in the area. We have seen how
government began to dispatch emissaries bearing offerings to the Ise
shrines but to none other. In 1645, it then dispatched imperial emissaries
to the Tōshōgū shrine which coincided with the emperor granting miya
status to the Tōshōgū. All this was part and parcel of bakufu efforts to
enhance the legitimacy of the Tōshōgū; it was not a general resumption of
the medieval court’s practice of dispatching emissaries. In this way, the
twenty-two shrines and the various first and provincial shrines, too, lost
the social autonomy they had retained throughout the medieval period,
and were placed instead under the supervision and protection of the bakufu
and the various domains.
In the early years of the Tokugawa bakufu, the problem of how to
organise shrines was inseparable from another: namely the systems and
organisations to be deployed for the control of shrine priests. The bakufu’s
basic position was to be found in typical form in the set of laws known as
the Shosha negi kannushi hatto (‘Bakufu regulations for the control of shrines
and their priests’). The bakufu issued these laws to all shrines and their
priests in the land in 1665. The main items were the following:
1 Shrine priests must devote themselves exclusively to the ways of the

kami; they should apply themselves to the performance of traditional
shrine rites; failure to do so will result in dismissal from the priesthood.
2 Hereditary shrine priests who, till now, have relied on the services of
specific court families to intercede with the emperor in requesting new
court rank and status for their families shall continue to do so.
3 Shrine priests without court rank shall wear white; all over other
priestly garments are to be determined in accord with licences issued
by the Yoshida family.
118
1111 4 Shrine land is not to be sold or bought; nor is it to be pawned.

2 5 In the event of damage to shrine buildings, repairs may be carried out
3 as and when needed; it is essential to keep shrines in a state of good
4 repair.
5
6 If the second of these items, concerning the services of specific families
7 for intercession at court, suggests a continuity with former practice, it
8 was a continuity designed uniquely to facilitate bakufu control. These
9 families were known as shissōke, and the practice referred to dates back
1011 to the ancient and medieval periods when the Jingikan still functioned.
1 The shissōke families were able to exercise very considerable control over
2 the court ranks and status to be issued, and it was normal for them to
13111 exact a fee for their services from the shrine priests who sought their
4 intercession. However, the next item in the regulations grants to the
5 Yoshida family a monopoly control in practical terms over those shrine
6 priests who had not yet secured court rank. The Yoshida were to
7 intercede on their behalf, and it is here clear that the bakufu was according
8 privileged treatment to the Yoshida family. The shrines referred to were
9 not the shrines of great pedigree, the large provincial shrines, and the
20111 problem remained as to how these might be made subject to bakufu
1 control.
2 The Yoshida family understanding was that the priests of these shrines
3 were, indeed, covered by the regulations, and that it was their privilege
4 to act as court go-between on their behalf. The large, traditional provin-
5 cial shrines understood, for their part, that such status as they had was
6 a consequence of their long connections with the imperial court and that
7 they were exempt from Yoshida family control. Friction resulted from
8 this difference in views. In 1674, the bakufu issued a supplement (oboe)
9 to the original set of regulations which established the general principle
30111 that intercession with the imperial court was not the exclusive right of
1 the Yoshida; it offered a solution of sorts. In any event, it is clear that the
2 bakufu was seeking to maintain a comprehensive hold over all shrine
3 priests in the land. On the one hand it sanctioned the general control by
4 shissōke families – such as the Shirakawa – over shrine priests; on the other,
5 it granted Yoshida family control over priests without rank or go-betweens
6 of their own. Shrine priests who, after 1674, had no access to the court of
7 their own now had a choice: either they ingratiate themselves with the
8 Shirakawa or they come under the control of the Yoshida family.12 The
9 Yoshida family regarded the regulations as a basis for their monopolistic
40111 control of low-ranking shrine priests but, at the same time, the Shirakawa
1 and other families saw the same priests as an opportunity for them to
211 expand their own influence. In this competition for influence lay the
119
E N D Ō J U N
origins of the bitter disputes in the later Edo period between the Yoshida
and the Shirakawa families.
The mountain ascetics (shugenja or yamabushi), who embodied in their
practice the merging of Shinto and Buddhism so typical of pre-modern
Japanese religious culture, were also the focus of bakufu attempts at
control.13 The problem facing the bakufu here was how to restructure and
rationalise the multifarious shugenja lineages that already existed. The most
important of these were the Tōzanha and the Honzanha.
The Tōzanha lineage had its origins in the esoteric Shingon tradition. It
is thought the lineage traces its origins back to the mountain priests at the
Hossō school’s Kōfukuji temple. Kōfukuji was a mighty temple in Yamato in
the Kamakura period; the majority of temples in the region were either
attached to it as branch temples or they were otherwise subject to its influ-
ence. In all of these temples, there were mountain priests in considerable
numbers but, as the temples came under the growing influence of Shingon,
priests made common cause with others throughout the Home Provinces
who were affiliated to mountain temples, and together, they formed a com-
munity of mountain priests known as the Tōzanha sendatsu shū. During the
Sengoku period, as the Nara Kōfukuji steadily lost its influence, these priests
distanced themselves at an ever accelerating pace, and began to establish
new links with the Sanbōin hall in the Daigoji temple complex in Kyoto.
The Daigoji had by now assumed a central role within Shingon Buddhism.
The Honzanha for its part was a mountain ascetic lineage originating in
the Kumano region which established its centre at the Shōgoin temple
in the Shirakawa district of Kyoto. The Shōgoin, a branch temple of the
Tendai Onjōji temple, subsequently became a monzeki, a temple, that is,
whose senior position was occupied by successive generations of imperial
princes or court nobles. In the Muromachi period (1338–1573), the
Shōgoin chief abbot and senior mountain ascetics established direct links
with mountain priests all over Japan. During the years 1469–87 (the
Bunmei period), Dōkō (dates unknown), the incumbent of the Shōgoin,
took himself on a tour across the Hokuriku, Kantō and Tōhoku regions, in
an effort to establish a degree of control over the most influential moun-
tain ascetics in the regions he visited. His achievement was to exert a
degree of control over those ascetics affiliated with the sacred sites in the
Kumano mountains. The three Kumano shrines lost a huge number of their
private land holdings in the Muromachi period and consequently, too,
their influence. Influential regional mountain ascetics found their positions
stabilised by their adherence to the Shōgoin abbot with his connections
to the imperial court. In this way, the Honzanha lineage came into being.
It was centred at the Shōgoin monzeki in Kyoto and had the most powerful
mountain ascetics in the land affiliated to it.
120
1111 During the years 1596–1615 (the Keichō period), there were major
2 disputes between the two lineages over control of mountain ascetics
3 throughout Japan. Behind the conflict were differences over the principles
4 of control. The Shingon-related Tōzan ha exercised control over its priests
5 through a type of master–disciple relationship; the Tendai-related Honzan
6 lineage, by contrast, divided up the land into spheres of control, which
7 it then entrusted to individual ascetics. The Tōzan ha sought to reach a
8 solution by having the Sanbōin abbot, Gien (1558–1626), utilise his
9 contacts with Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. His efforts finally
1011 bore fruit and in 1612, the Tokugawa bakufu banned the Honzan lineage
1 from using its regional control system. In the following year, Tokugawa
2 Ieyasu issued licences to both Honzan and Tōzan lineages recognising
13111 Shōgoin and Sanbōin as their respective headquarters. He remained very
4 much partial, though, to the Tōzan ha. The Honzan ascetics had till now
5 insisted upon levying a tax on Tōzan ha priests seeking access to sacred
6 sites in Honzan ha spheres of control. This practice the Edo bakufu stopped.
7 It demanded a master–disciple system of control, that is the Tōzan system
8 of control, over all mountain ascetics in the land. Moreover, by banning
9
proselytising by mountain ascetics not affiliated to one or other of the
20111
two lineages (1618), the bakufu sought to control access to the calling of
1
mountain ascetics and so define their social status.
2
There was, in the early modern period, a settling of mountain ascetics
3
in localities.14 This was a consequence of the new organisational structures
4
5 imposed on mountain ascetics by the Edo bakufu, of the establishment of
6 new communities with connections to the locality and, finally, of bakufu
7 restrictions on the movement of ascetics. There emerged, in fact, two
8 different categories of ascetic: those who remained affiliated to mountain
9 sites as oshi or itinerant priests, and those who sank roots in villages and
30111 towns. For priests of both Tōzan and Honzan lineages, the latter came to
1 constitute the norm in Edo Japan. These ascetics formed priest–parishioner
2 links with local families and visited them frequently; they would perform
3 rites before the kami of the house; they also would recite prayers and rites
4 for recovery from sickness. In return for both, they would expect payment.
5 Ascetics also distributed amulets, and they led groups of parishioners on
6 pilgrimage to mountain sites. Quite a few ascetics of this type doubled as
7 priests (bettō) for local tutelary shrines and Inari shrines, and they came to
8 assume a leading role in such popular religious practices as himachi, which
9 involved groups of parishioners waiting up all night to pray at sunrise. It
40111 was inevitable, then, that the ascetics who settled in villages and towns
1 competed for influence with temple and shrine priests and that conflict
211 between them ensued.
121
E N D Ō J U N
Shinto and the populace: the spread of ritual

and teachings
It was in the latter half of the seventeenth century that Edo society
acquired its enduring character. In terms of local society, the period saw
the transformation of the lowest stratum in such a way that families univer-
sally came to operate the principle of individual inheritance by the eldest
son. Accompanying this change in family inheritance, ancestral rites came
to infiltrate local family religious practice. In farming villages of the
medieval period, it was normal for individual families to be organised
together as extended family units under a male head; it would be the
unique responsibility of the head and his family to oversee ancestral rites.
From the end of the medieval period through to the initial stage of the
early modern, however, these extended units began to fragment. Families
splintered off from the head family in proportion as the economy devel-
oped in the locality concerned. In economically advanced areas around
the Home Provinces, this process appeared to begin at an early stage.
Families would splinter, asserting their independence from the head family
and rapidly establish a strong sense of their own distinct identity. This
sense was sustained by an awareness of continuity, stretching back to the
ancestors on the one hand and forward through to future generations on
the other. It was as a reflection of this new awareness that ancestral rites
came to be performed on an individual family basis. Protection of the
family was not a matter uniquely of caring for the living; it was also a
question of giving rest to the souls of the departed.15 Ancestral rites took
their place within the annual ritual cycle, and were linked intimately
to the agricultural calendar. For example, the koshōgatsu (‘little new
year’) celebrations, performed around the time of the full moon in the
first month of the new year, were designed to secure from the kami an
abundant harvest in the coming year, but it was customary, too, on such
occasions to summon the ancestral spirits. Again, the bon festival, known
today for its welcoming of the ancestral spirits, was at the same time a
celebration of a rich harvest.
It was by way of giving religious support to these ancestral rites that
local temples were constructed in many regions of Japan in the early Edo
period. The terauke system, the axis so to speak of the early modern
religious system, was built upon the foundation of the network of temples
constructed now to sustain the new practice of ancestral rites. The terauke
system was ordained by the Edo bakufu initially as a counter-Christian
measure, and was so called because it required of all families in the land
that they ‘receive’ (uke) the beneficence of a Buddhist temple (tera). In
practical terms, Buddhist temples kept records of all the families within
122
1111 their parish, conducting a local census every year. Temples also issued
2 marriage and travel licences. The result of this political responsibility was
3 that temples came to assume tremendous power in the Edo period.
4 At the same time, huge changes were to be observed in the ‘shrine
5 guilds’ or miyaza of the Home Provinces. Village communities structured
6 according to hereditary status were dissolving and being determined anew
7 by economic status. As a consequence, the miyaza ceased to be dominated
8 by one hereditary family; rather, all in the miyaza came to share equally
9 in ritual roles. The new situation did not endure for long since, through
1011 the eighteenth century, a new status system was being formed, and people
1 emerged who were dedicated exclusively to the performance of shrine rites.
2 Here was the first burgeoning of the professional shrine priest.16
13111 At the same time, the latter half of the seventeenth century saw an
4 expansion of urban areas and a corresponding concentration of popula-
5 tion. A national market emerged centred on Osaka and linking Kyoto, Edo
6 and castle towns all over the land. Again, by the middle of the century,
7 farmers, artisans and merchants all over Japan were developing small-scale
8 management skills, and the general populace was acquiring the leisure to
9 participate in cultural activities of various sorts. Such is the background
20111 to the emergence of the Genroku culture in the three cities of Osaka,
1 Kyoto and Edo. (Genroku is the era name for the period 1688–1704).
2 Genroku was Japan’s first genuinely popular culture in which both creators
3 and consumers had their roots in the general populace.
4 Let us turn our attention here to popular festivals. Many of those
5 festivals that are practised to this day trace their origins to Edo Japan. The
6 annual cycle in Edo was structured around the five feast days or gosekku:
7 jinjitsu on the seventh day of the first month; jōshi on the third day of the
8 third month; tango on the fifth day of the fifth month; tanabata on
9 the seventh day of the seventh month; and chōyō on the ninth day of the
30111 ninth month. In the most general sense, these moments in the calendar
1 originate in the rituals of the imperial court, but beyond that they are
2 traceable back to Chinese rites with their distinct emphasis on odd-number
3 days. These festivals came to be observed by people of all classes in Edo
4 Japan after the Edo bakufu accorded them status as national holidays.
5 Jinjitsu was a celebration involving seven types of grass and a rice gruel
6 into which they were mixed. In earlier times, it appears there were seven
7 types of gruel, each made of a different crop (rice and millet among them).
8 In the early Muromachi period, the gruel changed to one containing seven
9 spring grasses. The grasses were gathered on the sixth day, chopped up
40111 during the night in the presence of the kami; on the following day, a gruel
1 was made containing the seven grasses which was then offered to the kami
211 before being consumed.
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E N D Ō J U N
Jōshi has its distant origins in Chinese rites of purification typically

carried out by the water’s edge on the third day of the third month. The
rites and their dates were adopted by the imperial court of Japan in the
Nara period. Dolls were used in the rites for the transference of impuri-
ties, and these were then cast into the water. The practice of displaying
these dolls in the glamorous form we know today in the hina matsuri dates
from the Genroku period. Legend has it that the seated hina dolls now
popular have their origins in a certain act of Tokugawa Kazuko, Ieyasu’s
granddaughter. Kazuko, known to her contemporaries as Tōfukumon’in,
was the mistress of Emperor Go-Mizonoo. They had a daughter, Princess
Okiko, who became Empress Meishō (1623–96) at the age of six. Masako
reckoned that since Okiko became empress at such a young age, she was
destined never to marry and so she made a cloth collage of her daughter
depicting her as the happy person she had seen in a dream. Legend has it
that this cloth collage was the first ever hina doll.
The tango feast similarly has its origins in ancient China; its purpose
was the exorcism of evil influences and involved drinking an alcoholic
brew made of irises, displaying dolls made of yomogi (mugwort), and the
gathering of medicinal herbs. In Nara Japan, tango became instituted as an
annual rite at the imperial court. Irises were offered to the emperor to guard
him from evil; persons attending court would make their offerings wearing
wigs made of iris; banquets and archery competitions were hosted by the
imperial family. In the medieval period, tango became a festival celebrated
by warriors, too. The word for iris in Japanese is shōbu, a homophone for
shōbu in the sense of military spirit and, in the early Edo period, the tango
feast day became a celebration of manhood. Amongst Edo commoners,
too, there spread the practice of displaying dolls of warriors, of Shoki the
‘Devil Destroyer’, of carp and rice-dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Tanabata was imported from ancient China in the Nara period. In origin,
it was a star festival, and celebrated the once-in-a-year meeting of the Altair
and Weaver stars. Women prayed on this day that they might acquire the
finest weaving skills. In the Edo period, it became the norm to buy sticks of
bamboo on the evening of the sixth day and attach coloured paper to them
before suspending them from the eaves of the home. Tanabata established
itself in farming communities in the Edo period since it overlapped with
well-established rites such as the nemuri nagashi or ‘sleep dispelling’ rite.
Taking place as it did just before the heavy labour of the autumn harvest,
the point of the nemuri nagashi was to dispel the sleep-inducing kami. Water
was the essential symbol: it was used for the washing of hair, the dousing of
farm animals, the cleaning of grave sites and the washing out of wells.
Chōyō, too, was Chinese in origin, adopted at the imperial court during
Emperor Tenmu’s reign in the late seventh century. It was a most auspicious
124
1111 day since the greatest of the odd numbers, nine, appeared in both month
2 and day. In Japan, Chinese precedent was followed so that it was celebrated
3 with displays of chrysanthemum and the exchange of cups of rice wine. In
4 the Edo period, chōyō was institutionalised as one of the five feast days.
5 Daimyō would enter Edo castle on this day, and offer their congratulations
6 to the shogun. They would exchange cups of sake in which chrysanthemum
7 flowers floated. At the popular level, chōyō became a vital holiday after
8 the toils of the harvest and was established as the date for autumn festivals
9 everywhere.
1011 The spread to the general populace of these customs, first established in
1 Japan as imperial rites, was accompanied by moves to spread Shinto teach-
2 ings amongst the general populace. The Yoshida family called upon the ser-
13111 vices of such men as Tachibana Mitsuyoshi (1635–1704), Hikita Koremasa,
4 Yoshida Teishun, Aoki Nagahiro, Yoshino Sueaki and other popular schol-
5 ars to disseminate Yoshida Shinto teachings throughout the populace.
6 Tachibana Mitsuyoshi was the pioneer of Shinto sermonising. Mitsuyoshi
7 studied Yoshida Shinto but then broke away and founded a variety he styled
8 Sōgen gojūrokuden shintō (Original Shinto of the fifty-six transmissions),
9 which he began to preach in the Asakusa area of Edo. During 1675–97 he
20111
embarked on a missionary tour of the first shrines throughout Japan.
1
Records of his tour can be found in his Shokoku ichi no miya junkeiki. At each
2
of the first shrines he made an offering of the Nakatomi harae.
3
Hikita Koremasa was a Yoshida preacher who first learned Shinto teach-
4
ings from a priest at the Kitano shrine in Kyoto. His book, Kamikaze no ki,
5
6 a discussion of popular Japanese customs, was published in 1668 in a form
7 accessible to the general populace. His argument began by contrasting
8 Buddhism and Confucianism with Shinto as the fount of all truth, and his
9 comparison encompassed such realms as ethics, sacred sites, festivals,
30111 funerals and taboos. Koremasa located the orthodox Shinto tradition in
1 the Inbe, Urabe (Yoshida) and Nakatomi families but pride of place he
2 gave to Yoshida Shinto.
3 At a somewhat later date, Shinto preachers emerged who were rather
4 more independent of the Yoshida school. The best known of these was
5 Masuho Zankō (1655–1742). Zankō was born in Ōita in Bungo province
6 and converted to Shinto having first trained in Pure Land (Jōdo) and Lotus
7 (Nichiren) Buddhism. In 1719, Zankō joined the Yoshida school and
8 became the head priest of the Asahi Shinmei shrine in Kyoto. He penned
9 numerous works in simple language that deployed straightforward logic so
40111 as to teach Shinto to the general populace. His sermons were constructed
1 around these compositions of his, and he acquired a reputation for the
211 stylish manner of his exposition. A special feature of Zankō’s approach was
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E N D Ō J U N
Ujigami and ubusunagami

Nowadays the distinctions between the kami categories of ujigami,
chinjugami and ubusunagami are much less than clear. Ujigami was a
designation in the ancient period for the ancestral deities of the
family, but in the tumult of the medieval period the homogeneity
of many of these familial groups was undermined, and the original
meaning of rites before the ujigami was in a state of flux. Contem-
poraneously, another development of consequence was taking
place. With the flourishing in the early medieval period of private
estates (shōen), estate owners began to set up shrines to kami
whom they would venerate not as ancestral deities but as guardian
deities (chinjugami) of those estates. In this they were inspired by
the long-established examples of deities who guarded temples and
castles. When the estate system declined later in the medieval
period, the same term for protector guardian deity, namely chinju,
was transferred to all manner of deities long venerated in the
provinces. As the autonomous village began to emerge first in
the Home Provinces, these guardian deities of private estates were
co-opted, as it were, as guardians of these new villages. Again, as
villages merged to create the larger district (gō) units, so were the
estate kami adopted as their protector deities, too.
In the early Edo period, partly because of the veneration showed
by successive shoguns, new importance was attached to the
ubusunagami, or kami of the birth place. In time, the guardian kami
and these ubusunagami came to be regarded as one and the same
deity at the heart of the village community, and both came to be
known by the generic term of ujigami.
In early Edo, there was also a shift in the meaning of the word
ujiko or shrine parishioner. In origin, the term referred to those
in receipt of the blessings of the ancestral deity, but it came to
refer to those who venerated the local guardian deity. The origins
of the present usage of ujigami and ujiko lie here. In any event, the
various terms for kami of different origins came to be used without
distinction.
126
1111
2 Inga and zōka
3
4 Buddhist teachings permeated deep amongst the common people in
5 the Edo period, but critical was the Buddhist idea of inga ōhō, the
6 idea that deeds in a previous life have determined one’s fortune or
7 otherwise in this life; and that deeds in this life will determine one’s
8 fate in future lives. In origin, Buddhist inga ōhō was premised upon
9 the idea of rebirth. The self in this life is a manifest consequence
1011 of the deeds of the self in a previous life; the deeds of the self in
1 this life similarly predetermine the self in the next life. In the
2 Buddhism of early modern Japan, the idea of retribution was under-
13111 stood in the context of the family system. In other words, we in this
4 life are the manifest consequence of our parents’ deeds, and our
5 deeds will exert a profound influence upon our children. Ancestral
6 rites and the idea of inga ōhō merged, then, in Edo Japan as they
7 permeated the hearts of the common people.
8 In the disseminating of Shinto teachings to the general populace
9 in Edo Japan, the issue of inga ōhō was one that could not be side-
20111
stepped. Masuho Zankō told this tale. Two men seek the love of the
1
same woman. The woman is unable to decide between them, and
2
has them compete with each other that she might the better deter-
3
mine which to favour with her affection. She is unable to make
4
5 a decision, however, and in despair takes her life. Both men end
6 their lives, too, to follow her into the next realm. For Zankō, who
7 believed in the imperative of true love, the actions of the two men,
8 motivated by their love of the woman, were morally correct, but the
9 result was nonetheless for him a tragedy. Zankō applied the idea of
30111 inga ōhō to explain the injustice of it all. He said all the tragedy was
1 a consequence of retribution for deeds committed in a previous life.
2 Zankō used the term zōka or ‘creativity’ to refer to the way of the
3 kami rooted in true love. His theory was that behind the diverse
4 events of the world stood the two principles of zōka ‘creativity’ and
5 inga ‘retribution’. To universalise one at the expense of the other
6 was a mistake. Zankō’s ‘achievement’ as a preacher was to promote
7 the Shinto idea of zōka whilst not denying the Buddhist common
8 sense of inga.
9
40111
1
211
127
E N D Ō J U N
his affirmation of sexual desire between men and women, but all his
sermons were popular in approach and focused on familiar themes. This
may help explain why Zankō was frequently the butt of criticism by other
Shintoists and scholars of National Learning.17
The early Edo period saw a proliferation of popular participation in
urban festivals. Yanagita Kunio in his book Nihon no matsuri (‘Japanese
festivals’) has pointed out the need to distinguish between matsuri and
sairei (the former might best be translated here as ‘festival’ and the latter
as ‘spectacle’), and he has examined the process whereby the former trans-
mutes into the latter. According to Yanagita, the shift took place when
the crowd emerged as mere observers rather than active participants in the
events. He saw the influence of urban culture since the medieval period
as a major causal factor here.
It may be suggested that this transposition, the creation of urban spec-
tacles, their development and penetration of the rural periphery, defines
the nature of public spectacle in Edo Japan. The research of recent years
suggests that the shift to the modern form of popular spectacle has its
origins in the early modern period.18 The creation of the tenka matsuri
(‘festivals of the realm’) marks a turning point in the development of
what Yanagita would have defined as the Edo urban spectacle.19 Tenka
matsuri denote three particular events: the Sannō festival of the Hie
shrine, the Kanda festival of the Kanda Myōjin shrine and the one-off
festival of the Nezu shrine. What distinguished these from other events in
Edo was that their processions passed through Edo castle, and were
observed by the shogun himself; their performances were also aided and
regulated by the bakufu. The chronicler, Saitō Gesshin (1804–78), suggests
that by the end of the seventeenth century it had become practice for the
Sannō and Kanda festivals to be held in alternate years.20 Much work
remains to be done on the process of historical change that created these
Edo spectacles, but this much is clear: that they exerted a major influence
on the form of the spectacles performed in castle towns throughout the
Kantō region.
Juke Shinto: Shinto and Confucian rationality

It is well known that Confucian thought was profoundly influential in
early modern Japanese society, but there was never formed a specific
Confucian social class. In China, there was the Confucian bureaucracy and
in Korea, the yangban, both of which were social groupings specialising
in Confucian knowledge. Nothing resembling these groupings emerged in
Japan. Rather, those who studied Confucianism did so in order to consol-
idate their allotted status, their calling and their identity.21 Confucianism
128
1111 also played a vital role in clarifying the calling, the status and the Shinto
2 identity of those who performed rites before the kami and disseminated
3 Shinto doctrine.
4 Juke Shinto or ‘Confucian Shinto’ is the name usually given to Shinto
5 theories deriving from Confucianism. Juke Shinto, as we shall call it here,
6 began with Japanese Confucianists theorising about the nature of Shinto.
7 The Confucian mainstream in early Edo was the Neo-Confucianism of
8 the Song period (960–1279) in China, and the theories of Zhu Xi
9 (1130–1200) were its most important variant. In the formative phase of
1011 the Song period, anti-Buddhism was a major Confucian motif, and in the
1 Song Confucianism adopted in Japan, too, scholars sought to distinguish
2 themselves clearly from Buddhists. At the same time, since Shinto did
13111 not feature in Song Confucian thinking – naturally enough – Japanese
4 Confucianists were led to develop their own approaches. Here, again, the
5 tendency was for a clear distinction to be drawn between Shinto and
6 Buddhism. Fujiwara Seika (1561–1619) is an early example of a Japanese
7 Confucianist who engaged with Shinto. Seika, a descendant of the court
8 poet Fujiwara Teika (1162–1241), began life as a Buddhist priest, and after
9 his father’s death he headed for Kyoto where he studied at the Zenrinji
20111 temple. Later, however, he abandoned Buddhism for Confucianism. His
1 thought drew on Zhu Xi, but his position was one of tolerant accommo-
2 dation towards other schools of Confucianism, such as the school of Wang
3 Yangming (1472–1529); towards Buddhism and towards Shinto as well. In
4 fact, his own Shinto theorising in his Chiyo motokusa did not go much
5 beyond a rather contrived search for analogues between Confucianism
6 and Shinto.
7 Hayashi Razan (1583–1657), a disciple of Seika, promoted a more posi-
8 tive understanding of Shinto. Razan studied Buddhism as a youth though
9 he never took the tonsure. He rapidly acquired renown for the public
30111 lectures he gave in Kyoto on the Analects of Confucius. Razan also incurred
1 the wrath of certain court nobles who regarded Confucian learning as their
2 monopoly. In Edo, Razan was able to get a foothold in bakufu corridors of
3 power on the recommendation of his master, Seika. Razan argued that a
4 clear distinction needed to be drawn between Zhu Xi learning and that of
5 Wang Yangming; he was also ferociously anti-Buddhist. On Shinto, Razan
6 was initiated into Yoshida Shinto teachings, but remained critical of all
7 Shinto teachings, Yoshida teachings included. Yoshida Shinto was the
8 Shinto of fortune tellers and ritual celebrants, he insisted, and he went on
9 to develop his own Confucian-rooted Shinto theory, which he called Ritō
40111 shinchi shintō. Razan argued for the integration of Shinto and Confucian
1 ideas, but Confucianism was always dominant in this thinking and Shinto
211 very much subservient. His ideas were derived specifically from the ri-ki
129
E N D Ō J U N
theories of Song Confucianism. In brief, this theory held that ri (principle)

and ki (manifest form) constituted the origin of all creation. ‘Principle’
existed in all things and constituted their origin, making them what they
are. Kami, he argued, were to be explained in terms of this Neo-Confucian
principle. The way of the kami (shintō) he further identified with ‘the way
of the king’ or political rule. Razan’s ideas lacked systematisation of a sort
which enabled them to be inherited by subsequent generations.
Razan did, however, write a book on shrines; Honchō jinjakō he called it.
His position was anti-Buddhist, and he attacked the merging of Shinto
and Buddhism that defined the religious culture of medieval Japan. The
book was a compendium of major shrines and their deities, their origins,
associated beliefs and recorded miracles. Partly because Razan made ample
use of medieval Buddhist history, such as the Genkō shakusho (1322), the
result of his labours was, ironically, to promote Buddhist theories about
the origins of shrines. Another work of Razan’s, Shintō denju, was an intro-
duction to Yoshida Shinto, Ise Shinto, Sannō Shinto and other forms of
medieval Shinto. The book served subsequently as a basic reference tool
for understanding the Shinto of early modern Japan.
Other Confucianists of a non-Zhu Xi perspective also wrote about
Shinto. Nakae Tōju (1608–48) and Kumazawa Banzan (1619–91) of the
Wang Yangming school and Yamaga Sokō (1622–85), a pioneer of the
Ancient Learning (kogaku) school, were conspicuous among them. Tōju
was from Ōmi province near Kyoto, but served the Ozu domain in
Iyo where he taught himself Confucianism. He was highly suspicious of
varieties of Confucianism that focused on etiquette and ritual, and insisted
that Confucianism acquire an ethical core. He preached the existence of
a transcendental, anthropomorphic deity, and explained Shinto in terms
of the ‘way’ as found in Daoism. Tōju had a steadfast belief in the exist-
ence of various wondrous phenomena and in the ability of spirits to
communicate with humankind.
Banzan, a disciple of Nakae Tōju, held that politics must be conducted
suitably in accord with the age and the national character, a position which
led him to regard Shinto as something uniquely suited to Japan. Yamaga
Sokō, for his part, expounded his own Shinto views in Chūchō jijitsu. He
argued that before the teachings of the sages (that is, Confucianism) came
to Japan, the wisest teachings were to be found in Shinto. Given that
Japan’s imperial family had continued uninterrupted for generation upon
generation, it was clear – he argued – that it was not the Chinese mainland
where the ethical way had first held sway but Japan. It was Japan, then, not
China that was the central dynasty, the centre of civilisation (chūgoku).
Sokō never established his own school, but he exerted a profound influence
on the soon-to-emerge school of National Learning, kokugaku.
130
1111 At the same time, it should be noted that moves were under way on the
2 Shinto side, too, to reinterpret and systematise traditional family scholar-
3 ship using Confucian theory. Yoshikawa Koretari (1616–94), active from
4 the middle to the end of the seventeenth century, was one of these
5 re-interpreters of Shinto. Koretari was adopted into a merchant family in
6 Edo, but retired from business at an early age to devote himself to learn-
7 ing.22 He became a disciple of Hagiwara Kaneyori (1588–1660), a senior
8 adviser to the Yoshida. Fearing the demise of Yoshida Shinto, Kaneyori
9 entrusted to Koretari the school’s secrets. Koretari proceeded to establish
1011 linkages between these Yoshida teachings and Song Confucianism, Yin
1 Yang and the five elements. The product was what we now call Yoshikawa
2 Shinto. Koretari interpreted earth and metal as the source of all creation,
13111 and he read the characters for earth and metal as tsuchi shimaru or the ‘earth
4 compacts’ since, as he explained, metal is formed when earth is compacted.
5 He saw here a linkage, owing to homophonous coincidence, with the
6 Japanese virtue of tsutsushimi or self-denial. He explained that this tsut-
7 sushimi or self-denial was the path to the sincerity that is the true way of
8 the kami; and that harae or purification was the means to attain this true
9 way. Koretari did not, however, go so far as to coordinate Yoshida Shinto
20111 and Song Confucianism into a seamless whole.
1 Koretari also established intimate links with the bakufu. Hoshina
2 Masayuki (1611–72), Tokugawa Iemitsu’s stepbrother and the lord of Aizu
3 domain, became a disciple of Koretari’s Shinto and was initiated into
4 Yoshida secrets, and this led to Koretari being employed by the bakufu as
5 Shintōkata, or Shinto specialist. This is important in terms of understanding
6 the influence Yoshida Shinto was able to exert in matters of shrine admin-
7 istration. Takano Toshihiko has argued that when the bakufu employed
8 Koretari it was proclaiming the fact that it favoured Yuiitsu Shinto, and
9 not Ryōbu Shinto with its orientation towards the merging of Shinto
30111 and Buddhism.23
1 There were yet other scholars who, having being initiated into Shinto
2 secrets, reinterpreted those Shinto teachings anew through a Confucian
3 lens, so to speak. Deguchi Nobuyoshi (1615–90), a priest in the Outer
4 Shrine at Ise with good contacts in daimyō, court and Confucian circles, was
5 typical in this regard. The conflict between northern and southern courts
6 (1336–92) put an end to the conspicuous activities of Ise Shinto, and sacred
7 texts were lost in fires as conflict between the Inner and Outer Shrines at
8 Ise grew in intensity during the Muromachi period. Nobuyoshi and his son
9 Nobutsune (1657–1714) were, between them, responsible for the revival of
40111 Ise teachings in the Edo period. They not only created an archive known as
1 the Toyomiyazaki bunko, they set out to borrow missing classics and Shinto
211 texts from different traditions and had their disciples transcribe them.
131
E N D Ō J U N
This Ise revival was, in intellectual terms, a Confucian-inspired system-

atisation of Ise teachings. In Ise since medieval times, there had been moves
to construct distinct identities for Shinto and Buddhism but, by introducing
Song Confucianism with its anti-Buddhist proclivities, Nobuyoshi used a
Shinto-Confucian standpoint to argue Shinto’s essential distinctiveness
from Buddhism. In this way, he formulated a new body of teachings. Deguchi
Nobuyoshi focused particularly on divination based on the Book of Changes
(Yijing), and argued the essential oneness of the way of divination and the
way of the kami. At the time, there were few Shinto publications at large,
but Nobuyoshi changed that. He wrote about his different Shinto theories
in an accessible fashion and published them as Yōfuku ki (1650), his aim
being to disseminate Ise Shinto far and wide. Nobuyoshi’s publication activ-
ities marked a departure from earlier practice when Shinto theories were
typically transmitted from father to son within a given family.
Suika Shinto: the subtle linkage between

Shinto and Confucianism
In addition to Shinto teachings built upon the academic traditions of
specific Shinto families from one generation to the next, there also
emerged men who, while inspired by Confucian thought, came to formu-
late their own unique Shinto theories. These men were not themselves
born into Shinto families but rather scraped together different Shinto
theories from different schools and began to systematise them after their
own fashion. Yamazaki Ansai (1616–82) was such a man.24 Ansai began
life as a Buddhist priest; he then learned Zhu Xi studies in Tosa province
which prompted his departure from the priesthood. Returning to Kyoto,
he practised as a Confucianist, and later he divided his time between Kyoto
and Edo. Ansai was invited as a special guest by the Aizu lord, Hoshina
Masayuki, and remained in touch until death separated them. Presently,
he was initiated by Kawabe Kiyonaga (1601–88), the Chief priest of the
Ise shrines – Kawabe was another man who spent time as a Buddhist priest
– into the mysteries of the Nakatomi harae. Yoshikawa Koretari, whom he
met through Masayuki, initiated him into Yoshida Shinto, after which time
he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the study of Shinto. Ansai subse-
quently received from the Yoshida family the Shijū okuhi no den (‘the
transmission of the forty secrets’), and the right to refer to his shrine with
the title reisha or ‘spirit shrine’. During his life, he venerated his own spirit
at the Suika reisha shrine. Ansai claimed to find scriptural basis for this
veneration, but the practice was in fact quite unheard of before. The word
suika, with which he defined his own brand of Shinto, derived from an
132
1111 oracle recorded in Yamato-hime no mikoto seiki, a thirteenth-century text of

2 Ise Shinto: ‘To receive divine beneficence (sui), give priority to prayer; to
3 obtain divine protection (ka), make uprightness your basis.’25
4 There was a Zhu Xi and a Shinto strain to Ansai’s scholarship. Ansai
5 was clearly anxious to be seen as faithful to Zhu Xi teachings. The orthodox
6 approach to Confucian learning among his contemporaries involved
7 studying Zhu Xi through commentaries on his work written by scholars of
8 later ages. Ansai sought to return, rather, to Zhu Xi’s own thought in order
9 to expose its true meaning. In Ansai’s understanding, kei ‘respect’ occu-
1011 pied a place of especial importance in Zhu Xi thought, and he advanced
1 his own theories about the centrality of keinai gigai, the idea that respect
2 lies ‘within’ (nai) and rectitude (gi) lies ‘without’ (gai). He derived this
13111 position from a commentary by the Cheng brothers on a passage in the
4 Eki kyo. The phrase the Cheng brothers focused on was ‘one must consol-
5 idate one’s inner spirit with respect (kei), and give direction to the exterior
6 with rectitude (gi)’.
7 The Shinto promoted by Ansai was known as Suika Shinto because of
8 the Suika name he gave to his shrine. Ansai identified kami with the prin-
9 ciple (ri) of Song Confucianism. In Song Confucianism, the principle that
20111 adheres in all of creation is understood to partake ultimately of the heav-
1 enly principle (tenri) or providence; the principle inherent in the heavens
2 (ten) the principle in humankind (jin) were further interpreted as identical
3 (tenjin gōitsu). Ansai understood the kami of Shinto to correspond to this
4 universal principle, and he grasped the creation of the world, which in Song
5 scholarship was explained by principle and material form, as the work of the
6 various Shinto deities. In the hearts of humans who were all born by the
7 actions of these kami, there dwelt the spirit of the same kami, and it was
8 thus that heaven and humans found identity one with the other. This is
9 what Ansai meant when he spoke of the identical way of heaven and man
30111 (tenjin yuiitsu no michi). Ansai believed this principle to be manifest in the
1 chapters on the Age of the Gods in the Nihon shoki. These theories he trans-
2 mitted to his successors as Tenjin yuiitsu den (‘transmission of the identity of
3 heaven and man’). What characterised Ansai’s theory, in short, was the
4 idea that kami dwelled in the human heart, and it was this, of course, that
5 explained how Ansai came to venerate his own spirit during his lifetime.
6 Other pillars in Ansai’s Shinto teachings were tsutsushimi and the afore-
7 mentioned ‘respect’ or kei. Medieval Ise Shinto developed theories on the
8 concept of tsutsushimi long before Ansai’s time, but in all likelihood it was
9 Yoshikawa Koretari who exerted the more immediate influence on Ansai.
40111 Koretari’s theories we have already encountered, but Ansai took ‘respect’
1 or kei – the core of Zhu Xi teaching as he understood it – to be synonym-
211 ous with tsutsushimi. This opened for him the possibility of identifying
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Zhu Xi teachings with Shinto. The ‘heart’ (kokoro) was the intermediary.
For Ansai, the heart was the locus for the merging of heaven and man,
and tsutsushimi defined those actions that sought to achieve this state of
unity. The practical measures required to achieve the purity of one’s own
heart, Ansai insisted, were ‘prayer’ and ‘sincerity’ (shōjiki). He brought
these ideas together in the esoteric text Tsuchishimi no den and, along with
Tenjin yuiitsu no den, it came to constitute a core Suika Shinto text.
‘Respect’ or kei and tsutsushimi were the keys to unlocking the meaning
of ethical relationships. Of all the ethical relationships, Ansai gave greatest
weight to that between lord and vassal. Ansai read the chapters on the
Age of the Gods in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki and traced through them
the way of the lord as it endured unbroken from Amaterasu through to
the present emperor. His argument was that Amaterasu was both Sun
Goddess and the founder of the imperial line. Thus were made manifest
the identity between heaven and humankind. Shinto was one with the
way of the emperors. The three treasures were unchanged since the descent
to earth of Ninigi; the emperors, who transmitted them from one genera-
tion to the next, continued in a line unbroken for all eternity. Thus was
the way of the lord unbroken in Japan. At the same time, Ansai’s under-
standing of the way of the vassal was linked to the himorogi and iwasaka,
structures used in rites before the kami. In one book of the chapters on
the Age of the Gods, Takamimusubi has Ame no Koyane and Futodama
hold the himorogi and iwasaka just at the moment of Ninigi’s descent to
earth and use them in rites on behalf of Ninigi. Ansai’s reading of this
moment was that the himorogi symbolised protection of the lord and the
iwasaka denoted the way of the lord and vassal. Here he located the origins
of the linkage between emperor on the one hand and the way of the lord
and vassal on the other. In brief, what Ansai did was infuse the lord/vassal
relationship with a new Shinto meaning.
Ansai’s Shinto theories were an attempt to interpret and systematise
various different Shinto teachings prevalent since the medieval period
and to establish linkages with Confucianism. In intellectual terms, his
approach can be counted as a Confucian reading of Shinto. Ansai himself
regarded Confucianism and Shinto as two aspects of a single truth, but he
nonetheless drew a clear distinction between them and warned sternly
against merging or mixing them. He referred to his own position as that
of shinju kengaku or ‘Shinto and Confucianism in parallel’.
Suika Shinto was unique, too, in terms of its initiations. The prevalent
practice in Shinto circles of transmitting mysteries was to inscribe them
on a piece of paper, but Ansai favoured oral transmission. He warned
against the dangers of passing on mysteries to a single individual, but
insisted nonetheless that teachings once transmitted should not be
134
1111 divulged. A tension remained between secrecy – which he advocated with

2 a passion – and openness, which was an unforeseen consequence of his
3 synthesis and systematisation of medieval Shinto secrets.
4 After Ansai’s death, the Confucian-Shinto identification that he
5 favoured was lost as his disciples tended to favour – and so to study and
6 pass on – either the Confucian or the Shinto side to his teachings. The
7 Confucian strain became known as Kimongaku (ki being the Chinese
8 reading of the zaki character in Yamazaki), and three disciples of Ansai’s
9 made a name for themselves here: Satō Naokata (1650–1719), Asami
1011 Keisai (1652–1711), and Miyake Shōsai (1662–1741). They were known
1 as the ‘three geniuses of Kimongaku’ (kimon sanketsu), and each went
2 on to create his own school. Naokata entered Ansai’s school in Kyoto,
13111 but left in protest at his increasingly Shinto leanings; Keisai began his
4 professional life as a doctor, but then studied Zhu Xi with Ansai. He,
5 too, went his own way as Ansai appeared to over-stress Shinto teachings.
6 Keisai’s loyalist tract Seiken yuigen exerted a profound influence on the
7 pro-emperor movement of the late Edo period with its exposition of
8 the ideal ethical relationship between sovereign and subject.
9 The Shinto dimension to Ansai’s work was promoted by numerous
20111 diverse groups: Hoshina Masayuki and others from Aizu domain consti-
1 tuted one such group. Then there were members of hereditary shrine
2 priest families from the Kyoto area like the senior courtier, Ōgimachi
3 Kinmichi (1653–1733), to whom Ansai transmitted the Nakatomi no harae
4 fūsuisō, the single most important work in Suika Shinto; Izumoji Nobunao
5 (1650–1703), a priest at the Shimo goryōsha shrine in Kyoto, a close
6 companion of Kinmichi and, like him, entrusted with Suika Shinto
7 secrets; and Nashinoki Sukeyuki (1639–1723), priest at the Kamo Mioya
8 shrine in Kyoto. Again, there were men from Aki like Ueda Gensetsu
9 (1651–1735) and Katō Kōken (dates unknown); others like Tamaki
30111 Masahide (1670–1736), the man responsible for disseminating Kikke
1 Shinto in Edo Japan, and Atobe Yoshiakira (1658–1729) and Tomobe
2 Yasutaka (1667–1740) from Edo. Ōgimachi Kinmichi it was who, after
3 Ansai’s death, inherited the orthodox line of Suika Shinto. When
4 Kinmichi became the head of the Suika school, Suika Shinto began to
5 make its mark amongst the nobility at the imperial court in Kyoto.
6 Indeed, the regent Ichijō Kaneteru (1652–1705) became a Suika disciple,
7 and it was Kaneteru who was more responsible than any for reviving
8 the daijōsai enthronement rite for Emperor Higashiyama (r. 1687–1709).
9 The retired emperor Reigen (r. 1663–87; d. 1732) encountered Suika
40111 Shinto through Ichijō Kaneteru, and had his spirit enshrined in a sacred
1 mirror while still alive. The regent Ichijō Kaneyoshi (1692–1751) won
211 imperial sanction for the worship of the spirits of three deceased emperors,
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E N D Ō J U N
namely Reigen, Higashiyama and Nakamikado (r. 1710–35), as kami.

It was around this time, too, that other important court rites were resur-
rected, and Suika Shinto played its part in authorising and giving meaning
to the activities of those charged with ensuring the rites were faithfully
performed.
In the Shirakawa Shinto family, Shirakawa Masafuyu, the senior Jingikan
official at court, learned Suika Shinto from Kaneteru and took as his
teacher Usui Masatane of the Suika school. The Shirakawa family used
Suika Shinto to bolster their own position at court, especially with regard
to the performance of court ritual. It was in this context in 1751, that the
Shirakawa oversaw the rebuilding of the Hasshinden, the shrine of the
Eight protector deities. They also now began to use their Suika Shinto
connections to expand their role as court intermediary for provincial
shrines and priests seeking court rank and status, and this inevitably
brought them into conflict with the Yoshida school, who until now had
had an effective monopoly here.
The Tsuchimikado family of the court’s Yin Yang school (onmyōdō in
Japanese) also used Suika Shinto influence to help systematise their teach-
ings and ritual practice.26 At the end of the medieval period, privileged
knowledge of onmyōdō was in the possession of three different families:
the Tsuchimikado, who were astronomers; the calendar specialists of the
Kamo family; and the Ōkuro family who presided over the New Year
celebrations at court. Of these it was the Tsuchimikado, however, who
survived through to the early modern period. The family head at the end
of the seventeenth century, Tsuchimikado Yasutomi (1655–1717), studied
Suika Shinto and sought to systematise its teachings and ritual practices.
The Tsuchimikado family won a major legal battle in the 1680s, and with
sanction from emperor Reigen and a licence from the bakufu to assume
control over all the Yin Yang specialists in the land, the Tsuchimikado
set about creating a comprehensive country-wide organisational structure.
It was not really until 1791, when the bakufu made public for the first
time the Tsuchimikado’s authority over Yin Yang specialists, that real
organisational change began to manifest itself. The Tsuchimikado family
assumed responsibility for performing all manner of private and public
rituals connected with astronomy, the calendar and with imperial
enthronements. They served not only the imperial court but the military
leadership as well.
The afore-mentioned Tamaki Masahide was a unique figure amongst
Suika Shinto disciples. He appears to have been initiated into the mysteries
of Kikke Shinto, a variety that traces its origins back to the Nara period
courtier Tachibana Moroe (684–757) but only acquired renown owing to
the efforts of Tamaki Masahide. In his later years, Masahide became a
136
1111 senior disciple of Ōgimachi Kinmichi with whom he studied Suika Shinto.
2 Masahide used knowledge of Suika Shinto to give structure to his Kikke
3 Shinto. It was less a question of Kikke ideas than Kikke ritual practices,
4 such as the hikime and meigen, that he subjected to Suika influence. Both
5 were designed to dispel evil spirits: the former involved plucking the string
6 of a bow with the fingers, the latter plucking the bow string with the head
7 of an arrow to produce a higher pitched sound. Masahide introduced a
8 military colouring to his writings, too, drawing on military theory preva-
9 lent since the medieval period. As a result of Masahide’s efforts, Kikke
1011 Shinto became to be widely known in Edo Japan and it was espoused by
1 many others, such as Tanigawa Kotosuga (1709–76) and Yoshimi Yoshikazu
2 (1673–1761). Masahide stressed the importance of the secret transmission
13111 of Shinto, whether it be Suika or Kikke varieties, but after his death, no
4 independent school of Kikke Shinto formed; rather it was passed on as an
5 integral component of Suika Shinto.
6 Atobe Yoshiakira and Tomobe Yasutaka were responsible for dissemin-
7 ating Suika Shinto in Edo. They were schooled in both Suika Shinto and,
8 via Satō Naokata, Yamazaki Ansai’s Confucian teachings, but both aban-
9 doned Ansai Confucianism in favour of his Shinto. They received their
20111 initiation into its mysteries from Ōgimachi Kinmichi in Kyoto before
1 heading for Edo. Yoshiakira penned a volume of Ansai’s Shinto teachings
2 which he styled Suika-ō shintōkyō no den. Both men gradually distanced
3 themselves from Kinmichi and were finally disowned by him. It was
4 inevitable that, as Suika Shinto teachings spread and its organisation
5 expanded, so the centripetal force of the Ōgimachi family became corres-
6 pondingly weaker.
7 An incident in the imperial court makes the point. I refer to the so-
8 called Hōreki incident of 1758 (Hōreki 8). Takeuchi Shikibu (1712–67),
9 a servant in the Tokudaiji court household, was a student of Suika Shinto
30111 and Kikke Shinto, which he learned with Matsuoka Obuchi (1699–1783)
1 and Tamaki Masahide. Shikibu was additionally familiar with Wakabayashi
2 Kyōsai (1679–1732), a Suika Shinto disciple. Shikibu’s theories made their
3 presence felt on young courtiers in the entourage of Emperor Momozono
4 (r. 1747–62), via the intermediary Tokudaiji Kinmura. Especially im-
5 portant were ideas of Takeuchi’s that offered an intellectual justification
6 for a return of political power to the imperial court. Tokudaiji Kinmura
7 took it upon himself to lecture Momozono on the Suika Shinto reading
8 of the chapters on the Age of the Gods in the Nihon shoki. Senior figures
9 in the court regarded these actions as an unwelcome departure from the
40111 established practice of court–bakufu cooperation. They had Kinmura
1 and his allies punished and Shikibu, too, was expelled from Kyoto. It was
211 the position of Suika Shinto that the court should not involve itself with
137
E N D Ō J U N
Shinsōsai: Shinto and funerals

In the Edo period, not only were all Japanese required to register
at the local Buddhist temple, they were also required by law to
avail themselves of the temple’s service for funeral rites. By way of
reaction to this universal imposition of Buddhist funerals, there
emerged, especially among Shinto families, demands for non-
Buddhist, Shinto funerals. The premise for the Shinto funeral move-
ment was that Japan must have had its own indigenous funeral
practice before Buddhism arrived from the continent. The Yoshida
family was the first to systematise Shinto thought and ritual practice
in the Edo period, and funerals were part of their general concern
as well. But Yoshida Shinto funeral rites only became well known
later in the Edo period. In fact, the first to debate the performance
of funeral rites outside the established Buddhist framework were
Confucianists and Confucian-inspired Shintoists. Funerals were im-
portant to them as part of their on-going efforts to ‘Japanise’ ritual
practice. Zhu Xi type funeral rites are set out in the Karei text, and
such development as there was in Confucian funeral practice in Edo
Japan owed much to this classic work. Nakae Tōju’s funeral in 1648
was one of the first to be conducted beyond Buddhist boundaries. We
saw that Tōju was inclined favourably towards Shinto but his own
funeral was in fact Confucian. The series of funerals overseen by
Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700) in the 1660s were based on the
ritual formulae in the Karei.28 Kumazawa Banzan was another
Confucianist who engaged in debate about funeral practice. Banzan’s
Sōsai benron and the Sōreiryaku of Ogyū Sorai (1666–1728) are
well-known examples of Confucian writings on funerals.
When Confucian-inspired Shintoists abandoned Buddhist funerals,
they cited Karei in their defence. The funeral of Hoshina Masayuki,
lord of Aizu domain, was carried out under the supervision of a
Yoshikawa Shinto priest, albeit in a distinctly Confucian style.
Several of Yamazaki Ansai’s disciples debated Shinto funeral rites,
too, and by about the middle of the eighteenth century, it was
increasingly common for even local shrine priests to demand Shinto
funeral rites at least for themselves. Shrine priests started around
this time to conceive of themselves as a different sort of religionist
to the local Buddhist priest; they saw Buddhists as their oppressors,
138
1111
2 on account of the law demanding they undergo Buddhist funerals;
3 and they sought liberation from that oppression. The growing
4 awareness on the part of shrine priests of their difference and unique-
5 ness was, of course, closely connected to the expansion of the
6 roles of the Yoshida and Shirakawa families as court intermediaries.
7 These families also embraced religionists who, until now, had no
8 particular attachment to any Shinto school. There began now to
9
emerge many self-consciously Shinto shrine priests. They sought
1011
out Shinto funerals as qualitatively distinct from Buddhist funerals,
1
and demanded to be freed from the restrictions imposed by the
2
temple parish system. When ‘Restoration Shinto’ made its appear-
13111
4 ance in the nineteenth century, certain well-to-do peasants turned
5 to Shinto funeral rites. The feeling grew that any ‘restoration’ to the
6 ways of pre-Buddhist Japan had to be accompanied by a return to
7 the Shinto funerals believed to have existed in the pre-Buddhist his-
8 tory of Japan.
9 After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Shinto funerals, legitimated
20111 by restorationist ideology, were promoted by government as part of
1 the general drive to demarcate distinct Shinto and Buddhist spheres
2 of activity. The early Meiji government set aside the Aoyama
3 cemetery in Tokyo – and other sites in other cities – as Shinto grave-
4 yards, and expended considerable effort on the design of uniform
5 Shinto funeral rites. Disputes between rival Shinto factions stymied
6 these efforts, however, and only the most basic guide to funeral prac-
7 tice was ever produced by the state. In many localities, the Meiji
8 Restoration inspired moves to adopt Shinto funerals on a village or
9 hamlet basis, but it was not long before the vast majority reverted
30111 to the Buddhist mode.
1
2
3
4 politics but should devote itself uniquely to ritual, but Shikibu’s more
5 radical ideas on the role of the imperial court were understood by those
6 around him to be Suika Shinto pure and simple.27
7
8
Confraternities (kō) and fashionable deities:
9
the birth of cross-regional religious communities
40111
1 In the later half of the seventeenth century, Japanese society began to
211 adopt what we might call its early modern form. After the middle of the
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E N D Ō J U N
eighteenth century there then unfolded changes which would lead Japan
ultimately to modernisation. Already from the seventeenth century, there
were developments in the production of goods and crops as well as in
manufacturing, but in this latter period the scale and pace of change was
of a different order. These developments brought in their wake changes
that began to affect the whole of society.
One dimension of this change took place in urban areas. The develop-
ment of the economy was accompanied by a large influx of people into
urban areas as they experienced unprecedented growth. As production of
goods and crops advanced and local markets were formed, so Edo, with its
huge market, flexed its economic muscle. At the same time, the Osaka-
Kyoto region, the heart of Japanese culture until now, ceded precedence
to Edo. Edo became the cultural capital of Japan. The carriers of Edo
culture were no longer the samurai, but increasingly urban dwellers them-
selves, including some of the lowest classes.29
It was against this background that pilgrimage to temples and shrines
became ever more popular. The medieval period had already seen the
growth of pilgrimage to distant temples and shrines, but the phenomenon
was confined to the Home Provinces. In the early modern period, with the
improvement in the road network and the enhanced economic strength
of the common people, the sphere of pilgrimage expanded. Around the
Genroku period (c.1700), more and more people went on pilgrimage to
the island of Shikoku, but with Edo emerging as the cultural centre later
in the eighteenth century, there was an upsurge in pilgrimage by the popu-
lace of Edo and the wider Kantō region. People formed confraternities,
known in Japanese as kō, to facilitate pilgrimage. These confraternities
were essentially mutual-aid associations, and the typical pilgrimage would
involve a kō representative going on pilgrimage, funded by other members’
contributions. Representative of these confraternities were the Mt Fuji
confraternities (Fuji-kō) that organised pilgrimage to Mt Fuji. Fuji-kō were
first established by a mountain ascetic, Hasegawa Kakugyō (1541?–1646?),
some time between the 1620s and 1640s, and their popularity increased
until a high point was reached in the early nineteenth century, with
pilgrims from all over the Kantō area converging on Mt Fuji.30 Kakugyō
underwent ascetic disciplines at the foot of Mt Fuji, and claimed as a result
to be endowed with the spiritual powers and the spells essential to the
redemption of all people. Kakugyō compiled what became the basic text
of Mt Fuji believers, the Ominuki, a map of Fuji studded with Kakugyō’s
characters. Kakugyō also actively promoted his healing skills which won
him attention in early Edo when numerous diseases were rampant. In the
first half of the eighteenth century, the cult of Mt Fuji was invigorated
by the activities of Jikigyō Miroku (1671–1733).31 There was a millennial
140
1111 dimension to Jikigyō’s teachings. Following his ascent of Mt Fuji in 1688,

2 he received a revelation that faith in Mt Fuji was vital to the realisation
3 of Maitreya’s realm. The magic dimension to the cult of Mt Fuji was,
4 nonetheless, diluted under Jikigyō’s influence, since he emphasised prac-
5 tical ethics for daily life. Mt Fuji was, of course, not the only Kantō
6 pilgrimage site. Pilgrimage to Ōyama was immensely popular in Edo and
7 throughout the whole Kantō region. So too, if rather further afield, were
8 Narita in present day Chiba and Konpira in what is, today, Kagawa.
9 The pilgrims to Fuji and other sites tended to be drawn from the region
1011 in which the sacred site was located, but Ise was one pilgrimage site that
1 was country-wide in its appeal. Ise confraternities (Ise-kō) were formed
2 all over Japan. Sometimes individual representatives would head for Ise
13111 alone; on other occasions, wave after wave of pilgrims would set off. The
4 latter phenomenon was known as okagemairi. The term has two possible
5 meanings: ‘pilgrimage (mairi) thanks to (okage) other members of the
6 kō’ or ‘pilgrimage to offer thanks (okage) to the Ise shrine kami’. On
7 four occasions, 1650, 1750, 1771 and 1830, pilgrims numbered in their
8 hundreds of thousands and even millions. The 1770 pilgrimage is said to
9 have involved some two million people. Distinct from these occasions
20111 were others, known as nukemairi, when men, women and children all over
1 Japan, would set off without permission from master or employer and
2 would, with no concern for correct travel procedures, head for Ise. They
3 would effectively abscond (nuke) on pilgrimage.32
4 An important Edo phenomenon is that of hayarigami or ‘fashionable
5 deities’, deities, that is, which were the object of intense popular venera-
6 tion for a while before slipping back into obscurity.33 Inari was one of the
7 deities who was the object of such veneration in Edo. Few shrines were
8 built to Inari in Edo during the seventeenth century, though cases of Inari
9 cults springing up in the provinces were reported. But around the Genroku
30111 period, Inari began to attract attention in villages around Edo as a deity
1 endowed with miraculous powers. By the end of the eighteenth century,
2 Inari shrines were being built all over Edo. Not only Inari became the focus
3 of Edo cults; Jizō was another, and it even happened that natural objects
4 of various sorts were identified as kami or Buddhas, and their miraculous
5 powers and this-worldly benefits sought out. Belief in these fashionable
6 deities would thrive fanatically for a while only, then typically, to die down
7 as fashion became unfashionable, perhaps to be rekindled later once more.
8 What was striking here was the emergence of religious beliefs and practices,
9 quite independent of established religions.
40111 In Edo, established temples and shrines would seek to take advantage
1 of popular faith by exposing, for fixed periods, statues of Buddhas and other
211 sacred objects and treasures in their possession. Sometimes the expositions
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E N D Ō J U N
(known as kaichō) took place at the temples and shrines; sometimes temple
and shrine priests would embark on tours to different parts to exhibit their
sacred objects. Generally, priests sought to generate a festive atmosphere,
and the offerings made by the faithful were an invaluable source of income.
Temples and shrines would also set up stalls for food and drink within their
precincts and offer various entertainments, all in an effort to draw people
in and bolster incomes.
The calendar was intimately linked to pilgrimage. With the calendar
revision of 1684, the bakufu assumed for itself what had been the
imperial court’s right to revise and re-edit the calendar. The bakufu now
assumed control over astronomical matters, but the Tsuchimikado court
family continued to pen commentaries on the calendar, and advised on
auspicious times and directions and on various taboos as well. Until 1684,
local calendars were produced all over Japan but, henceforth, the inde-
pendent production of private calendars was banned. What was allowed,
and what subsequently proliferated, were abbreviated versions of the
official calendar with commentaries attached. That the common people
now began to speak of ehō in the sense of ‘auspicious directions’ was a
reflection of the broad appeal that these abbreviated calendars had. People
came to situate their kami altars in auspicious directions and to take care
to set off in an auspicious direction for, say, the first visit of the year to
the temple or shrine.
In rural Japan, at least in the Home Provinces in the latter half of the
seventeenth century, the old village hierarchies began to dissolve and be
replaced by a new hierarchy based more on economic power. As economic
power grew still more, the status hierarchy once more dissolved and a new
family-based class system emerged. In this context, there rose to promin-
ence men in considerable numbers who functioned as professional shrine
priests. Elsewhere, there were moves to oust priests of privilege from the
village and so shrine priests’ status was somewhat fluid. The fact that shrine
priests now began to demand the right to perform Shinto funerals for them-
selves and their families was a concrete manifestation of the strengthening
of their sense of distinct identity. It was against this background that the
court mediation problem was exacerbated. The Yoshida family responded
to the fluid nature of the shrine priests’ profession by seeking to enhance
their control. The bakufu’s regulations on the control of shrines and their
priests worked to the advantage of the Yoshida, as we have seen and, after
persistent lobbying, the Yoshida finally succeeded in getting the bakufu to
re-issue in 1782 the earlier Edo edict on shrines and priests. In 1791, the
Yoshida family set up a Kantō office and worked to expand their influence
and control over priests in the east of Japan. At the same time, the
Shirakawa family, invigorated by their absorption of Suika Shinto theories,
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1111
2 Shichi-go-san
3
4 The rites known as shichi-go-san (meaning seven, five and three
5 [years old]) were events in the Edo life cycle that are, to this day,
6 typically conducted at shrines. The rites were undergone by boys at
7 three and five, and girls at three and seven. Their origins lie in three
8 separate rites originally known as kamioki or ‘leaving the hair’,
9 hakamagi or ‘wearing the hakama’ and obitoki or ‘untying the belt’,
1011 respectively.
1 Kamioki was a rite commemorating the moment beyond which
2 the child let his or her hair grow. It was customary in pre-modern
13111 Japan for babies to have their heads shaven, and children of court
4 families would then undergo the kamioki aged two while, for babies
5 born into warrior families, the typical age was three. The rite
6
involved the child donning a wig of long white thread, and praying
7
for a long life. The custom appears to date back to the Muromachi
8
9 period, but it may be older still. Kamioki was typically carried
20111 out on the fifteenth day of the eleventh month in the lunar
1 calendar.
2 Hakamagi was a ceremony for both boys and girls of ages three to
3 seven when they would, for the first time, wear a hakama. It was a
4 rite of passage that had its origins in the Heian court. Elders of the
5 family concerned would provide the hakama and tie the hakama belt
6 around the child’s waist. It thus represented the first formal recog-
7 nition by the family, of the child as a fully fledged family member.
8 The hakama worn by the child differed from that worn by adults
9 only in that it lacked the yubinuki, though the reasons are not clear.
30111 Perhaps, the idea was simply to leave the hakama as yet incomplete.
1 It was in the Kamakura period that warrior families began to adopt
2 this ceremony.
3 Himotoki or himohajime was a rite for boys and girls aged seven,
4
the central moment of which saw the child tying his or her own
5
belt, in place of the simple cord used till now. It appeared to have
6
its origins among the court nobility in the late Muromachi period.
7
8 Initially, nine-year-old boys and girls would choose an auspicious
9 day in the eleventh lunar month for the ceremony. But, by the
40111 middle of the Edo period, it became customary for hakamagi to be
1 performed in a boy’s fifth year, and himotoki to take place in the
211
143
E N D Ō J U N
seventh year. The general protocol was for the child to face an
auspicious direction, and to have his sponsor tie the belt for him
or her before all headed off to the local shrine.
It was in the Edo period that these three rites came to be regarded
as a single unit with shrine visits de rigueur. The late Edo period
work, Tōto saijiki (‘Customs of the Eastern Capital’), reports that
children would wear new clothing reflective of their social status,
visit their local shrine, call in at relatives’ houses and, at night time,
welcome relatives and friends for festivities. Early on, an auspicious
day in the eleventh month was chosen but, by the time the Tōto
saijiki was written, the fifteenth day appears to have become
customary. Legend has it that Tokugawa Tokumatsu, the future fifth
shogun, Tsunayoshi (1646–1709), had his obitoki on the fifteenth
day. The linkage between these various coming of age rites and
shrines is to be noted.
In the early Edo period, these rites, known collectively as shichi-
go-san, were the preserve of the court and warrior families. Later,
they caught on amongst the wider urban population. The bakufu
ordered a frugal approach to these rites in warrior families, but
urban class versions were renowned for their extravagance. Around
the turn of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, the custom
of shichi-go-san began to catch on in rural areas, too. It was not
until the Meiji period, however, that it became a nation-wide
phenomenon.
also began to extend their services as court intermediaries to local priests,

and the numbers of those who affiliated themselves with the Shirakawa
grew apace. The Shirakawa also set up an office in Edo and competition
and conflict between them and the Yoshida was constant.
The circumstances of Buddhist temples changed now too. New eco-
nomic wealth in villages combined with the establishment of the early
modern family system. Temples and their priests occupied positions of
considerable wealth which they derived from the economically improved
circumstances of their parishioners. One implication was that temples and
priests came to be seen as economic and political oppressors, which led, in
turn, to a burgeoning of anti-Buddhist sentiment. One intellectual response
to this anti-Buddhism was to be found in the activities of the Shingon
Buddhist priest Jiun (1718–1804), who promoted what he called Unden
144
1111 Shinto.34 Jiun, a student of both Ryōbu Shinto and of the Confucianism of
2 Itō Tōgai (1670–1738), argued that Shinto and Esoteric Buddhism were
3 one and the same, and that there was no need to approach Shinto through
4 contrived analogies with Buddhist and Confucian doctrine.
5 There was, in brief, a whole raft of changes to the world of Japanese
6 belief from the middle of the eighteenth century onwards. Pilgrimage to
7 more distant temples and shrines and the cults of fashionable kami marked
8 the advent of patterns of belief that crossed the boundaries of established
9 social organisations. The character of religionists changed, too. Men
1011 became shrine priests and dedicated themselves exclusively to that calling.
1 New forms of organisation also appeared: the confraternities (kō) and the
2 Yoshida and Shirakawa affiliations. All of these moves determined the
13111 substance of Shinto as it was on the eve of modernity.
4
5
National Learning (kokugaku): development of
6
Shinto-based learning
7
8 Two characteristic features of eighteenth-century culture were the rise in
9 general intellectual standards and the spread of literacy. The dissemin-
20111 ation of Confucianism had a major role to play here. As domain schools
1 were set up all over Japan in the eighteenth century and Confucian educa-
2 tion was provided for men of the warrior class so, at the same time, did
3 private Confucian schools spring up to meet the needs of the better-off
4 class of commoner. Again, from the end of the seventeenth through to
5 the start of the eighteenth centuries, there were established so-called
6 tenarai-juku (academies of learning) where literacy skills were taught, and
7 terakoya (temple schools) where, additionally, Confucianism in a more
8 popular format was conveyed and began to make its mark on the lives of
9 commoners.
30111 At the same time, the eighteenth century saw not only an ever
1 increasing flow of people, material objects and money but also of infor-
2 mation. The culture and arts of the great urban centres were dispersed to
3 the rural periphery through the nodes of castle towns, and these engaged
4 people of intellect. Poetry circles were created among the upper levels of
5 the urban and rural populace. A broad-based class of cultivated Japanese
6 now began to emerge with the leisure to engage in learning. In response
7 to this new situation, publishing became viable for the first time as a
8 commercial enterprise. A whole range of texts that had only trickled
9 through in hand-copied form could now be distributed widely and in great
40111 quantities. This development brought about a fundamental change in
1 learning and, in turn, in religious belief. One change relates to the method
211 of conveying information. The printed text, the ownership of which in
145
E N D Ō J U N
multiple copies was now, for the first time, possible, rendered redundant
the traditional method of transferring knowledge by word of mouth from
master to single, privileged pupil. Now, knowledge could be accessed by
all and sundry. A second change was to the method of study. Since the
basic texts for study now became available in printed form, research could
be done more easily and with a much wider range of sources than was
possible before. Rapid strides were now made in empirical research.
Around the time that the popularity of Suika Shinto was at its peak,
the academic study of Shinto began in earnest. Shinto studies had already
emerged by the middle of the seventeenth century. Well-known examples
included Hayashi Razan’s Honchō jinjakō, his three-volume study of shrines,
their history and related beliefs and practice completed in 1645; Tokugawa
Yoshinao’s Jingi hōten, a nine-volume work on shrines, their kami and their
lineages completed in 1646; and Mano Tokitsuna’s Kokin shingaku ruihen,
a hundred-volume encyclopedia of Shinto begun in 1682. These studies
were an attempt to systematise and summarise in comprehensive fashion
various Shinto theories that until now had been the exclusive preserve of
various court and Shinto families. They set out to expose Shinto in its
entirety and disperse their findings widely. None of these works, however,
was concerned to develop critical analyses of specific texts.
In the first three decades of the eighteenth century, there emerged
amongst commoners, too, an enthusiasm for the study of ancient customs
and ritual forms. No longer were these the unique preserve of courtiers and
warriors. The name given to these new enthusiasts was kojitsuka, literally
‘experts on the truth of ancient times’. Students gradually broadened their
focus beyond ritual and ceremonial precedent to the study of ancient
Japanese history and Shinto. Notable among them were Tsuboi Yoshichika
(1657–1735) and Tada Yoshitoshi (1698–1750). Suika Shinto adherents
were responsible for the most systematic and comprehensive work on
Shinto, but others responded with empirical research into the Shinto
classics and historical texts that referred to Shinto. Their method was to
consult Shinto classics, historical sources and texts that disclosed ancient
ritual practice in an effort to advance further the work of men of an earlier
generation who similarly searched for an orthodox Shinto. In the process
of their studies, they came to dismiss as fraudulent a whole corpus of Shinto
texts written in the medieval period.
Yoshimi Yoshikazu was typical of such scholars. Yoshikazu was born in
1673 to a warrior family in Owari which rose to some prominence in the
service of the domain lord, Tokugawa Yoshinao (1600–50). Thereafter,
the family served as priests at the Nagoya Tōshōgū, the domain’s shrine
dedicated to the spirit of Ieyasu. Yoshikazu inclined increasingly towards
Suika Shinto, and was initiated into Suika secrets by the courtier and
146
1111 present head of the Suika school, Ōgimachi Kinmichi; he was also ini-
2 tiated into Kikke Shinto by Tamaki Masahide; Zhu Xi Confucianism he
3 learned from Asami Keisai. Yoshikazu embarked on a critical appraisal of
4 Yoshida, Ise and Suika Shinto theories in an effort to evaluate their claims
5 through a comparative study of independent historical sources of undis-
6 puted veracity. He took issue with the Yoshida family over two matters:
7 court mediation on behalf of the priests at the Nagoya Tōshōgū shrine and
8 the appointment of priests at other shrines. These essentially political
9 clashes seem to have prompted his academic critique of Yoshida Shinto
1011 theory. He subsequently published the critique in a work called Zōeki ben
1 bokushō zokkai. He launched a devastating critique, too, on the basic
2 Watarai Shinto text, the Shintō gobusho. In his work Gobusho setsuben,
13111 Yoshikazu did a thorough word-for-word analysis of the Gobusho, thought
4 to be of Nara pedigree, and proved it to be a fraud, a product of the
5 medieval period. He also attacked the Suika Shinto reading of the chap-
6 ters on the Age of the Gods in the Nihon shoki with two volumes of his
7 own revisionist analysis, the Kamiyo seigi and Kamiyo jikisetsu.
8 Three other scholars who engaged in a similar sort of enterprise were
9 Amano Sadakage (1663–1733), like Yoshikazu a samurai from Owari;
20111 Tanigawa Kotosuga (1709–76), a doctor from the province of Ise; and
1 Kawamura Hidene (1722–92), another samurai from Owari. Sadakage
2 worked with Yoshikazu on the editing of the Owari fudoki, a study of the cus-
3 toms and folk practices of Owari province, and absorbed the latter’s critical
4 approach in the process. One product was his massive, one-thousand
5 volume study of shrines, laws, history and literature called Shiojiri. Kotosuga
6 was a disciple of Tamaki Masahide’s and, though initiated into Suika
7 Shinto, he wrote a critical study of it in thirty five volumes called Nihon
8 shoki tsūshō. He compiled medieval sources for a variety of Shinto theories
9 and subjected them to in-depth critical analysis. Hidene was a student
30111 of both Yoshida and Yoshikawa Shinto, a disciple, too, of Yoshikazu’s; he
1 also worked with Tada Yoshitoshi. His legacy was a study of the Nihon shoki
2 and all the sources cited in that text. Indeed, between them, Hidene and
3 Kotosuga represent the pinnacle of early modern Nihon shoki studies.
4 Yoshikazu and Kotosuga, though both initiated into Suika Shinto,
5 nonetheless took major strides beyond the Suika Shinto framework. Part
6 of the new learning these men helped inspire merged with ‘National
7 Learning’ or what became known as kokugaku. So-called ‘orthodox’
8 Shinto teachings ceased to be those of Suika Shinto as this ‘National
9 Learning’ came steadily to exercise the decisive influence on Shinto
40111 development.
1 National Learning might be defined simply as the study of the traditions,
211 institutions and literature of Japan prior to the advent of foreign influence.
147
E N D Ō J U N
Inevitably enough, the character and definition of National Learning

was, from the outset, not so clearly delineated as this. National Learning
was influenced by, and developed in contradistinction to, the Confucian-
ism that began to spread throughout Japanese society from early Edo.
Learning in the medieval period, and prior to it, was generally a ques-
tion of studying Chinese texts or Buddhist scriptures. Japanese arts, history
and customs were not usually regarded as pertinent topics for general study.
Rather, specialist and privileged knowledge of these subjects was entrusted
to specific families for maintenance and transmission. However, after the
decade-long Ōnin wars (1467–77), this traditional learning encountered
crisis. Many of the tomes kept for generations in different families were
destroyed by fire; the families themselves either died out or lost the capacity
to maintain their specialist learning.
It was in this environment, at the end of the medieval period, that a
number of men appeared with an acute awareness of the need to embark
upon the study of things Japanese. Important among them were Ichijō
Kaneyoshi (1402–81), Iio Sōgi (1421–1502), Sanjōnishi Sanetaka
(1455–1537) and Kiyohara Nobukata (1475–1550). They set themselves
the task of writing commentaries and lecturing on the classics, and the
customs and laws of ancient Japan. Their work provided the foundation
for the early modern study of Japanese literature and institutions which,
in its beginnings, was known as wagaku, or Japanese studies.
Students of so-called Japanese studies worked in a whole range of ‘disci-
plines’, poetics being perhaps the most important of them. Poetics had
already been systematised to a degree in a form known as Dōjō kagaku.
Literally the term means ‘the study of poetry (kagaku) by high-ranking
court nobles (dōjō)’. This court poetics expanded its vision in the early
modern period as culture became popularised. Court poetics placed special
emphasis on the Eight Great Imperial Collections (Hachidaishū), namely
the Kokin wakashū (908– ), the Gosen wakashū (951– ), the Shūi wakashū
(1006– ), the Goshūi wakashū (1086– ), Kin’yō wakashū (1124– ), the
Shika wakashū (1151– ), Senzai wakashū (1290), and the Shinkokin wakashū
(1205– ). To the extent that these collections remained the focus of early
modern poetics, they constituted an important continuum with medieval
studies, but there now surfaced new voices of criticism. The critics included
men like Kinoshita Chōshōshi (1569–1649), born to a samurai family in
Bichū. He served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and participated in his Korean
campaigns before falling out of favour and taking the tonsure. Others were
Toda Mosui (1629–1706), the son of a vassal of Tokugawa Tadanaga,
who took the tonsure in his later years, and Shimokōbe Chōryū (1624–86),
a disciple of Chōshōshi’s who edited a collection of commoner poetry.
All these men led reclusive lives, and they all fought against the normative,
148
1111 prohibitive nature of traditional poetics as they turned back to the

2 Man’yōshu in their search for creative poetry composition.
3 Keichū (1640–1701), widely regarded as the pioneer of classic studies
4 and National Learning, is to be understood in this context. Keichū was
5 born into a warrior family and later became a Shingon priest, but he studied
6 the Man’yōshū under the aegis of Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700), the
7 lord of Mito domain, and wrote his major work on the Man’yōshū,
8 the Man’yō daishōki. Originally, this was entrusted to Shimokōbe Chōryū,
9 but he died and Keichū, his friend, took over the work and saw it to
1011 fruition. What was epoch-making about the Man’yō daishōki was that it
1 was the first critical, empirical study of the Man’yōshū. Keichū learned from
2 Chōryū’s critical commentaries on Buddhist texts how to establish and
13111 demonstrate the validity or otherwise of one or other set of teachings. He
4 inherited the technique and applied it to his own studies of the Man’yōshū.
5 His analysis of the Nihon shoki and the Man’yōshū also led him to write on
6 ancient kana usage and the kun – that is, the Japanese – reading of Chinese
7 characters used in those texts. This method constituted a fundamental
8 critique, too, of what, until now, had been the dominant approach to
9 Shinto studies: namely the identification in Shinto texts of contrived
20111 analogies with Buddhism and Yin Yang teachings.35
1 Keichū’s understanding of Shinto was an extension of the medieval
2 approach. His understanding of Shinto owes much to those medieval
3 theories which found an identity between Shinto and Buddhism, the shin-
4 butsu shūgō approach; at the same time, though, he understood Shinto as
5 something distinct from Buddhism and Confucianism. Keichū was clearly,
6 then, influenced by Ryōbu Shinto ideas with their focus on honji suijaku.
7 As for the latter dimension to his approach, he formulated his own
8 ideas based on a reading of the Jinnō shōtōki by Kitabatake Chikafusa
9 (1293–1354). This led him to conclude that ‘this country of ours is the
30111 sacred land of the kami’. As Inoguchi has pointed out, Keichū took a honji
1 suijaku type approach in identifying Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, with
2 Dainichi, the Sun Buddha, but he nonetheless came to the conclusion that
3 Japan was sacred. He adhered to both positions, unaware of the inherent
4 contradiction between them.
5 Keichū’s critical approach to texts made its impact over time on all those
6 who studied Japanese traditions. Shinto adherents were no exception. The
7 afore-mentioned Yoshimi Yoshikazu was just one who employed Keichū’s
8 critical method. Kada no Azumamaro (1669–1736) was another.
9 Azumamaro was born into the family of hereditary priests attached to
40111 the Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto. He studied Shinto and poetics within
1 the context of the Fushimi Inari tradition. He wrote up his studies on the
211 Man’yōshū into Man’yōshū hekianshō, which built upon Keichū’s Man’yō
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E N D Ō J U N
daishōki but was yet more empirical in its approach. Azumamaro focused
exclusively on the chapters on the Age of the Gods in the Nihon shoki and
interpreted them from his own ‘Shinto ethical’ perspective. His basic
understanding was that the mythical motifs in the chapters on the Age of
the Gods constituted a metaphor for ideal human behaviour in the real
world. This was one step removed from the interpretive approach of the
medieval period which took the myths as literal truth. Azumamaro’s was
a rational interpretation, but ever-present was the danger of him departing
from his stated analytical critical position, and interpreting the myths in
a purely arbitrary fashion. Azumamaro insisted that the way he uncovered
through his reading of the myths constituted a norm that all men must
follow. His position, at once empirical and normative, was inherited by
other scholars of National Learning.
Azumamaro, maintaining that his learning was for the greater renown
of his family, left Kyoto for Edo where he lectured to shrine priests on the
classics and poetics and, finally, gathered round him a group of loyal dis-
ciples. Here, too, we see evidence of the general trend of the times away
from private oral transmission of secret knowledge to the more public
dissemination of teachings. Families’ privileged knowledge still had a part
to play, and Azumamaro found legitimation in his family background even
as he disseminated his own more enlightened understandings. Azumamaro
owes his renown, partly at least, to a petition he drew up calling on the
bakufu to create a network of Japanese schools dedicated to the teaching
of Japanese, as opposed to Confucian, knowledge. The petition, which was
never in fact submitted, criticised Confucianists for the contempt they
displayed towards the study of Japan, and demanded schools be established
to ensure the thriving of Japanese studies. Azumamaro’s petition is of
interest for the linkage it established between Japanese studies and what
might be called an incipient national consciousness. It has been suggested
that the petition, only made public fifty years after Azumamaro’s death,
was a fake but the national scholar Hirata Atsutane later praised it highly,
and it certainly helps explain why he and his disciples referred to
Azumamaro as the founder of National Learning.
Kamo Mabuchi (1697–1769), a disciple of Azumamaro’s, started his
studies under the tutelage of the Hamamatsu scholar, Sugiura Kuniakira
(1678–1740); he then went to Kyoto and studied with Azumamaro in
Fushimi during the latter’s twilight years. After Azumamoro’s death,
Mabuchi went to Edo and, helped out by Azumamaro’s youngest brother
Kada Nobuna and his nephew Kada Arimaro, he began to speak and write
and form his own group of disciples.
The Man’yōshū poetry collection was the focus of Mabuchi’s classical
studies, too. The goal he set himself was to acquire expertise on the age
150
1111 of the gods, but he believed that expert knowledge would only come after
2 studying the ancients’ language and emotions, in short by approaching the
3 way the ancients lived their lives. Only then would the age of the gods
4 disclose itself. The clue to the language and emotions of the ancients was
5 the poetry of ancient times, and the Man’yōshū was, for Mabuchi, the
6 supreme collection. The age of the gods and of humans, as brought into
7 relief by his studies, was not merely a question of historical fact. Mabuchi
8 accorded them a normative quality; he saw humankind and society repre-
9 sented there in ideal form. Mabuchi had a special word for the innocent
1011 yet powerful poetry he encountered in the Man’yōshū: he called it
1 masuraoburi which means something like ‘masculine vigour’. He under-
2 stood it to be an original Japanese quality, and was fulsome in his praise
13111 of it. He contrasted this quality with the style of poetry found in the later
4 Kokin wakashū, which he dismissed as taoyameburi, or ‘feminine elegance’.
5 One of Mabuchi’s conclusions was that the ideal form of the Japanese
6 female was not elegantly feminine at all, but vigorous in a masculine way.
7 Mabuchi’s ideas were to be found in their most accessible form in his
8 work Kokuikō (1760). Here, he rejects as superficial and formalistic, foreign
9 teachings, especially Confucianism, and celebrates the ancient Japanese
20111 heart as unselfconscious and natural. This book prompted counter-attacks
1 not only by Confucianists such as Numata Yukiyoshi (1792–1849), but by
2 other scholars of National Learning as well. Mabuchi’s thinking was very
3 much of an ethnic nationalist variety, but there was in him none of the
4 actual awareness of crisis in Japan’s relations with the rest of the world
5 that was the hallmark of the later anti-foreign loyalist movement.36
6 Mabuchi’s disciples were interested above all in his poetics. Around the
7 year 1700, many adherents of the court poetics group had come down to
8 Edo from Kyoto. Mabuchi’s group was opposed to these aristocratic poeti-
9 cists, and Mabuchi himself went out of his way to recruit Edo merchants to
30111 his school. He was wont to refer to his own intellectual activities as kogaku
1 or Ancient Learning, and he and his followers were known in Edo as the
2 Ancient Learning faction (kogakuha). The group subsequently splintered
3 and gave rise to other factions. Among them were the Edo faction of Katō
4 Chikage (1735–1808) and Murata Harumi (1746–1811); the Man’yō
5 faction of Kurita Hijimaro (1737–1811) and Arakida Hisaoyu (1746–
6 1804); and the Shinkokin faction of Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801). While
7 the Man’yō faction sought to perfect Mabuchi’s work on the Man’yōshū
8 collection, the Edo faction and the Shinkokin faction gave new emphasis to
9 the Kokin and Shinkokin imperial poetry collections. Intriguingly, the Edo
40111 faction was also accommodating towards Confucian studies.
1 From the end of the eighteenth century through to the last throes of
211 the Tokugawa government in the 1860s, National Learning underwent a
151
E N D Ō J U N
major transformation. Two notable aspects to the transformation were the

formation of large groups of disciples and a decisive inclination towards
an active religious faith in the kami. The stream of National Learning that
developed a more powerful religious attitude is generally known as restor-
ation (fukko) Shinto.
Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801) was the greatest of this group of
scholars. He was the first to put together his own systematic intellectual
approach to literature, to history and to Shinto. He was also the first to
organise disciples in huge numbers. Norinaga, who was born in Matsuzaka
in Ise into a family of a cotton wholesalers, set off for Kyoto aged twenty-
three with the intention of becoming a doctor. In Kyoto, he joined the
school of the Confucianist, Hori Keizan (1688–1757). During his five years
there, Norinaga encountered the writings of Keichū and determined to
pursue an academic career. On returning to Matsuzaka, he started a poetry
circle and gave lectures on Genji monogatari and, in so doing, added the
finishing touches to the concept of the mono no aware theory that was to
be the centrepiece of his literary theory.37 Hino Tatsuo has argued that
the words mono no aware – by which Norinaga meant ‘the movement of
the heart as it feels’ – were quite familiar to Norinaga’s contemporaries,
but Norinaga was unique in his application of the words to the essence of
a tale. He was thus able to dismiss the contemporary fashion for reading
Buddhist or Confucian moral purpose into works of literature. He began
instead to substitute for this an understanding of literature in purely literary
terms. Norinaga developed this new approach because of the analytical,
empirical methodology he applied; a methodology he shared in common
with the kojitsuka mentioned earlier.
Norinaga deepened his understanding of Shinto after his meeting with
Mabuchi and joining the latter’s school. Gradually hereafter, his interest
shifted from literature to Shinto. From Mabuchi he learned how to use
classical Japanese language to study the feelings of the ancients, and the
importance of locating the purpose of his study in an elucidation of Japan’s
own unique ‘way’. It was at Mabuchi’s prompting that Norinaga began his
study of the Kojiki. The study became his life’s work, and it emerged some
thirty years later as Kojikiden. The forty-four volume Kojikiden, published
finally in 1798, remains an authoritative work to this day. As Kamino
and others have pointed out, Norinaga not only retold the story of the
Kojiki but he restructured it in terms of three distinct realms: heaven, earth
and the nether realm. Norinaga was influenced by the writings of the
Confucian scholar Ogyū Sorai (1666–1728). Sorai rejected the later inter-
pretations of Zhu Xi and others, advocating a return to Confucius’ original
writings. In returning to the Kojiki, Norinaga was adopting a similar
approach. Norinaga also shared Sorai’s position on the unknowable nature
152
1111 of kami. He thus avoided passing judgement on the truth or otherwise of

2 the Kojiki. But he came eventually to affirm that the tales of the age of the
3 gods were historical fact. Norinaga’s analytical endeavours were all directed
4 towards resurrecting the truths about the age of the gods. It was also his
5 considered belief that the activities of the kami constituted an ideal
6 towards which all humans should aspire.
7 Norinaga created a network of disciples that spread country-wide; it was
8 built around men from urban as well as rural areas. Numbers grew expo-
9 nentially in the 1790s and, when Norinaga died in 1801, they numbered
1011 487. In his later years, he set up the Suzunoya, a society designed to facil-
1 itate the organisation and control of his disciples. His adopted son, Motoori
2 Ōhira (1756–1833), was placed in charge. It was this group of disciples
13111 who made possible the later publication of the Kojikiden. Disciples were
4 aware that Norinaga could ill-afford to publish privately, and so provided
5 him with the capital for the enterprise. In this way, developments in
6 printing and publishing helped transform the organisation of National
7 Learning from a group passively in receipt of the master’s teachings into
8 an active one of readers and publishers.
Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843) inherited Norinaga’s thinking while
9
giving to it a new religious and normative quality. Atsutane was born to
20111
a samurai family in Akita but fled home after an unhappy childhood and
1
headed for Edo. He devoted himself to learning in Edo where he acquired
2
a fascination for the Kojiki; he idolised Norinaga after coming across the
3
Kojikiden. Before long, Atsutane was himself lecturing, and his accessible,
4 simple approach enabled him to draw to him people not normally enam-
5 oured of learning.38
6 Atsutane first put forward his own systematic theories in his Tama no
7 mihashira (1812), where he made use of Norinaga’s Kojikiden and the
8 Sandaikō of Hattori Nakatsune (1757–1824) – published as a supplement
9 to the Kojikiden. His purpose was to argue that the kami were behind the
30111 creation of the sun-that-is-heaven, the earth, and the moon-that-is-
1 nether-realm. He expounded his belief that the destination of the souls of
2 the deceased was not the nether realm at all but the earth. Indeed, the
3 destination of the soul was the main focus of the Tama no mihashira, and
4 it relegated to a position of only secondary importance an empirical under-
5 standing of the Kojiki.
6 This ‘religious’ tendency came to underpin Atsutane’s whole approach
7 to learning. Facts about the age of the gods were, for Atsutane, not to be
8 derived exclusively from the Kojiki. He relied, rather, on a whole array of
9 works to invigorate his beliefs. His publications marked the dilution of the
40111 empirical, analytical approach that had characterised National Learning
1 until now, and with Atsutane, National Learning shifted decisively to
211 matters of the spirit.
153
E N D Ō J U N
Atsutane also incorporated into his schema religious ideas that were
accessible to the common people: ancestor worship, karma and hell
featured prominently. Many of these were closely linked to early modern
Buddhism, but Atsutane was a vehement critic of Buddhism, and insisted
the beliefs he promoted were all present in Japan’s ancient traditions. He
sought to redefine Shinto as a creed that reached to all corners of the
globe. He believed that all religious truth derived from Shinto, and it was
this perspective that led him to deny Buddhism. The view that the origin
of all things existed in ancient Japanese tradition he applied even to foreign
civilisations. He proposed, for example, that Adam and Eve were none
other than Izanagi and Izanami. He later acquired an interest in the
calendar, in geomancy and in the occult. Here, too, the same view oper-
ated: Shinto constituted the foundation of all this different knowledge.
Scholars identify in Atsutane’s articulation of these beliefs, a shift from
National Learning to Restoration Shinto. One is tempted to see in
Atsutane’s efforts to extend his gaze far and wide, a new accommodative
approach; but, in fact, he returns and reduces everything to Japan’s ancient
tradition, to Shinto. His writing marks a retreat to a pre-National Learning,
a pre-empirical type of contrived, forced approach to knowledge. Atsutane
argued for the existence of an indigenous type of writing – he called it
jindai moji or ‘characters from the age of the gods’ – before Chinese char-
acters came to Japan in the fifth century CE. Contemporary scholarship
regards the idea of jindai moji as a fiction, the imaginings of Atsutane.39
Atsutane formed his disciples into a community he called the Ibukiya.
At the start, he lectured principally in Edo, and most of his Ibukiya dis-
ciples were Edo merchants, but subsequently he travelled to the rural areas
of Shimosa and Kazusa where he won adherents amongst the upper level
of the peasantry. As Atsutane gained more and more followers in the Kantō
area, so the Yoshida and Shirakawa families, themselves locked in battle
over the right to mediate with the court for local shrine priests, sought to
cultivate him. The Yoshida first commissioned Atsutane to teach ancient
studies to shrine priests, but there was a falling out and the Shirakawa
stepped in. On behalf of the Shirakawa school, Atsutane edited the Hakke
gakusoku, a guide to Shirakawa Shinto; he was then appointed to the
position of Shirakawa lecturer, but his expulsion from Edo in 1841 meant
that he remained lecturer in name only.
If the Ibukiya acquired new recruits at a rapid pace in the late Edo and
Restoration periods, it owed less to Atsutane himself than to the energies
of his adopted son, Hirata Kanetane (1799–1880). In Atsutane’s lifetime
there were some 500 followers, but those who joined the Ibukiya after his
death numbered in excess of 1,300. Most of the publication work done by
the Hirata disciples was achieved after his death, as well.
154
1111 For a period after Atsutane’s death, the focus of Ibukiya activity centred
2 upon the fate of the soul and the world view that supported this religious
3 theory. During this period, Hirata disciples – especially those of the
4 upper peasantry level – continued to grow in number. As the academic
5 tendency of the age became increasingly analytical in approach, so peasant
6 interests shifted to academic matters. Many of these people were drawn to
7 Atsutane’s writings for such academic reasons, and they sought to solve
8 the contradictions they confronted in rural society by integrating the spirit
9 world with the real world. Mutobe Yoshika (1806–63) was an influential
1011 disciple of Atsutane’s, a shrine priest too, who drew on Atsutane’s concep-
1 tion of the spirit world to construct a cosmogony centred on local guardian
2 kami. He proposed that guardian kami in all localities constantly oversaw
13111 the souls of people of the locality, just as the kami themselves were over-
4 seen by Ōkuninushi. Behind this conception was Yoshika’s belief in the
5 need to reconstruct order in local society. Another Hirata disciple, Miyaoi
6 Yasuo (1797–1858), believed that a revival of the rural economy could
7 be achieved by instructing villagers in Atsutane’s religious ideas, especially
8 those on the afterlife. The Tsuwano domain priest, Oka Kumaomi
9 (1783–1851), was another ardent admirer of Atsutane’s, who constructed
20111 his own world-view based on Atsutane’s writings on the afterlife.
1 As the bakufu committed itself to an open-port policy from the 1850s,
2 Hirata disciples’ own sense of crisis intensified. They came to understand
3 social contradictions to exist less at the local level than at the state level.
4 Atsutane’s writings came to be appreciated for the emphasis they appeared
5 to place on the state and anti-foreignism. Around the regions of Shinano
6 and Mino in central Japan, men of warrior class and their associates
7 began to register with the Hirata school in significant numbers. With its
8 cross-class membership, the Hirata school became a gathering point for
9 information on national politics and international affairs.
30111 The exercise of intellectual control over Hirata disciples in these
1 circumstances became impossible. Disciples who crossed from province to
2 province as activists exchanged information through the Ibukiya but,
3 at the same time, they formed their own linkages with men of influence.
4 Yano Harumichi (also known as Gendō, 1823–87) was one such. He was
5 a pivotal figure in the late Edo Hirata school and was active in and around
6 Kyoto. He was influential in the anti-foreign movement and facilitated a
7 deepening of ties between the Hirata school and Shirakawa Shintoists.
8 Harumichi was appointed a lecturer for the Shirakawa school, and became
9 a point of contact between adherents of both schools. Ōkuni Takamasa
40111 (1792–1871) was another who, though influenced by Hirata’s writings,
1 acted independently of the Hirata school. Takamasa, a samurai from
211 Tsuwano domain, learned National Learning from Atsutane’s work, but
155
E N D Ō J U N
was also well read in Dutch studies owing partly to his visit to Nagasaki
in 1818. Takamasa then left his domain and became active in Kyoto as a
scholar. He was keenly aware of the threat of Christianity, and sought in
Shinto a religious, ideological foundation that would enable Japan to
counter the Western powers and their religion. He interpreted National
Learning from what we might call a nationalist perspective. He was also
responsible for identifying Azumamaro, Mabuchi, Norinaga and Atsutane
as constituting the four great men of the orthodox lineage of National
Learning, an approach which exerted a major influence on Meiji and all
subsequent studies of National Learning.
In the Restoration period, Hirata advocates envisaged an important role
for the Shirakawa and Yoshida families. By contrast, Ōkuni Takamasa and
those from Tsuwano that surrounded him had a different vision. Imperial
ritual was to be liberated from the influence of these traditional schools
and revived according to the manner of the mythical first emperor Jinmu.
In Jinmu’s age, ritual was performed by emperors themselves as celebrants.
When the Restoration happened in 1868, the Ōkuni model was adopted,
the Yoshida and Shirakawa families were rejected, and the Tsuwano
group came to dominate the ritual and religious policies of the early Meiji
government.40
Notes
1 Bitō Masahide, ‘The creation of a national religion in Japan’ in idem, Edo jidai
to wa nani ka: Nihon shijō no kinsei to kindai (Iwanami 1992).
2 In English see Allan Grapard, ‘The Shinto of Yoshida Kanetomo’ (Monumenta
Nipponica 47–1, 1992), idem tr. (1992b) ‘Yuiitsu Shintō Myōbō Yōshū (by Yoshida
Kanetomo)’ (Monumenta Nipponica 47–2, 1992) and Bernard Scheid, ‘Reading
the Yuiitsu Shintō myōbō yōshū: a modern exegesis of an esoteric Shinto text’,
in John Breen and Mark Teeuwen eds, Shinto in history: Ways of the kami
(Curzon Press 2000).
3 Early modern textual analysis demonstrated the compilation to be a fabrica-
tion of the late Heian period, but it remains of value for the light it sheds on
the Mononobe lineage and Mononobe ritual practice. It is published in volume
7 of Shintei zōho Kokushi taikei (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1953).
4 On the sanja takusen see Brian Bocking, ‘Sanja takusen: “Shinto”, “Buddhism”
and the oracles of the three shrines’, in John Breen and Mark Teeuwen eds,
Shinto in history: Ways of the kami (Curzon Press 2000).
5 See Hagiwara Tatsuo, Kamigami no sonraku (Kōbundō 1978).
6 Toshigoi: a court rite of the second month to pray for an abundant harvest;
tsukinami: held twice yearly in the sixth and twelfth months before govern-
ment ministers, the rite involved the distribution of offerings to the priests of
some two hundred shrines gathered in the Jingikan; niiname: a harvest ritual
that takes place in the court and at shrines across Japan in the eleventh month.
156
1111 7 The Shirakawa family built a Hasshinden of its own in 1751.

2 8 Hiraishi Naoaki, Ichigo no jiten ten (Sanseidō 1997).
3 9 On Ieyasu’s deification, see Herman Ooms, ‘Trajectory of discourse: transfig-
uring warlord powers into sacred authority’ in idem, Tokugawa ideology
4 (Princeton University Press 1985), and W.J. Boot, ‘The death of a shogun:
5 deification in early modern Japan’ in John Breen and Mark Teeuwen eds, Shinto
6 in history: Ways of the kami (Curzon Press 2000).
7 10 Takano Toshihiko, ‘Edo bakufu to jisha’ in idem, Kinsei Nihon no kokka
8 kenryoku to shūkyō (Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai 1989).
9 11 Yamaguchi Keiji, Sakoku to kaikoku (Iwanami 1993).
1011 12 Hashimoto Masanori, ‘Kanbun 5nen “Jinja jōmoku” no kinō’ (Shintō Shukyō
168–9).
1 13 On mountain ascetics, see Byron Earhart, A religious study of the Mount Haguro
2 sect of Shugendo (Monumenta Nipponica monograph 1970).
13111 14 On this phenomenon, see for example Miyake Kesao, Sato shugen no kenkyū
4 (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1984).
5 15 On the establishment of the family system and its linkage to an awareness of
6 ancestors and ancestral rites, see Ōtō Osamu, Kinsei nōmin to ie, mura, kokka
16 On miyaza, see Winston Davis, ‘The Miyaza and the fishermen: Ritual status
8 in coastal villages of Wakayama prefecture’ (Asian Folklore Studies 36–2, 1977).
9 17 See also Peter Nosco, ‘Masuho Zankō (1655–1742): A Shinto populariser
20111 between nativism and National Learning’ in idem, ed., Confucianism and
1 Tokugawa culture (Princeton University Press 1984).
2 18 Higashi Jokan, ‘Kinsei toshi sairei no bunkashi’ in Yokkaichi hakubutsukan
3 ed., Sairei, dashi, fūryū (Yokkaichi Hakubutsukan 1995). An overview of recent
4 research on urban spectacles is Kuroda Hideo, ‘Toshi sairei bunka kenkyū no
genzai’ in Kawagoe hakubutsukan ed., Dai jūikkai kikakuten zuroku: Kawagoe,
5 Hikawa sairei no tenkai (Kawagoe Hakubutsukan).
6 19 See Sakumi Yōichi, Ōedo no tenkamatsuri (Kawade Shobō Shinsha 1996).
7 20 Saitō Gesshin, Bukō nenpyō (Heibonsha 1968).
8 21 Watanabe Hiroshi, Kinsei Nihon shakai to Sōgaku (Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai
9 1985); Shibata Jun, Shisōshi ni okeru kinsei (Shibunkaku 1991); Kurozumi
30111 Makoto, ‘Jugaku to kinsei Nihon shakai’ in Asao Naohiro, ed., Iwanami kōza
1 Nihon tsūshi 13: Kinsei 3 (Iwanami 1994).
22 Taira Shigemichi, Yoshikawa Shintō no kisoteki kenkyū (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan
2 1966); see also the Yoshikawa Shinto volume of the Shinto taikei.
3 23 Takano Toshihiko, ‘Jūhasseiki zenhan no Nihon: Taihei no naka no tenkan’
4 in Asao Naohiro, ed., Iwanami kōza Nihon tsūshi 13: Kinsei 3 (Iwanami 1994).
5 Note that there are scholars, like Taira Shigemichi, who contest Takano’s
6 assertion that the Shintōgata had any substantial influence at all.
7 24 On Ansai and Suika Shinto, see Kobayashi Kenzō, Suika Shintō no kenkyū
8 (Shibundō 1940); Abe Ryūichi, ‘Kimongakuha shoke no ryakuden to gakufu’
in Nishi Junzō, ed., Nihon shiso taikei 31, Yamazaki Ansai gakuha (Iwanami
9 1980); and Takashima Motohiro, Yamazaki Ansai: Nihon shushigaku to Suika
40111 Shintō (Perikansha 1992). In English, see Herman Ooms, ‘Yamazaki Ansai:
1 repossessing the way’ in idem, Tokugawa ideology (Princeton University Press
211 1985).
157
E N D Ō J U N
25 On Suika Shinto, see Herman Ooms, ‘Suika and Kimon: The way and the
language’ in idem, Tokugawa ideology (Princeton University Press 1985).
26 On onmyōdō prior to the early modern period, see the section above on
Shugendo and onmyōdō. See also the following articles: Yamamoto Nobuya,
‘Tsuchimikado Shintō’ (Kokugakuin Zasshi, 18–3, 4, 9 and 19–2); Kiba Akashi,
‘Kinsei Nihon no onmyōdō: Onmyōji no sonzai keitai o chūshin ni’ in
Murayama Shūichi et al., eds, Onmyōdō sōsho 3 (Meicho Shuppan 1992).
27 On the Hōreki incident, see Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, Japanese loyalism recon-
strued: Yamagata Daini’s Ryūshi Shinron of 1759 (Hawaii University Press 1995).
28 On Confucian funerals, see Kondō Keigo, Jusō to shinsō (Kokusho Kankōkai
1990).
29 On the religious beliefs of urban dwellers in Edo Japan, see Miyata Noboru,
‘Edo chōnin no shinkō’ in Nishiyama Matsunosuke ed., Edo chōnin no kenkyū
30 On Kakugyō see Royall Tyler, ‘The Tokugawa peace and popular religion:
Suzuki Shōsan, Kakugyō Tōbutsu and Jikigyō Miroku’ in Peter Nosco ed.,
Confucianism and Tokugawa culture (Princeton University Press 1984).
31 On Jikigyō see Royall Tyler, ‘The Tokugawa peace and popular religion: Suzuki
Shōsan, Kakugyō Tōbutsu and Jikigyō Miroku’ in Peter Nosco ed., Confu-
cianism and Tokugawa culture (Princeton University Press 1984).
32 On Ise pilgrimages, see Winston Davis, ‘Pilgrimage and world renewal’ in idem,
Japanese religion and society: Paradigms of structure and change (SUNY 1992).
33 On these fashionable deities see Miyata Noboru, Edo no hayarigami (Chikuma
Gakugei Bunko 1993).
34 On Jiun, see Katō Genchi, ‘The Shinto studies of Jiun, the Buddhist priest,
and Motoori, the Shinto savant’ (Monumenta Nipponica 1) and Paul Watt,
‘Jiun Sonja (1718–1804): a response to Confucianism within the context of
Buddhist reform’, in Peter Nosco ed., Confucianism and Tokugawa culture
(Princeton University Press 1984).
35 On Keichū and Shinto, see Inoguchi Takashi, Keichūgaku no keisei (Izumi Shoin
1996).
36 On Azumamaro and Mabuchi, see Peter Nosco, Remembering paradise: Nativism
and nostalgia in eighteenth century Japan (Harvard University Council on East
Asian Studies 1990).
37 Hino Tatsuo, ‘Norinaga gaku seiritsu made’ in Yoshikawa Kōjirō et al., eds,
Nihon shiso taikei 40: Motoori Norinaga (Iwanami 1978) and Hino Tatsuo,
‘Kaisetsu: “Mono no aware o shiru” no setsu no raireki’ in Shinchō Nihon koten
shūsei 39: Motoori Norinaga shū (Shinchōsha 1983).
38 On Hirata Atsutane, see in English Harry Harootunian, Things seen and unseen:
Discourse and ideology in Tokugawa Nativism (University of Chicago Press 1988);
Kamata Tōji, ‘Nativism disfigured’ in Breen and Teeuwen eds, Shinto in history:
Ways of the kami (Curzon 2000); Anne Walthall, The weak body of a useless
woman: Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration (Chicago University Press
1998); and John Breen, ‘Nativism restored’ (Monumenta Nipponica 55–3, 2000).
39 See Yamada Takao, ‘Iwayuru jindai moji no ron’ (Geirin 2, 4 and 6, 1953).
40 In English see John Breen, ‘Accommodating the alien: Ōkuni Takamasa and
the religion of the Lord of Heaven’ in Peter Kornicki and James McMullen,
eds, Religion in Japan (Cambridge University Press 1997).
158
1111
2
3
4
4
5 THE MODERN AGE
6
7 Shinto confronts modernity
8
9
1011 Inoue Nobutaka
1
2
13111
4
5 When Japan encountered modernity, two major changes took place in the
6 religious system known as Shinto. The first was the creation of the modern
7 shrine system. A shrine system was first organised in the ancient period,
8 and continued thereafter through the medieval and early modern periods
9 even as it ceased to function. Under the modern state, however, it acquired
20111 a new form. The second major change was the emergence of a new type
1 of religious system within Shinto; what we might call ‘sectarian Shinto’.
2 At the end of the Edo period, there were striking and rapid movements
3 towards the creation of Shinto ‘sects’. Prototypes of these sects were already
4 to be seen in the Suika Shinto, the Yoshida and the Shirakawa Shinto
5 movements. It was only with Meiji, however, that a Shinto that was
6 unquestionably sectarian in style emerged.
7 The modern shrine system assumed its basic form in the early Meiji
8 period (1868–1912); it acquired stability of structure as it developed in
9 parallel with, and in the closest possible connection to, the emerging
30111 ‘modern emperor state’. This shrine system endured for the best part of
1 three-quarters of a century, until the end of the Second World War. The
2 religious policies of the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander
3 for the Allied Powers (GHQ) at the end of the war ensured that the
4 modern shrine system was once again transformed in the shortest space of
5 time; the result was the post-war era in which the Jinja honchō, the umbrella
6 organisation for the majority of Japan’s shrines, has dominated shrine
7 affairs. An awareness of continuity and change in the immediate aftermath
8 of the war is essential for any study of modern shrine Shinto.
9 Sectarian Shinto, for its part, can be usefully considered as comprising
40111 two sub-categories: the first comprises the thirteen Shinto sects that sprung
1 up in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the second comprises
211 Shinto-derived new religions or what, in Japanese, have come to be called
159
Shintō-kei shinshūkyō. Various developments of the early modern period

made inevitable the formation of a sectarian Shinto. The sect Shinto of
the first of our two sub-categories was, in one respect, a movement for the
revitalisation of shrines and shrine practice, but developments were greatly
accelerated by the religious policies of the new Meiji government. And,
as with the shrine system, so was sect Shinto swayed greatly by political
considerations. That sect Shinto developed in the striking way it did in
Meiji was anything but sudden. In the Edo period, the spread of National
Learning (kokugaku) and the organisation of shrine priests by the Yoshida
and Shirakawa Shinto families constituted a sort of Shinto revivalist move-
ment focused on shrines and their priests. In other words, one can argue
that the revivalist tendencies in Meiji Shinto developed along sectarian
lines for sound historical reasons.
Shinto-derived new religions, the second of our sub-categories, were a
manifestation of the system of new religions that emerged in modern Japan.
From the early part of the nineteenth century, there were signs in all
regions of Japan of new and popular religious movements forming in
rhythm, as it were, with popular culture. These tendencies became striking
towards the end of the period. There were Shinto movements, Buddhist
movements and others, too, in which Shinto and Buddhist elements were
conflated. All in all, they constituted a quite different religious system to
the traditional one evident at the start of the early modern period. Here,
our focus falls uniquely on the system of Shinto-derived new religions. This
system acquired immense social influence in the twentieth century and,
under the new legal system operative after the Second World War, it has
come to constitute the mainstream of sect Shinto.
Because the borders of a given religious system are in a state of constant
flux, it is nigh-on impossible to demarcate one religious system from
another. It becomes necessary, therefore, to place sect Shinto and Shinto-
derived new religions, as well as Buddhist-derived new religions and others
together in the same basket, so to speak, and treat them all as ‘new
religions’. Here, my aim is to examine the shifting tides in Shinto as Japan
underwent modernisation. My attention falls inevitably, therefore, on the
linkage between sect Shinto and the Shinto-derived new religions on
the one hand, and the Shinto system that had prevailed until this time
on the other. The relationship between them may be depicted as shown
in Figure 4.1.
One has, of course, to appreciate the changes that modernisation
inflicted upon society as a whole in order to grasp those affecting Shinto.
The restructuring of the education system was linked to a rise in
intellectual levels which, in turn, created the necessary preconditions
for the organisation of popular movements of one sort or another. Again,
160
SHINTO CONFRONTS MODERNITY
1111 Shinto-based
2 new religions
3 Buddhism-based
new religions
4
5 Sect Shinto
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
13111
4 New religions
5
6 Figure 4.1 Chart showing inter-linkage between sect Shinto, Shinto-based new
7 religions and Buddhism-based new religions
8
9
20111 developments in communications networks and mass media not only
1 accelerated changes in popular consciousness, but enabled rapid shifts in
2 methods of religious propagation as well. It was only to be expected, then,
3 that the form of Shinto in Meiji would be quite different to that prevailing
4 in the early modern period. The scale of change now experienced by
5 Shinto was far in excess of that endured by Buddhist groups, for the simple
6 reason that the Shinto religious system was not durable in the departments
7 of what we have called network and substance.
8 The restructuring of Shinto by the state and the emergence of genuinely
9 sectarian Shinto groups were the marks of Japan’s modern age, but the
30111 changes in society as a whole, such as those in communications and urban-
1 isation, also spurred modern developments in what we might call ‘folk
2 Shinto’ (minzoku Shintō). For example, pilgrimages to temples and shrines
3 may well have been popular at certain moments in the early modern
4 period, but there were all sorts of restrictions placed on social movement
5 by the Tokugawa. In the modern period, such restrictions were lifted, and
6 patterns of pilgrimage shifted easily from one centred on the group to one
7 centred more on the individual.
8 In 1873, the sixth year of the reign of the Meiji emperor, the solar
9 (Gregorian) calendar was adopted in place of the lunar. As a result of this
40111 and other changes – the shrinking rural population, for example – the cycle
1 of annual rites began slowly to undergo change. It is probably the case that
211 the solar calendar really only impinged on rituals in the annual cycle after
161
the end of the Second World War, but the result was that practices rooted
in the traditional calendar fell gradually into disuse. The decline in the
rural population explains the gradual disappearance of the communal
celebration of the spring festival, say, which sought the blessing of the
kami for an abundant crop, and the autumnal festival of thanksgiving for
the harvest. The linkage between rites before the kami and planting and
harvesting became steadily diluted.
Such rites of passage as the newborn’s first visit to the local shrine (hatsu
miyamōde), shichi-go-san and coming-of-age increasingly lost their
communal, ‘extended-family’ aspect; steadily, they became rites of the
individual or the immediate family. Fewer and fewer people sustained
their interest in the performance of traditional rites. At the same time,
however, there surfaced signs of a new linkage between Shinto and the
life-cycle rites. The creation and popularisation of Shinto wedding rites in
the twentieth century constitute but one example. The popularity of
Shinto wedding rites was prompted, partly at least, by the 1900 wedding
of the future Taishō emperor (r. 1912–26). But shrines and shrine practice
were inevitably associated with tradition, and they were put to use in
modern Japan’s restructuring of tradition.
The modern shrine system: shrine Shinto and

the rituals of the Meiji state
Let us first consider shrine developments. The shrine system is probably
best described as having survived rather than thrived through Japan’s
early modern period, even though there were signs, towards the end of
the period, of a genuine revival. The Meiji period saw the shrine system
supported and sustained by the modern state. In April 1868, the new
government announced the resurrection of the Jingikan, the office which
in the ancient state had been charged with all state affairs relating to the
kami. The Meiji government’s purpose was to centralise control over
shrines. All shrines and their priests that had, until now, been under the
control of either the Yoshida or the Shirakawa families, were henceforth
to come under Jingikan jurisdiction. The Council of State (Dajōkan) issued
an edict in June 1871 which effected a decisive structural change upon the
shrine world:
Shrines are sites for the performance of state ritual; it goes without
saying that they are not the private property of individual fami-
lies. However, after the medieval period and the disintegration it
brought to the Great Way [of the kami], there emerged a tendency
. . . for a priest to be appointed temporarily to a shrine and then
162
1111 for the principle of heredity to establish itself. Elsewhere . . .

2 priestly positions at village and hamlet shrines tended to become
3 hereditary. Priests would take the shrine income as their salary and
4 regard shrines as their private property. This became established
5 practice everywhere in the realm. Shrine priests came to consti-
6 tute a class distinct from [the ruling] warrior class, and this was in
7 contravention of the governing principle of saisei itchi [according
8 to which government and rites are inseparable]. The harm dealt
9 by these practices has been considerable. Reforms are now to be
1011 implemented and the practice of heredity [will be abolished].
1 Priests at all shrines, from the two Ise shrines to those of large
2 and small scale the length and breadth of the realm, will be re-
13111 appointed only after the most careful consideration.
4
5 Shrines were hereby declared ‘sites for the performance of state ritual’
6 (kokka no sōshi); at the same time, the practice of heredity in the priest-
7 hood was terminated. The bureaucratisation of the priesthood was one
8 consequence. The network and constituents of the shrine system were, willy-
9 nilly, transmuted. There was fundamental revision to the appointment of
20111 priests and to the question of where they might serve. The intimate linkage
1 between shrine families and the locality was not, perhaps, totally severed
2 but in comparison to the earlier era, it was much diluted.
3 The policy of separating the kami from Buddhist deities and their respec-
4 tive sites of worship – shinbutsu bunri as scholars have termed it – was
5 another dimension of the Meiji religious reformation. A few days after
6 the revival of the Jingikan, a series of policies correctly known as the
7 shinbutsu hanzen rei (the clarification of kami and Buddhas) was issued.1
8 They ordered the removal of all Buddhist symbolism from shrines; shrines
9 deploying Buddhist terminology (like Gozu Tennō) for their kami were
30111 required to justify themselves and ultimately to abandon the practice;
1 shrines actually dedicated to Buddhist deities had to dislocate statues of
2 those deities and Buddhist paraphernalia like bells of different types were
3 to be removed, too. There is no doubting the influence here of some
4 of National Learning (kokugaku) thinkers, especially those of the Hirata
5 persuasion. These men typically loathed the idea of any identification of
6 Shinto with Buddhism.
7 These policies of ‘separation’ or ‘clarification’ shifted in some localities
8 into violent mode as priceless cultural treasures were destroyed in a move-
9 ment that became known as haibutsu kishaku or ‘expel the Buddha and
40111 destroy Sākyamuni’. But the basic intention of government was neither
1 the expulsion nor the abolition of Buddhism; it was rather to define
211 the respective realms of each. The circumstances leading to these new
163
policies were of importance, of course, but my concern here is rather with

their effect.
The effect of removing Buddhist symbolism from shrines was not so
much the superficial one of clarifying the religious differences between
shrine Shinto and Buddhism; rather it was to stress the profound rela-
tionship of shrines to questions of national identity. Whatever the effects
on the religious lives of the Japanese of the denial of the previous arrange-
ment – according to which the realms of the kami and the Buddhas
were identified with one another – this was an ideological measure that
initiated substantial change in Shinto’s substance. The ideology promoted
up-front was that Shinto was a uniquely Japanese religion. Modern Japan
found itself having to contemplate the essence of its culture; the prolifer-
ation in early Meiji of the word kokutai, sometimes translated as ‘national
essence’, suggests the seriousness of the endeavour. Kokutai began to appear
in the late Edo period discourse of Confucianists and National Learning
scholars, but became widespread only later in Meiji following the promul-
gation of the Meiji Constitution of February 1889 and the Imperial
Rescript on education in 1990. This new ideological environment helps
explain why particularistic Shinto, rather than universal Buddhism prac-
tised across Asia, came to find favour. In brief, shrine Shinto and the
emperor ‘system’ came to play a vital role in defining the identity of
the Japanese, and of Japan, in the modern period.
In the very early Meiji period, shrines and their priests were called upon
to play an active part in the dissemination of state ideology. This applies
to the first two decades of Meiji when first the senkyōshi or ‘missionary’
system and next the kyōdōshoku or ‘state evangelist’ system were opera-
tional. Through the early Meiji process of trial and error, shrine Shinto
came to acquire a rather different role in the national life than that played
by sect Shinto.
The Shinto missionary programme was launched in November 1869, and
its purpose was to disseminate what was called the Great Teaching or taikyō.
An imperial rescript of spring 1870 explained that the Great Teaching
was synonymous with the Great Way of the kami. The rescript contained
guidelines for missionary practice which offer a picture of the ideal mis-
sionary. He was a man, not necessarily a Shinto priest, a paragon of lofty
ethical ideals, one able, moreover, to enlighten the people as to correct
ethical conduct. Magical practices were prohibited the missionaries, as was
the telling of outrageous tales that might lead people astray. Missionaries
were ordered, moreover, not to attack other creeds, Confucianism or
Buddhism, in their preaching.
During this early Meiji period of frenetic change, men of the qualities
required to accomplish the objectives of the Shinto missionary programme
164
1111 were few and far between. The ethical education of the Japanese could
2 hardly be accomplished by scholars or activists of National Learning, or
3 by shrine priests and their sympathisers. The missionary programme, with
4 barely a success to its name, was replaced in 1872 by the state evangelists
5 or kyōdōshoku. The new system coincided with the establishment of
6 modern Japan’s one and only ministry of religions, the Kyōbushō. The
7 Kyōbushō had considerable powers in the religious field as its official
8 five-point programme makes clear. The Ministry was to have power over:
9
1011 • doctrines and the sects that identify with them;
1 • regulations governing religious sects;
2 • the establishment and abolition of both shrines and temples;
13111 • the ranks of shrine and temple clergy and the classification of their
4 shrines and temples;
5 • the appointment of shrine priests and the ordination of Buddhist
6 priests.
7
8 This Kyōbushō, powerful though it was in religious matters, was itself of
9 short duration. From its launch in March 1872, it operated for a mere five
20111 years before it was abolished in January 1878. The evangelists were,
1 initially at least, under Kyōbushō supervision, and they differed from the
2 earlier missionaries in terms, first, of their composition. The missionaries
3 had been recruited mostly from the ranks of national learning scholars and
4 shrine priests; by contrast, evangelists drew on the Buddhist priesthood in
5 large numbers. But Ministry regulations did not restrict evangelist status
6 to shrine and temple clergy; rather, anyone with enthusiasm – storytellers
7 and rakugo comedians – were signed up. Their great challenge was to
8 inspire such audiences as they could muster.2
9 In March 1873, Shintoists and representatives of the seven Buddhist
30111 sects – Jishū, Jōdo, Shinshū, Shingon, Zen, Tendai and Nichiren – pooled
1 their expertise, and founded an institute called the Taikyōin (‘Great
2 Teaching Institute’), which was intended to serve as a forum for academic
3 debate on religious matters and the discussion of teaching methodology.
4 The Taikyōin, partly as a reflection of Buddhist enthusiasm, was sited within
5 the Jōdo sect’s Zōjōji temple in the Shiba district of Tokyo. The plan was
6 that the Taikyōin would be the national centre of a network of teaching
7 institutes or kyōin, located not only in each prefecture but at local level as
8 well. Chūkyōin was the designation for prefectural institutes and shōkyōin
9 for local institutes. Together they were to constitute the front-line of state
40111 propaganda. But some prefectures never got round to creating chūkyōin and
1 though, according to records for 1874, there were some 227 shōkyōin across
211 the nation, the vast majority were inactive. What the evangelists and the
165
institutes that supported them were all supposed to be teaching were the
three principles known as the kyōsoku sanjō. These were:
1 always revere the deities and love your country;

2 clarify the heavenly principles and the way of man;
3 revere the emperor and abide by the wishes of the court.
However, in the wake of the early Meiji ‘separation’ policy and the
attacks on Buddhism in certain localities, it was a tall order to expect
cooperation of shrine priests and Buddhist clergy. The Taikyōin quickly
turned out to be something rather different from what its Buddhist sponsors
had anticipated. It rapidly became Shinto-focused, which explains why the
Shinshū Buddhist clergy opposed it with such vigour. By August 1875, the
Taikyōin was no more. Its regional operation had been seriously hampered
from the outset by the fact that Buddhist priests, supposed to be preaching
the three principles, devoted all their energies rather to spreading their
own sect’s brand of Buddhism.
The Kyōbushō experience demonstrated that the effects of government-
led endeavour to transform the populace were destined to be limited. What
arose from this experience was a perception of the need to separate Shinto’s
ritual dimension from Shinto’s doctrinal dimension. Shrine-based Shinto
came to constitute the ritual dimension, whereas sect Shinto dominated
doctrine. Shrine Shinto remained under state control, but the various sects
of Shinto were authorised to continue proselytisation, albeit under the
supervision of a state-approved appointee, styled kanchō.
The modernisation of the shrine system proceeded in parallel with the
trial and error of the propaganda programme. In essence, it involved estab-
lishing a clear shrine hierarchy, and the make-up of shrine clergy, and
the extent of imperial and state involvement in shrine rites. Two broad
categories now established were those of kansha and shosha. The former
designated state-sponsored (kan) shrines and the latter all other (sho)
shrines. State-sponsored shrines, numbering 97 at the start of the modern
period and expanding eventually to 221, were further sub-divided into
kanpeisha and kokuheisha. The former received offerings from the imperial
court and the latter from state coffers on the occasion of their major
rituals. The much larger shosha category were sub-divided into metro-
politan district shrines (fusha), prefectural shrines (kensha), and local
district shrines (gōsha). Later, a new category of village shrine (sonsha)
was created. This structuring and categorisation makes clear the special
treatment accorded shrine Shinto by the Meiji state.3
At the same time, local district shrines came under the jurisdiction of
local government. They were regulated by a series of regulations (the gōsha
166
1111 teisoku) published in summer of 1871, which effectively accorded these

2 shrines the role of guardian shrine for the district. The modern system of
3 shrine parishes has its origins here. In other words, the network of shrine
4 Shinto proceeded apace under state initiative. All shrines in all parts of
5 Japan were allocated a place in this overarching shrine network.
6 In the process of structuring anew the shrine system for modern Japan,
7 the Meiji state abandoned, in the second decade of the era, interference
8 in the propaganda dimension of religion. In 1882 a law was passed for-
9 bidding shrine priests from functioning as evangelists; another law of 1884
1011 abolished the evangelist system altogether. At this point, the pre-war
1 system of the separation of religion and state came into being. In other
2 words, the Shinto arena was divided up into the distinct categories of ritual,
13111 teaching and learning. Shrine Shinto dominated the first of these; sect
4 Shinto the second and research institutes like the Kōten kōkyūjo, founded
5 in 1882 as the centre for the study of imperial classics, occupied the third.
6 With regard to the substance dimension of the modern shrine system,
7 ritual came to dominate. In what did this ritual consist? In the early
8 modern period, there existed no unified system of Shinto ritual or ritual
9 practice, though the ritual of the imperial court offered one model. The
20111 first attempts to unify shrine practice were made in 1875 with the publi-
1 cation of the Jinja saishiki; these ‘regulations for shrine rites’ remained
2 operational until a series of Home Ministry refinements in 1907. Hereby,
3 a national programme of shrine rites was established. Even though
4 local shrine tradition was, to some extent, respected, it remains that
5 the imposition of state rituals upon shrines constituted a nation-wide
6 unification of the substance dimension to the Shinto system.
7 What, though, of the constituents dimension? With the creation of
8 the shrine system, there occurred, inevitably, the dissolution of some
9 shrine families and the bureaucratisation of other shrine priests. It is note-
30111 worthy, too, that numerous National Learning scholars were appointed as
1 priests to a good number of powerful shrines throughout Japan. This
2 resulted, inevitably, in the importation of strident nationalistic thought
3 into these shrines. What implications can all this have had for those
4 who worshipped at shrines? Important here is the fact that, from Meiji on,
5 all Japanese were instilled with an awareness of themselves as parishioners
6 of one shrine or other. In some cases, this meant the continuation of a
7 consciousness already present in the early modern period, but gradually
8 a sense burgeoned among the people that the shrines they venerated
9 were ‘sites of state ritual’. As a result, shifts in the constituent dimension
40111 took place at state initiative. In this way, the modern shrine system was
1 one which, in all its aspects, network, constituents and substance, was formed
211 under state tutelage.
167
The modern emperor system: the emperor and

his sacred attributes
There are dimensions of the modern emperor system that one might use-
fully regard as a religious system, but the extent of its influence was broad,
and it is inappropriate to approach it as an extension of a pre-existing reli-
gious system. Here I discuss only the aspects in which the modern shrine
system constituted a premise for the formation of the emperor system. For
here, too, tradition and its reinterpretation as they appeared in the shrine
system make their presence felt.
The ancient state’s shrine system was, itself, intimately linked with the
emperor system. The rituals of state and the rituals of the imperial family
were one and the same. This quality was lost in the early modern period
but was thrust to the forefront once more after the Meiji Restoration. The
linkage between Ise shrines and emperor was confirmed by state rites; the
shrine system which allocated supreme place to the shrines in Ise was
designed to impress upon the minds of the general populace the fact that
the rites performed by the emperor were rites of the state.
One of the objectives of the imperial restoration was to resurrect the
ancient model, undermined after the collapse of the ancient state and
the emergence of successive military regimes. In this ancient model, the
linkage between shrines and state had been intimate. In no real sense, of
course, could there be in Meiji Japan a resurrection of the ancient state,
but it was, nonetheless, a model aspired to. Thus it was that there was
perceived a need to firm up the linkage between the imperial family and
shrine Shinto.
The early Meiji separation of kami and Buddhas extended to the im-
perial family and, notwithstanding the closest connection that existed
between the imperial family and Buddhism, the new era saw Shinto emerge
as the imperial family’s ‘official creed’. It was not the case that all linkage
was now severed with Buddhism, since the Kyoto palace held on to its
Buddhist chamber (named the kurodo or ‘black door’); the imperial family
also maintained a parish temple in Kyoto but, at least on the surface, the
relationship was now a tenuous one.
There were two categories of shrine rite in which the imperial institu-
tion now became intimately involved. These rites were known as shinsai,
which the emperor celebrated personally, and chokusai or rites held at
shrines to which the emperor dispatched an emissary bearing offerings. The
niiname autumn harvest rite was an example of shinsai and the Ise, Higawa
and Kamo shrine rites were examples of chokusai.
When the Meiji emperor died in 1912, the Meiji shrine (Meiji Jingū) was
built as a testimony to his virtue. The linkage between the emperor system
168
1111 and shrine Shinto was evident here once more. The emperor’s divine
2 attributes were increasingly manifest in the later Meiji period. The influ-
3 ence of the 1882 Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors (gunjin chokuyu) and
4 the 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education (kyōiku chokugo) exerted a major
5 influence here. The former, in its preamble, depicted the emperor as the
6 supreme commander of the military forces and proclaimed the need for
7 military men to adhere to the five ethical values of loyalty, etiquette,
8 valour, trustworthiness and modesty. The Education rescript, the work
9 of Motoda Eifu (1818–91) and Inoue Kowashi (1844–95), was distributed
1011 to all schools in the land. As it was disseminated, this latter document
1 played an important role in raising awareness of the emperor as a living
2 deity. People began to speak of the emperor as sacred and inviolable and the
13111 emperor became, as it were, the living deity of the modern Japanese state.
4 The myths worked their way in to the school education system, and the
5 trend was consolidated through the Taishō (1912–26) and Shōwa
6 (1912–89) periods. As the idea of the eternal line of emperors (bansei ikkei)
7 and Japan as a sacred nation (shinkoku Nippon) took root, so the significance
8 of the emperor, who embodied these ideals, was inevitably enhanced. The
9 emperor’s religious dimension acquired new emphasis; one might say that
20111 he came to assume the characteristics of a priest-king.
1 The emperor’s religious authority and the place of shrines as sites for
2 state rites were mutually reinforcing, and it is clear that the modern
3 emperor system played a decisive structural role in the modern shrine
4 system. As the emperor’s divine attributes acquired new emphases, and
5 as militarism raised its head, the idea of all Japanese as the emperor’s
6 children became commonplace. The emperor became like a father to the
7 nation. The imperial family was projected as the paragon, the model of
8 family life. Japanese had little choice but to become enthusiastic supporters
9 of the modern emperor system.
30111 Under the emperor system, shrines came to constitute a presence tanta-
1 mount to that of a state religion. There is a sense, of course, in which the
2 ideal of a state religion failed with the collapse of the early Meiji evange-
3 lists and the missionaries that preceded them; yet in another sense, by
4 the early Shōwa period, the emperor system steadily and increasingly
5 manifested itself as modern Japan’s state creed. The modern shrine system,
6 with its linkage to the imperial institution, was unique, quite unlike state
7 creeds forged in a Western European mould.
8 There is much controversy over whether to call this construct, state
9 Shinto (kokka Shintō).4 State Shinto, a term which only entered popular
40111 usage in the post-war Shinto directive, is a referent for the special
1 relationship between shrine Shinto and the modern Japanese state. The
211 Shinto directive (Shintō shirei) of December 1945 defined state Shinto as
169
‘that faction of Shinto distinguished under Japanese law from religious or

sect Shinto’. Scholars have used the term in all manner of different senses
but, if the term is deployed less in a negative sense and rather as an expres-
sion of the unique pre-war relationship between Shinto and the state, then
the existence of state Shinto is an indisputable fact.
Jinja honchō: the separation of religion and state,

freedom of religion and the restructuring of
the shrine system in post-war Japan
The modern shrine system could be said to have dissolved with the end
of the Second World War, and yet there have remained aspects of substan-
tial continuity with the pre-war model. In brief, shrine Shinto in post-war
Japan constituted a new religious system of its own, with significant
elements inherited from the past.
The modern shrine system was, as we have seen, rapidly structured by
Meiji government initiative, but its dissolution came about suddenly as a
consequence of external pressure in the shape of GHQ policy. Of the
Shinto-related policies GHQ implemented, none had more decisive an
impact than those which severed the links between shrine Shinto and the
state, and placed shrine Shinto and other religions all on the same legal
footing. In 1945 the Religious juridical persons edict (shūkyō hōjinrei) was
passed, and revised in the following year. It stipulated that Shinto receive
the same treatment in law as Buddhism, Christianity and the new religions.
The 1951 Religious juridical persons law shūkyō hōjinhō, active to this day,
developed out of this. The Jinja honchō, a national umbrella organisation
for shrines, was created in response to the new situation.5
The Jinja honchō came into being following the abolition of the Jingiin,
which was itself set up in 1940 as a bureau within the Home Ministry,
responsible for shrine affairs. It was designed to assume, additionally, some
of the functions of the Kōten kōkyūjo, that Meiji institute concerned with
the training, development and authorisation of shrine priests. At the time
of writing, 99 per cent of the 79,000 shrines in Japan come under the
umbrella of the Jinja honchō. Supreme among them, still, are the Ise shrines.
The Jinja honchō oversees shrine administration, research and priest
training. On the doctrinal side, the honchō has issued an important docu-
ment styled ‘Principles for a life of kami-reverence’ (Keishin seikatsu no
kōryō):
1 Be grateful to the kami for their blessings and to the ancestors for their
beneficence; devote yourselves to shrine ritual with hearts of sincerity,
bright and pure.
170
1111 2 Serve society and all people; as purveyors of the wishes of the kami,
2 restructure the world and give it substance.
3 3 Respect the emperor as mediator of the wishes of the Sun Goddess; be
4 sure to follow his wishes; pray for good fortune for the people of Japan,
5 and of all nations and pray, too, that the world may live in peace and
6 prosperity.
7
8 The Jinja honchō, which has branch offices in all prefectures, called Jinja-
9 chō, issues a journal, the Jinja shinpō, and lays down the basic direction
1011 for shrine activities, but individual shrines maintain a certain degree of
1 autonomy. The Jinja honchō oversees what might be thought of as a sort
2 of a national shrine league.
13111 In the post-war period, the system of state-supported shrines evaporated
4 and so the expression ‘former state shrines’ is sometimes still heard. The
5 point is that a new hierarchy has been contrived even as the old hierarchy
6 endures. The new system is that known as beppyō jinja, and the appoint-
7 ments and dismissals of chief priests and their deputies to the shrines of
8 this category are not subject to the decisions of the honchō. The former
9 state shrines were placed in this category but recently, for various reasons
20111 – historical, economic and social – other shrines have been added to the
1 category. The new additions are shrines which have been especially active
2 in post-war society; their number rose to 350 in 1995.
3 There has thus been a fundamental change in the relationship between
4 shrine Shinto and the state in the post-war period, but the fortunes of indi-
5 vidual shrines have probably been more profoundly affected still by social
6 change in post-war Japan. The depopulation of village communities, indus-
7 trialisation, urbanisation and other social fluctuations have exerted the
8 profoundest influence on the relationship between shrines and local
9 society. Shrines today carry out rites of state as well as rites for the safety
30111 and flourishing of local communities. Shrines were always deeply linked
1 to such primary industries as agriculture, but with the increase in secondary
2 and tertiary industries and with changes in Japan’s industrial structure, the
3 foundations of shrine Shinto are now in a state of flux. The number of
4 shrines without parishioners is on the rise. Here we have a change in terms
5 of the network.
6 There have arisen, at the same time, changes in the constituents as well,
7 but two are especially worthy of note. The first is a resurgence in the prac-
8 tice of heredity among the shrine priesthood. This marks a return, it might
9 be said, to the norm of early modern Japan. As mentioned above, many
40111 famous shrines were, prior to Meiji, sustained by hereditary shrine families.
1 The second is that since the shrine parish system is no longer promoted
211 by the state, the whole idea of the shrine parishioner is now much diluted.
171
Overseas shrines
Many shrines were constructed overseas in the pre-war period and
there are two patterns observable here. The first relates to shrines
constructed in Asia for Japanese living overseas either in colonies,
such as the Korean peninsula or Taiwan, or as part of Japan’s over-
seas military expansion in places like Manchuria, the Chinese
mainland and Indonesia. There was a Daijingū shrine to the Sun
Goddess in Korea and another in Taiwan. The second pattern was
of shrines built at the request of Japanese emigrants to North and
South America and Hawaii. Emigration to Hawaii began in 1868
and, as the number of emigrants grew, so too did the demand for
birth, marriage and death rites according to traditional Japanese
practice. In Hawaii, there were also the Hawaii Daijingū, Hilo
Daijingū, Maui Jinja, and the Hawaii Izumo Taisha. Shrines then
sprang up in North America. South America’s shrines date from a
later period. The war transformed the fate of these shrines funda-
mentally. Shrines throughout Asia were destroyed at the end of the
war, but those that originated in Japanese emigration endured in
some places, in Hawaii and parts of South America, for example.
One new shrine has been built in post-war North America.
It is now customary, for example, for people to take their firstborn not to
their local tutelary shrine but to some shrine of special renown. Indeed,
the shrine visited more than any other at New Year is the Meiji shrine,
completed in 1915 and dedicated to the spirit of Emperor Meiji. Few
Japanese conceive their relationship with shrines to be something
‘religious’, and in opinion surveys nowadays only some three to four per
cent reply that they ‘believe in’ Shinto.
What though of the substance dimension? There are no major changes
to report in the sphere of ritual. In doctrinal terms, too, the ideals forged
in the Meiji period remain today, to a considerable extent, intact. There
is a strong tendency, it might be said, on the part of the Jinja honchō for a
return to the Meiji period. But shrine activities at the local level bear more
similarities, perhaps, with Edo than with Meiji practice.
It can be seen, then, that between the modern shrine system of Meiji
Japan and the present post-war shrine system, substantial changes have
taken place in the spheres of network, constituents and substance. These have
all arisen not spontaneously from within, but in response to overwhelming
172
1111
2 Shrine etiquette
3
4 The usual etiquette for shrine worship is as follows. The first
5 stage is purification, namely the washing of hands and rinsing of the
6 mouth by the temizuya before the shaden building. Before the haiden,
7 there is typically an offerings box (saisenbako) and a bell with rope
8 attached. The supplicant first throws in some coins, then rings the
9 bell and beseeches the kami for favours or offers thanks for blessings
1011 received. It is normal next to bow twice, to clap twice and then bow
1 once more.
2 On formal occasions, an application to the shrine office is usually
13111 required before the supplicant may enter the haiden proper. The
4 shrine priest intones a norito prayer, and performs purification before
5 the supplicant makes offerings to the kami. It is often possible to
6 sign a register at the end of the ceremony. It is normal, too, to take
7 home a charm, known as omikuji.
8
9
20111
1 external pressures. Following the end of the Occupation, shrine Shinto has
2 been striving to return to ‘original forms’; the trajectory being towards a
3 strengthening of ties with the state and the imperial family. At the same
4 time, there is evidence at some local shrines of a new popular religious
5 dimension. By way of contrast to pre-war and war time Japan, the activities
6 of shrines in the post-war period are freer; they are no longer subject to
7 state control. Many shrines now perform purifications for men and women
8 in years of ill-omen; they perform weddings, car-blessings, and ground-
9 breaking rites, the purpose of the latter being to pacify the kami of the local-
30111 ity before building work begins. There are shrines which perform funerals,
1 too. These and other rites – for rice planting, for completion of building
2 works, for consoling the souls of the dead, for example – are generally
3 placed in the category of ‘assorted rites’, since they fall outside those stipu-
4 lated by the Jinja honchō in its regulations. There are now shrines where
5 these assorted rites comprise the principal function.
6 Shrine Shinto has deep roots in village society, but as business concerns
7 have grown proportionately in post-war society, so there has been an
8 increase in the number of businesses which venerate shrines. The relation-
9 ship between business and shrines is surprisingly deep. It is reasonably well
40111 known that ground-breaking rites are de rigueur before the foundations of
1 a building are laid, but it is by no means rare to find company buildings
211 with shrines or kami shelves sited on their roofs.
173
The shrine priesthood today

The afore-mentioned Jinja honchō determines individual shrine
priests’ titles, rank and status. Among the common titles are gūji,
gongūji, negi and gonnegi. Additionally, the Izumo shrine uses the
title of kyōtō, Sumiyoshi taisha uses shōnegi, Ise and Atsuta use kujō.
Regardless of the size of the shrine, there is only one gūji or Chief
Priest per shrine, so they correspond perhaps to the company presi-
dent of the business world. Rank in the shrine world is of four
degrees, known as ‘purity’, ‘brightness’, ‘correctness’ and ‘straight-
ness’. The rank of purity is only for those priests who have a long
and proven record. A student who has graduated with distinction
from Kokugakuin or Kogakkan university is automatically accorded
the rank of brightness. The other ranks, correctness and straight-
ness, are awarded to those who have attended short courses at either
university. There are, additionally, six degrees of status: special
status, 1st degree status, upper 2nd and 2nd degree status, 3rd and
4th degree.
At many shrines under the Jinja honchō umbrella, a priest may
serve regardless of his rank and status, but at Ise, Atsuta, Meiji and
other major shrines, certain rank requirements need to be met before
a priest may participate actively in shrine rites.
Sect Shinto: the Restoration government and

the creation of sect Shinto
The process whereby sect Shinto came into being overlaps to a very
considerable extent with the establishment of the modern shrine system,
but its foundations are to be located at the end of the Edo period.6 The
historical conditions for the emergence of sect Shinto are to be found in
numerous Edo phenomena: National Learning (kokugaku), the confraterni-
ties (kō) attached to mountain cults and, finally, the Shinto teachings
of families like the Yoshida and Shirakawa. When we speak today of
sect Shinto, we normally refer to the thirteen sects founded in pre-war
Japan. These are, to give them the names they are known by today,
and in the order of their being awarded independent status by the Meiji
government: Kurozumikyō, Shintō shūseiha, Izumo ōyashirokyō, Fusōkyō,
Jikkōkyō, Shinshūkyō, Shintō taiseikyō, Ontakekyō, Shintō taikyō,
Misogikyō, Shinrikyō, Konkōkyō and Tenrikyō. This categorisation of sect
174
1111 Shinto works on the administrative level, but is one of mere convenience.
2 In the Bunkachō’s annual compendium of religious institutions and their
3 affiliations – the Shūkyō nenkan as it is known – Japanese religions are
4 divided into the four categories of Shinto-derived, Buddhism-derived,
5 Christianity-derived and ‘other’. The majority of Shinto sects and the
6 Shinto-derived new religions are included in the first of these categories;
7 Buddhist-derived new religions come under the second category and a
8 selection of other new religions come under the ‘other’ heading.
9 If we look closer at the thirteen sects, we find that they include many
1011 of quite distinct character. This was a consequence of the Meiji political
1 arrangement. For a Shinto-derived new religion to proselytise with free-
2 dom, it had to win government approval as an independent Shinto sect
13111 or, alternatively, attach itself to another sect as a branch church. There
4 were sects like Renmonkyō and Maruyamakyō, which were always fiercely
5 independent and should, perhaps, best be thought of as quite independent
6 religions but which, in pre-war Japan, were bound up with Shintō taiseikyō
7 and Fusōkyō respectively. Renmonkyō was founded by Shimamura Mitsu
8 (1831–1904) in Kitakyūshū, and was based on the teachings of the Lotus
9 Sutra. Mitsu had already been arrested and imprisoned for her healing
20111 activities before she headed for Tokyo in 1882 where she joined Shintō
1 taiseikyō. Her adherents numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but
2 once more she became the target of police and hostile media attention.
3 The sect no longer exists. Maruyamakyō was founded by Itō Rokurōbei
4 (1829–94). Rokurōbei was attached to a confraternity devoted the worship
5 of Mt Fuji, Fuji-kō as it was known. In 1870, he began to undergo inten-
6 sive ascetic training following a divine revelation. In 1875, Rokurōbei
7 joined forces with Shishino Nakaba (1844–84) and the Fusōkyō church
8 he headed. Fusōkyō was originally under the wing of the Shintō jimukyoku,
9 a body set up by Shinto evangelists in 1875 after the collapse of the
30111 Taikyōin. Fusōkyō was granted independence by the Meiji government in
1 1882, but in 1885 Rokurōbei left Fusōkyō and affiliated himself to Shintō
2 honkyoku, another of the thirteen sects, intimately related to the Shintō
3 jimukyoku. Maruyamakyō adherents numbered in the millions in Meiji,
4 though its influence died away towards the end of the period.
5 It is clear, then, that if we are to bracket together as ‘sect Shinto’ these
6 various Shinto sects that have at least some things in common, we need a
7 method of categorising that goes beyond the standard thirteen sects. Of the
8 thirteen, what we might call the classic Shinto sects would include Izumo
9 ōyashirokyō, Shinshūkyō, Shintō shūseiha, Shintō taiseikyō, Shintō taikyō
40111 and Shinrikyō. Shintō honkyoku ought perhaps be included under this
1 heading as well. But other groups outside the thirteen should be added with
211 Jingūkyō and Izumikyō most notable among them. The sects that are related
175
to mountain worship, Ontakekyō, Fusōkyō and Jikkōkyō, are not obviously

Shinto sects, but they might be included as peripheral Shinto groups.
At the same time, it is probably better to define Tenrikyō, Konkōkyō
and Kurozumikyō as a distinct category of Shinto-derived new religion.
Maruyamakyō which, as we have seen, began under the wing of Fusōkyō,
joined the Shintō honkyoku before finally achieving independence after
the war, is properly counted as a Shinto-derived new religion. Kurozumikyō
and Misogikyō fall somewhere between sect Shinto and Shinto-derived
new religions. That there should be sects of this half-way category is
inevitable given that the conditions leading to the emergence of sect
Shinto and Shinto-derived new religions were similar. The mid-Meiji
conditions that prompted the organisation of sect Shinto were quite simply
created by the Meiji government’s religious policies. The major impetus
here was that the government declared itself ready to grant official recog-
nition – that is, practically speaking, the right to proselytise without
interference – to any religious group or organisation with Shinto-type
characteristics and a modicum of organisation. The Meiji government
duly granted such recognition, after suitable checks were implemented, to
Shinto-derived new religions like Kurozumikyō, Tohokami-kō (later known
as Misogikyō), Fuji-kō and Ontake-kō.
A word about Fuji-kō and Ontake-kō is probably in order here. The
former was founded by a man called Hasegawa Kakugyō, about whom little
is known other than that he was born in Nagasaki in the sixteenth century,
possibly in 1541. From the age of eighteen he began to tour the provinces
and in Mito, in Hitachi province, he came under the influence of a teacher
of Shugendo. Kakugyō then performed all manner of ascetic practice in
every part of Japan, including Mt Fuji. He prayed for peace in the realm
and performed healings in Edo and many other places besides. Ontake-kō
began to win adherents in all corners of Japan from the 1830s. It was
immensely popular, but there was little organic connection between its
different confraternities scattered across Japan. In the Meiji period, then,
the pattern was one of numerous confraternities forming, grouping together
rather loosely to form sects, to which the Meiji government would
eventually grant freedom to proselytise.
Elsewhere I have referred to this type of sect formation as conforming
to the takatsuki model, takatsuki being a single-footed offering table used
in shrine rituals. The principle binding the different groups here is a
loose one, though the groups may share a common base. The majority of
elements are, though, rather like offerings placed in distinct clusters upon
the surface of the table. This we might contrast with the jumoku or ‘tree’
model which is suggestive of the pattern whereby the Shinto-derived new
religions were formed. Here, the integration of different elements was
176
1111 much more thorough-going. The founder corresponds to the roots, and the
2 church and adherents constitute the trunk; branches nourished by the
3 same sap appear here and there. In other words, the founder’s teachings,
4 his rituals and his methods for salvation extended to the most extreme
5 parts. What was placed on the offering table of sect Shinto were the con-
6 fraternities of the mountain cults and small religious groups formed around
7 the personage of a founder-like figure. Especially important here were the
8 confraternities of Fuji-kō and Ontake-kō. The offering table accommodated
9 religious beliefs which, as long as they drew on Shinto tradition, did not
1011 have to be of the same substance. Such accommodation was a necessary
1 means of mutual protection. There were, in the Meiji period, two issues
2 operative: the practical one of legal recognition and the rather more
13111 ideological one of Japanese identity and its protection.
4 What was the characteristic substance of sect Shinto? There was much
5 in common here between sect Shinto and shrine Shinto. Shrine Shinto
6 ideas on kami, rites and world-view constituted the precedent for sect
7 Shinto which then devised its own particularistic systematisations. What
8 was it that inspired the founders of these Shinto sects to launch into what
9 might be described as Shinto-revivalist activities? For the sects which
20111 emerged in the early modern period, the impact of the National Learning
1 scholars was immense. Indeed, a majority of the sect Shinto founders were
2 either Shintoists or National Learning scholars. Of additional importance
3 was the existence of the peripatetic oshi priests at Ise and Izumo. They too
4 were manifestly instrumental in the creation of sect-type Shinto groups.
5 Sect Shinto groups were formed as a response to the unique social condi-
6 tions of the late Edo and early Meiji period, and it was inevitable that in
7 the post-war environment of state–religion separation and new religious
8 laws, they would experience a decline in fortunes, at least in organisational
9 terms. After all, the multiple offerings on the takatsuki table now became
30111 independent religious sects.
1 Here let us survey the varied processes whereby the different sect Shinto
2 sects came into being.
3
4
Typical sect Shinto organisations
5
6
Izumo taishakyō
7
8 Izumo taishakyō was founded by Senge Takatomi (1845–1918), who was
9 born into the Izumo kokusō family. In 1872, Takatomi became the 80th
40111 Izumo kokusō, a term denoting a hereditary ritual office in Izumo. He
1 came to believe that disseminating faith in the Izumo shrine required a
211 different type of organisation. In 1873, then, he founded the Izumo taisha
177
keishin-kō or ‘the confraternity of faith in the kami of the great Izumo

shrine’. The group was re-styled Shintō taisha-ha in 1882 (ha means a
faction), when it won government recognition. It was subsequently
restyled Shintō ōyashirokyō. Takatomi was the first head (kanchō), and he
remained the dominant figure of the Izumo ōyashirokyō until 1888 when
he became involved in politics as a counsellor in the Senate (Genrōin).
Adherents of the Izumo taisha shrine were concentrated in the West
of Japan, and Izumo ōyashirokyō drew most of its faithful from the same
Western Japan pool.
Shinshūkyō
Shinshūkyō was founded by Yoshimura Masamochi (1839–1915) in Tokyo.
Yoshimura was born into a samurai family in Misaku. He studied
Confucianism, national studies and Chinese in various localities before
he acquired a fascination with religion in the late Edo period. After
the Restoration, he found employment in first the Jingikan and then the
Kyōbushō. He was opposed, however, to the creation of the Taikyōin which
promoted joint proselytisation by shrine priests and Buddhist clerics; he
left the Kyōbushō in protest and headed for Ise. He underwent ascetic
training, thereafter, on Mt Fuji and Mt Ontake. Around these ascetic
practices he constructed his own religion, which he launched in 1880 as
Shinshū-kō. In 1882, Shinshū-kō won recognition and independence
as Shinshūkyō. Masamochi was the religion’s first head, and he set up his
headquarters in the Kanda district of Tokyo. Many of the Shinshūkyō
faithful were drawn from the confraternities linked to Mt Ontake.
Shintō shūseiha
Shintō shūseiha was founded in Tokyo by Nitta Kuniteru (1829–1902),
who was born in Awa province. Kuniteru seems to have believed from an
early stage in his youth that Japan was the land of the kami and that the
people were descendants of the kami. He was a devoted follower of Shinto,
he engaged vigorously in proselytisation and built up a group of devoted
followers. In 1868, he was commissioned to the Jingikan but he became
embroiled in a scandal and ended up in prison in Oshi domain. After his
release, he devoted himself to religious activities. In 1873, he formed the
Shūsei kōsha which was granted official recognition in 1876 as Shintō
shūseiha, with Kuniteru serving as its first head. He preached a strain of
Shinto that was deeply infused with Confucian ethical teachings. Nitta
also accommodated within Shintō shūseiha many affiliated to the Ontake
and other sacred mountain confraternities.
178
1111 Shintō taiseikyō

2
Shintō taiseikyō was the creation of Hirayama Seisai (1815–90) who was
3
also the first kanchō of Ontakekyō. Seisai was born in Ōshū and was adopted
4
by Hirayama Gentarō, a bakufu vassal. At the end of the Edo period, Seisai
5
served in the sensitive position of bakufu magistrate for foreign affairs. After
6
the Restoration, he was placed in confinement for a short period before
7
becoming an active Shinto proselytiser. He became chief priest of Hie
8
shrine in 1875; the following year he served as chief priest in Hikawa shrine
9
before leaving to establish his own sect, Taisei kyōkai, in 1879. In 1882, he
1011
won for his sect government recognition and independence, and restyled
1
the sect Shintō taiseiha. He was Shintō taiseiha’s first head. In terms
2
of organisation, Seisai sought to accommodate and build upon multiple
13111
organisations and amalgamate them into one great Church.
4
5
6 Shintō taikyō
7 Shintō taikyō was originally referred to merely as ‘Shinto’ but, owing
8 to inevitable confusion, it came to be known most usually as Shintō
9 honkyoku in the first instance and, after 1940, as Shintō taikyō. Inaba
20111 Masakuni (1834–98) was the first head. Masakuni served in the late Edo
1 period as Kyoto shoshidai, the bakufu’s military governor in Kyoto, and also
2 as bakufu elder. After the Restoration, he served as governor of Yodo
3 domain. He studied the Hirata brand of National Learning, and then
4 devoted himself to Shinto, becoming, in 1873, chief priest of the Mishima
5 shrine in Shizuoka, and a senior official in the Taikyōin. He was, in fact,
6 one of the key figures behind the creation of the Shintō jimukyoku in 1875,
7 which institute was the Shinto response to the collapse of the Taikyōin and
8 its joint Shinto–Buddhist proselytisation. Shintō honkyoku, which Inaba
9 Masakuni ran from 1884, inherited its basic role from the Shintō
30111 jimukyoku. It served as an umbrella organisation for those religious groups
1 which did not have the vigour to strike out on their own as independent
2 sects. Given this characteristic, it is almost impossible to identify any
3 teachings as specific to Shintō taikyō.
4
5
Shinrikyō
6
7 The founder of Shinrikyō was Sano Tsunehiko (1834–1906), born in the
8 province of Buzen. In the Bakumatsu period, he was active as a proponent
9 of what he called ‘imperial medicine’. In 1875–6, he claimed to have
40111 received countless oracles, and had other mystical experiences besides. He
1 began to recruit adherents in the following year, and in 1880 in Kokura
211 he founded Shinrikyō. At first, he was not given the official recognition
179
he sought, and so attached himself to the Shintō honkyoku. He transferred

his loyalties to Ontakekyō in 1888, and finally won independence
for Shinrikyō in the following year, serving as its head. He toured the
provinces with great energy, and set up branch churches all over the west
of Japan which were served by the sect’s headquarters in Kitakyūshū.
Jingūkyō
Jingūkyō was based on faith in the Ise shrines. Tanaka Yoritsune (1836–97),
the key figure in the sect’s formation, worked in the government’s Jingishō
ministry in 1871, and served also as the chief priest of the inner shrine at
Ise. In 1880, he became assistant chief to the afore-mentioned Shintō
jimukyoku and, when Jingūkyō won its independence in 1882, he became
kanchō and so resigned as Ise chief priest. Urata Chōmin (1840–93) was
especially active in the provincial proselytisation of Jingūkyō through the
sermons he delivered in all parts of the country. In 1889, Jingūkyō acquired
status as a juridical foundation – Zaidan hōjin Jingū hōsaikai, as it was
known – and it ceased in law to be a religious sect.
Izumokyō
Izumokyō was founded in 1883 by Kitajima Naganori (1834–93). The
Kitajima family was, like the Senge, a hereditary kokusō family at the Izumo
taisha. The state refused to recognise the sect in 1883 when it sought
independence and so, by default, it came under the wing of the Shintō
honkyoku. This was partly because the sect was new but partly also, no
doubt, because of friction between the sect and the Senge family. In 1897
the sect, whose adherents now numbered some 400,000, applied once more
but its application for state recognition was again rejected. Indeed, it was
not until the post-war period, 1952 to be precise, that Izumokyō acquired
independent status.
Mountain-focused Shinto sects
Ontakekyō
Hirayama Seisai was the head when Ontakekyō won state recognition in
1882. Shimoyama Ōsuke (dates unknown) was the driving force behind
Ontakekyō’s early development in Meiji. It is known of him only that his
faith in Ontake was deep, and that in the late Edo period he founded a
religious confraternity known as the Daidai-kō. In 1873, he reorganised his
confraternity into a church styled Ontake kyōkai. Ontake kyōkai was then,
180
1111 for the best part of the next decade, attached to Hirayama Seisai’s
2 Taiseikyō, but Shimoyama resigned as church leader after Ontake-kō affil-
3 iated itself to Taiseikyō. He suddenly disappeared in 1882, never to be seen
4 or heard of again. It should be noted that other confraternities attached
5 to Ontake split and affiliated themselves not only to Ontakekyō but to
6 Shinshūkyō and Shintō shūseiha as well.7
7
8
Jikkōkyō
9
1011 Shibata Hanamori (1809–90) founded Jikkōkyō. Hanamori was born a
1 samurai in Bizen province; he studied the Hirata brand of National
2 Learning and then joined Fujidō which was led at the time by the eighth
13111 sendatsu Kotani Rokugyō. Hanamori himself subsequently became Fujidō’s
4 tenth leader or sendatsu. He went on to found Jikkō-sha in 1878, and was
5 granted independent status by the government in 1882 when he became
6 the first head of what was now known as Jikkō-ha. Subsequently, the
7 sect was re-styled Jikkōkyō. Hanamori’s teachings were based on faith in
8 Mt Fuji, but they had a strong nativistic colouring to them.
9
20111
Fusōkyō
1
2 Fusōkyō was another sect drawing on belief in Mt Fuji. Shishino Nakaba
3 (1844–84) was the driving force behind Fusōkyō’s formation. Nakaba was
4 a Satsuma samurai who became a disciple of Hirata Kanetane (1799–
5 1880), Atstutane’s adopted son. He was employed by the Kyōbushō after
6 the Meiji Restoration and was subsequently appointed chief priest of the
7 Sengen shrine at the foot of Mt Fuji in Shizuoka. Nakaba assumed charge
8 of a number of shrines in the area, and sought to impose his authority on
9 the many Fuji confraternities scattered across Japan. In 1874, Nakaba led
30111 the attack on Buddhist institutions on Mt Fuji removing all nomenclature
1 with a Buddhist ring to it. In 1875 he brought Maruyamakyō into his orbit,
2 and joined the Shintō jimukyoku under the name of the Fusō kyōkai. He
3 changed the name to Fusōkyō when he won independence for his sect in
4 1882. But in 1885, when Maruyamakyō broke away to join the Shintō
5 honkyoku, Fusōkyō adherent numbers were halved.
6
7
Mixed-category sects
8
9
Kurozumikyō
40111
1 Kurozumikyō was founded by Kurozumi Munetada (1780–1850), born into
211 a shrine family in Okayama, Bizen province. The family were hereditary
181
priests at Imamura shrine. As Munetada recovered from sickness, he under-

went a mystical experience known to his adherents as tenmei chokuju, or
‘direct revelation from heaven’. In the morning of the winter solstice in
1814, as he was venerating the sun from the veranda of his house, the sun
appeared to approach ever closer, until Munetada became one with it.
From 1815, he became actively involved in proselytising, lecturing and
healing, and built up a growing band of adherents. Before long, his disci-
ples included people of samurai status. The only structured doctrine he
committed to paper was a seven-article piece called Hibi kanai kokoroe no
koto or ‘A guide to everyday living’. His preaching was characterised by an
impromptu approach. He would speak on whatever ‘floated to the surface’
of his mind. Munetada based his proselytising activities in and around
Okayama. After his death, the activities of ‘the six disciples’ as they
were known – Ishio Kansuke, Kawakami Tadamasu, Tokio Munemichi,
Akagi Tadaharu, Hoshijima Ryōhei and Morishita Keitan – ensured that
Kurozumi influence extended through central and western Japan and
beyond to Shikoku as well. Kurozumikyō was the most powerful of the new
religions in the last years of the Edo period.
Misogikyō
Misogikyō began its activities somewhat later than Kurozumikyō but, in
the last years before the Restoration, nonetheless, came to exert a major
influence on men of samurai background. Inoue Masakane (1790–1849)
was the sect’s founder. Born to a samurai family in Ueno province,
Masakane studied Zen in his youth; in 1809 he studied medicine with
Isono Hiromichi. In 1814, he became a disciple of Mizuno Nanboku of the
Kansō family. He returned to Edo in the following year and made a living
as a fortune teller. In 1833, he was visited in a dream by a young girl, an
emissary from a kami, and his mind was awoken to the virtues of Shinto.
In the next year, he became a disciple of the Shirakawa Shinto family, and
received a licence to perform Shirakawa rituals. He was appointed priest
to the Umeda Shinmei shrine in Adachi, and began his Shinto pros-
elytising in earnest. However, he was swiftly arrested by the Edo magistrate
for temples and shrines (jisha bugyō), on charges of disseminating ‘new and
bizarre’ teachings. In 1842, he was exiled to Miyakejima where he died.
His disciples campaigned for his release in vain. After his death, Misogikyō
split in two, one group attaching itself to Taiseikyō; the other achieving
renown as the Sakata group, named after its leader Sakata Kaneyasu
(1820–90). Kaneyasu was an active proselytiser all over Japan, but in 1855
his activities in Yamashiro incurred the displeasure of the magistrate there,
and he and his disciples were expelled from the region. He continued to
182
1111 disseminate Misogikyō teachings after the Restoration. Kaneyasu peti-

2 tioned the Tokyo governor for a shrine to venerate Inoue’s sprit, and
3 became head of Misogikyō in 1882. Under Kaneyasu’s leadership, the sect
4 won independence in 1894.
5
6 From early through to middle Meiji, sects won their independence from
7 the state one after the other and came to exert an influence upon Meiji
8 society as ‘sect Shinto’. It appears that the popularity of these sects peaked
9 in late Meiji. The figures disclosed by the statistical reports of the Home
1011 Ministry point to the largest number of proselytisers appearing in the
1 1890s. While one cannot extrapolate the number of adherents from these
2 figures, the data does give us clues as to the size of the sects. After the
13111 1890s, the numbers of Shinto sect proselytisers began to decline.
4 The process of decline accelerated further still in the aftermath of
5 the Second World War. One of the major reasons was to be found in the
6 splintering-off of numerous branch organisations which, before the war,
7 had came under a given sect’s umbrella. This fragmentation, in turn, was
8 facilitated by the publication of the Religious juridical persons law and
9 other related government directives. Another reason could be found in the
20111 rapid decline in the traditional forms of belief in the shrine kami which,
1 before the war, had a perceptible influence in society. In this respect, sect
2 Shinto shared a fate in common with shrine Shinto.
3 As the influence of sect Shinto steadily weakened, so the Shinto-derived
4 new religions expanded their religious influence, gaining adherents in great
5 numbers. This was clearly because, unlike sect Shinto, Shinto-derived new
6 religions were structured by a religious system that was adaptable to the
7 social changes of the modern period.
8
9
Shinto-derived new religions: new multitudes of kami
30111
1 The structuring of the religious system based on Shinto-derived new
2 religions had its origins in the middle of the nineteenth century.8 A major
3 prompt here was the transformation in the intellectual level of Japanese.
4 The change can be understood within our category of constituents.
5 Religionists possessed of privileged knowledge functioned as teachers of
6 the under-educated, a role which helped sustain their religious organisa-
7 tions. This arrangement typified the basic early modern structure of the
8 religious world. In the modern period, however, the structure was trans-
9 formed by the birth of new religious sects. The common people – by which
40111 I mean men and women with no special religious training, and with only
1 a modicum of doctrinal knowledge – began to think about religious teach-
211 ings, and an intellectual environment coalesced in which they were able
183
to apply the fruits of their thinking; and when this happened it became
possible for common people to propagate among common people, and for
religious groups for the common people to come into being.
Two major categories of new religions need to be distinguished, those
derived from Shinto and those derived from Buddhism. It should be
added that a very small number of new religions have also issued from
Christianity, the most significant of these being the Iesu no mitama kyōkai.
For our present purposes, however, we need identify only those Shinto-
derived new religions that drew to some extent on traditional worship of
the kami, and those that were influenced by such Buddhist traditions as
Nichiren and Shingon. Buddhist-derived new religions have, in terms
of doctrine and organisation, the deepest links with established Buddhist
sects. In Shinto-derived new religions, the original teachings of the
founder were typically much in evidence and, as a whole, they manifested
the character of newly founded religions.
The Shinto-derived new religions formed in the late Edo and early Meiji
periods, the period of initial growth, include Tenrikyō, Konkōkyō and
Maruyamakyō. Of these, the influence of Tenrikyō was unquestionably the
greatest for, not only did it spawn many a splinter-sect, but several other
sects were profoundly influenced by Tenrikyō’s teachings, its organisation
and its methods of proselytising.
Again, Ōmotokyō which flourished from the early twentieth century
through to the 1930s and 1940s, and Seichō no ie, which began its activ-
ities in the 1920s and 1930s, were profoundly influential. After the war,
many of these sects became independent religious charities but the Sekai
kyūseikyō, and the sects that splintered from it, were striking in terms
of their organisation and their ritual practice. Hence, in the discussion of
the Shinto-derived new religions that follows, my focus falls on Sekai
kyūseikyō.
Tenrikyō was founded by Nakayama Miki (1798–1886). Miki was the
eldest daughter of a village headman in Yamato province, and her family
had for generations been devout followers of Jōdo (Pure Land) sect
Buddhism; Miki’s own faith in Jōdo was deep. When she was thirteen, she
married Nakayama Zenbei and was widely respected as a reliable, trust-
worthy spouse. It is to the year 1838 that Tenrikyō traces its origins. In that
year, a Shugendō priest was called to perform a healing for Miki’s eldest son,
Hideshi, who had been suffering from excruciating pains in the leg.
Typically on such occasions, Shugendō priests would be accompanied by a
miko medium, whom the spirit summoned by the priest would possess and
through whom the spirit would speak. On this occasion, however, the miko
normally used by the priest was absent, and Miki was asked to perform
the task. The spirit, calling itself the Great General of Heaven (Ten no
184
1111 daishōgun) declared that Miki was to be his abode. This event marked the
2 founding of Tenrikyō. There must have been many internal problems to
3 overcome, but by the 1860s the number of believers had grown – Iburi Izō
4 (1833–1907) ranked first among them – and by the Restoration there were
5 confraternities of Tenri believers all over Japan. The pattern here, of some-
6 one who until now had no particular aspirations to be a religionist but
7 who, as a result of some special religious experience, began the process of
8 sect formation, was much in evidence elsewhere in the Shinto-derived new
9 religions. In the traditions of Shinto, there were, from the earliest period,
1011 records of kami possession and oracles; but the possession and oracles of
1 the Shinto-derived new religions were of a different order altogether. In the
2 past, people had simply played the temporary role of a messenger from
13111 the kami; now, people like Miki were growing aware of their own unique
4 god-given role to disseminate a sacred message among all people.
5 Miki’s religious activities continued to expand after the Restoration, but
6 since she refused to enrol as a state evangelist (kyōdōshoku), she was
7 frequently pressurised by the police to desist. She was herself often arrested
8 and imprisoned. Her grandson, Nakayama Shinnosuke, seeking to facili-
9 tate Tenri proselytising, aligned Tenri with Shintō honkyoku in 1886, and
20111 restyled it Tenri kyōkai, but it was not until 1906 that Tenrikyō won recog-
1 nition from the state as an independent religion. After Miki’s death,
2 Tenrikyō adherents grew rapidly in number and, by the first and second
3 decades of the twentieth century, there were well in excess of one million
4 believers. What might be said of the precedent set and the influence
5 exerted by Tenrikyō on other subsequent Shinto-derived new religions?
6 First, we might point to the founder-as-woman. There were female
7 religious founders before Miki, a case in point being Isson Nyorai Kino
8 (1756–1828), the founder of Nyoraikyō. But Miki’s legacy for later genera-
9 tions was nonetheless decisive. It was simply epoch-making that the work-
30111 ings of the Tenri parent deity should have been made manifest through
1 the medium of a woman. The Tenri method of proselytising, especially the
2 so-called tandoku fukyō, was highly influential too. The idea of tandoku fukyō
3 – or ‘independent proselytisation’ – was that a Tenri believer would go to a
4 region quite unknown to him or her, seek out families and care for their
5 sick, conveying Miki’s teaching and praying for recovery from illness.
6 When the sick person recovered, the patient and the patient’s family
7 were persuaded to think of it as a consequence of faith, and the Tenri healer
8 had a chance to create a new locus of belief. This method accounts for
9 the rapid growth of Tenri in areas that were geographically far apart.
40111 The linkage forged in this way between the instructors of the faith and
1 converts was also vital in organisational terms. There were ‘parent’
211 churches, ‘child’ churches and ‘grandchild’ churches. These hierarchical
185
linkages constituted Tenri’s ‘vertical thread’, and personal and church-

based linkages of this order were typical of the structures in new religions.
The difference between this system and the head-temple branch-temple
structure in Buddhism or the ranking system that operated in the shrine
world was a unique fluidity, which resulted from competition between
members of different branch churches.
In doctrinal terms, what was special was the Tenri concept of salvation.
As Miki herself put it, the ‘object is to redeem the entire world’. The idea
was to redeem all people without favour, but to give special priority to
those at the bottom of society. The ultimate meaning of salvation was,
to cite Miki once more, yōkigurashi or ‘happy living’, and adherents prayed
this might be achieved in this life. Salvation was achieved in Jiba, the
name given to the place where Nakayama Miki lived and which is now
the site of the Tenrikyō headquarters. It contains the kanrodai, the hexag-
onal structure that Tenrikyō believers face when they worship. In Tenrikyō,
it is believed the space above the kanrodai is the entrance to heaven.
What, ultimately, characterised Tenrikyō was its equality, its this-worldly
orientation and its pursuit of happiness.
Konkōkyō, founded by Konkō Daijin (1814–83), and Maruyamakyō,
founded by Itō Rokurobei (1829–94), were both late Edo/Restoration
period Shinto-derived new religions. Konkō Daijin was born to a peasant
family in Okayama. He had profound faith in Konjin, whom he trans-
formed from a fearsome deity to be avoided at all costs into a benevolent
being, who had the salvation of all humankind as his aspiration. Konkōkyō
adherents were located mostly in the Kansai area of Japan. By contrast,
Maruyamakyō was predominantly Tokyo-based. Itō Rokurobei was also
born to a peasant family. He was early drawn to participation in a
Mt Fuji confraternity. When Rokurobei’s wife became ill, he embarked on
a programme of ascetic practice and, after a revelation from the parent
god, Oyakami, of whom Mt Fuji was the this-worldly manifestation, he
began to preach. These two sects did not have the influence, perhaps, that
Tenri had on later generations, but they were both distinguished by the
fact that their founders were peasants and their concepts of kami were
rooted in daily life. Both gave much weight to the salvation of the popu-
lace. It was, of course, for these reasons that the religions of the late Edo
and Restoration periods are styled ‘popular religions’.
In any survey of the development of twentieth-century Shinto-derived
new religions, the significance of Ōmotokyō is striking. Those religions that
remain active to this day in proselytising are to a very great extent derived
from Ōmotokyō. Seichō no ie and Sekai kyūseikyō are both directly influ-
enced by Ōmotokyō. Many other sects came indirectly under Ōmotokyō
influence. Byakkō shinkōkai is one, which in turn directly influenced
186
1111 Seichō no ie. Byakkō shinkōkai, with its headquarters in Ichikawa in Chiba,
2 was founded by Goi Masahisa (1916–80). Masahisa was, for a time, a
3 preacher in Seichō no ie. He was engaged in the active promotion of peace,
4 and is best known for the slogan sekai jinrui ga heiwa de arimasu yō ni (‘May
5 all humankind be at peace’), that is to be seen on plaques all over Japan.
6 Shinji shūmeikai, a sect which splintered from Sekai kyūseikyō, has its
7 headquarters in Shiga prefecture. Koyama Mihoko (1910– ), the founder,
8 was herself a Sekai kyūseikyō believer but, after the death of Okada
9 Mokichi (1882–1955), she left the sect and founded her own. Shinji
1011 shūmeikai is known for its adherents who stand on street corners and offer
1 to pray for the health and happiness of passers-by. Sekai kyūseikyō also
2 spawned Sekai mahikari bunmei kyōdan and Sūkyō mahikari.
13111 Ōmotokyō itself was founded by Deguchi Nao (1836–1918) and her
4 adopted son-in-law Deguchi Onisaburō (1871–1948). Nao recorded the
5 Fudesaki, words revealed to her by the kami, which became the Ōmoto
6 sacred texts; and Onisaburō interpreted them. His interpretations provided
7 the basis for Ōmotokyō teachings. In terms of their influence, Ōmoto
8 doctrine on the spirit world and Ōmoto rituals known as chinkon kishin – the
9 healing of sickness, the calming of malevolent spirits and various types of
20111 spirit possession – are noteworthy. Reishu taijū, or the idea that the spirit
1 (rei) is privileged over the body (tai), is of special importance. In a word, the
2 distinguishing feature of Ōmotokyō has been the emphasis it places on
3 the existence of the spirit world and communication with it. Ōmotokyō
4 was, at the same time, concerned with the emperor system, and advocated
5 a more religious dimension to the emperor’s functions. Thus, the sect
6 aroused the suspicions of the state and suffered persecution on two occa-
7 sions, in 1921 and then again in 1935. Several other sects were persecuted
8 before the war, especially in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but none as
9 thoroughly as Ōmotokyō. Shintō tenkōkyo, founded in 1921 by Tomokiyo
30111 Yoshinobu (1888–1952), adopted a similar position to Ōmotokyō on
1 the spirit world; unsurprisingly perhaps since Tomokiyo was originally
2 an Ōmotokyō adherent. He left in 1919, however, and founded the
3 Shinkakukai, which he renamed Shintō tenkōkyo in 1921, after a mystical
4 experience on Mt Iwaki in Yamaguchi. If anything, Yoshinobu’s position
5 was still more mystical than Ōmotokyō’s. Shinsei ryūshinkai, founded by
6 Yano Yūtarō (1888–1938), was another sect which owed much to
7 Ōmotokyō influence. Yūtarō’s sect was also persecuted by the state in 1936.
8 These few examples make it clear that the pre-war state regarded as threat-
9 ening the lives of any man and woman whose religious conviction led them
40111 to challenge the emperor system and the state’s definitions of divinity.
1 Seichō no ie, too, exerted a notable degree of influence in terms of its
211 proselytising, especially in its stress on the written word. Ōmotokyō had
187
bought up newspapers, and used the printed media to a greater extent than
any before. The Seichō no ie founder, Taniguchi Masaharu (1893–1985),
had worked at one time as an editor of the Ōmotokyō newspaper Shinreikai,
and under his leadership, Seichō no ie developed a highly systematic
approach to media proselytising. The sect was founded in 1930, and sought
to appeal to the intelligentsia, for example, through the dissemination to
members of the Seimei no jissō (‘True facets of life’), the founder’s core work.
Other pre-war sects worthy of comment are the Hitonomichi kyōdan
founded by Miki Tokuchika (1900–83), which was restyled and revitalised
as PL kyōdan after the war, and Soshintō founded by Matsushita Matsuzō
(1873–1947). In early Shōwa, Matsuzō was venerated as the ‘living deity
of Nagasu’. His sect won many adherents and spawned numerous sects all
over Japan including Shidaidō, Soshintō kyōdan, Ten’onkyō and Shinri
jikkō no oshie.
In the post-war environment of the GHQ-implemented separation of
state and religion and religious freedom, new religious movements under-
went profound change of a type quite different to that experienced by
shrine Shinto. The greatest change was that each sect was able now
to establish in law its own independent organisations. Many minor reli-
gious groups defined under the 1940 Religious organisations law (Shukyō
dantaihō) as kessha or ‘religious societies’ were now able to win their inde-
pendence. In pre-war Japan, they had been allowed to practise and preach
after registering with the local government office, but they were not eligible
for tax privileges. The effect that these changes in network exerted on the
religious system was the emergence of a multiplicity of religious societies
and groups.
In the social tumult of the immediate post-war period, Tenshō
kōtaijingūkyō and Jiu attracted much attention. Both symbolised the onset
of a new age of change in similar ways: both were founded by women –
Kitamura Sayo (1900–67) in the former case and Ji Kōson (Nagaoka
Yoshiko 1903–84) in the latter; both advocated the application of new
era names, Kigen and Reiju respectively, to define the new age; both also
reflected the tumult of post-war society so that neither developed into
large-scale religious movements. Tenshō kōtaijingūkyō was renowned for
its fierce social criticism and its prayers for world peace. Jiu owed its popular
appeal to the fact that it attracted two famous adherents, the sumo cham-
pion Futabayama and the go master Go Kiyohara.9
Sekai kyūseikyō and its various branch sects spread with alacrity in the
post-war climate of rapid economic growth. They proposed solutions,
too, to such everyday problems as poverty, sickness and human conflict.
Okada Mokichi (1882–1955) joined Ōmotokyō in 1920 having suffered
one serious illness after another. He referred to himself as ‘a wholesaler of
188
1111 sickness’. He left Ōmotokyō in 1935 after receiving a revelation, and set
2 up Dainihon Kannonkai which, after the war, he reorganised as Sekai
3 kyūseikyō (also known as Meshiakyō). The distinctive practice of this sect
4 involved purification, and the sect taught that humankind must uncover
5 within itself its inherent powers of purification and healing. If this was part
6 of Sekai kyūseikyō’s challenge to the single-minded modernisation of post-
7 war Japan, so too was its advocacy of, say, natural farming techniques. The
8 fragmentation of the sect after the death of Mokichi owed much to the
9 power that was characteristically devolved to local church leaders.
1011 Seimeikyō, Kyūseishuko, Kyūsei shinkyō, Shinji shūmeikai and Sukui no
1 hikari kyōdan were just some of the newly splintered groups to emerge in
2 the post-Mokichi era.
13111 Two groups that deployed spirit-purification techniques to great effect
4 from the 1970s owed their origins to Sekai kyūseikyō. Sekai mahikari
5 bunmei kyōdan, founded in 1959 by Okada Kōtama (1901–74) was one.
6 Kōtama received a revelation while still a member of Sekai kyūsei kyō, and
7 so left to found his own sect with its headquarters in Shizuoka. Another
8 such was Sūkyō mahikari founded by Okada Seishu (1929– ) in 1978. Both
9 groups built massive shrines in response to prophecies of Okada Kōtama,
20111 the former in Naka Izu and the latter in Takayama.
1 In addition to these sects, whose followers number today in the hundreds
2 of thousands, there were yet others of a smaller scale whose membership
3 lies between the thousands and the tens of thousands. There were several
4 that grew up around someone of psychic powers, and spread within a
5 comparatively short space of time. Many had little new to offer by way of
6 teachings. Reiha no hikari kyōkai, founded by Hase Yoshio (1915–84) after
7 a religious experience that gave him the gift of healing, has its headquarters
8 in Noda city, Chiba prefecture. Ōyamanezu no mikoto shinji kyōkai in
9 Yokohama was founded by Inai Sadao (1906–88), who worked in a local
30111 bath house until 1946, when he had a revelation. He founded his church
1 in 1953 and his healing powers rapidly won him adherents. Similar
2 examples exist in the case of still smaller sects. There are several of these
3 whose founders are women with shaman-like powers. Their supernatural
4 abilities, their healing powers and their prophetic capacities were respon-
5 sible for attracting followers. The Fukui-based sect Uchū shinkyō kōmeikai
6 founded by Nakamura Kazuko (1947– ) was one such. She first established
7 a centre for spiritual healing in Osaka which acquired charity status in
8 1985. The Tokyo-based sect, Shinmei aishinkai, founded by Komatsu
9 Shin’yō is another.10 Both these women conveyed revelations from
40111 Amaterasu ‘mikami, and claimed to be inspired by her mighty powers.
1 Both, that is, took advantage of traditional kami even as they were founders
211 of new religious sects. Yet another example of this category of small-scale
189
The overseas dissemination of

Shinto-derived new religions
New Japanese religions have spread rapidly overseas in the post-war
period. Before the war, sect Shinto spread to Hawaii, North America
and the Korean peninsula and Taiwan as well. Tenrikyō was the first
of the Shinto-derived new religions to proliferate overseas, espe-
cially in Hawaii and North America. It began its North American
mission in 1896. Konkōkyō set about disseminating its teachings in
North America in 1919. Ōmoto’s propagation in Brazil in 1924 is
of interest since it came so swiftly after the first Ōmotokyō perse-
cution of 1921. Somewhat later, in 1935, Seichō no ie set up in
California a Shiyūkai, as its groups of believers were known.
If we turn our attention to Asia, 1885 marks the start of Shintō
shūseiha propagation in Korea. The timing is to be explained, no
doubt, by the fact it was the first sect to gain its independence from
the Meiji state. Tenrikyō began to preach in Pusan in 1893. Pusan
also saw the arrival of preachers from Shinrikyō a few years later.
Shinrikyō headquarters were in Kitakyūshū and Kokura, both handy
bases for moving into Korea. Konkōkyō and Ōmotokyō were other
sects active in Korea. Tenrikyō was first into Taiwan; 1897 was the
date, just a little after the sect began its operations in Korea. There
is evidence of various sects’ activity on the Chinese mainland, too,
and Kurozumikyō set up a missionary office in Karafuto (Sakhalin)
in 1907.
In the post-war period, no sooner had the San Francisco treaty
been signed in 1951 than Tenshō kōtaijingūkyō moved into Hawaii.
The founder, Kitamura Sayo, went to Hawaii herself in 1952. The
next to arrive was Sekai kyūseikyō, which began its Hawaii prose-
lytising in 1953. Hawaii lent itself to proselytising by Japanese new
religions in the immediate post-war period because of the large
number of residents there of Japanese descent.
South American proselytising was a notable feature of the post-
war activity of new religions. Many made their way to Brazil.
In 1955, Sekai kyūseikyō began its Brazilian activities, and the
following year Seichō no ie set up a branch organisation there for
new converts. In 1961, Tenrikyō established a church in Mexico, the
first of the new religions to establish a base in Central America.
190
1111
2 All over America, especially though in South America where
3 there was little adverse influence from the war, branch churches
4 began to proliferate. At the same time, many of these religions
5 began a complete withdrawal from Asia. Given that the new reli-
6 gions moved into Asia as part of Japanese colonial activity, this
7 was inevitable; their advance into the American continent was, by
8
contrast, an accompaniment to post-war Japanese migration.
9
Tenrikyō offers a striking exception to this rule, since local believers
1011
1 in Taiwan have remained faithful throughout the post-war period.
2 For a while after the war, then, overseas proselytising was directed
13111 at Japanese residents overseas, or at least people of Japanese descent.
4 Local converts were too few to be counted. However, after 1970 or
5 thereabouts, there were increasing numbers of cases of foreign
6 nationals converting to these sects. Two examples of this trend are
7 Sekai kyūseikyō and Sūkyō mahikari. Sūkyō mahikari, especially, has
8 extended its reach to new areas in Europe, Africa and the
9 Caribbean. Internationalisation and globalisation are likely to
20111 increase this trend further in the future.
1
2
3
4
5 sects founded by women might be Yamato no Miya founded by Ajiki
6 Tenkei (1952– ) after a revelation from kami and buddhas.
7 Shinto-derived new religions that seek recourse to traditional concepts
8 of the kami are by no means few and far between. Tenshōkyō is another
9 such. Tenshōkyō, founded by Senba Hideo (1925– ) and his wife Kimiko,
30111 has its headquarters in Muroran in Hokkaido, and has its origins in Senba’s
1 mystical experiences while a member of the Hokkaido Ontakekyō.
2 Tenshōkyō venerates Amaterasu, Ōkuninushi and Ebisu, but is also
3 influenced by belief in Mt Ontake. Nihon seidō kyōdan, located in Urawa
4 in Saitama, was founded by Iwasaki Shōō (1934– ), to whom Eight Great
5 Dragon-Kings appeared when he was in a coma suffering from jaundice.
6 Fukami Tōshū’s Worldmate (originally Cosmomate) which has its head-
7 quarters in Tokyo is influenced both by Ōmoto and Sekai kyūseikyō.
8 Fukami Tōshū (1951– ), whose birth name is Handa Haruhisa, shows signs
9 of seeking a rapprochement with shrine Shinto and has built the Kōtaijinja
40111 shrine in Izu.
1 There is an important sect in Okinawa called Ijun which draws on
211 Okinawan folk religious practices. Its founder, Takayasu Ryūsen (1934– ),
191
an actor in his youth, has structured a set of new teachings on the foun-
dation of traditional Okinawan belief in the transcendental deity
Kinmanmon. He preaches the life-giving power of the universe, and the
need for all people to awake to its benefits. His sect, which has branches
in mainland Japan, Taiwan and Hawaii, shares with many a new religion,
a tendency towards universalisation of popular religious practice; he is just
one more example of how, in this media age, a sect can spread with very
considerable alacrity.
Spirit possession remains, then, an important inspiration to the emer-
gence of founders of the most recent Shinto-derived new religions, and
the suggestions are that it continues to be a vital component in the struc-
tures of all Shinto-derived new religions. There are many sects that boast
a connection to traditional shrine Shinto beliefs and, where they do,
they approach – in terms of their form – what we earlier defined as sect
Shinto.
Shinto customs: ‘folk Shinto’ practices

in contemporary Japanese society
From the ancient to the early modern periods, Japanese religious culture
was defined by the identification of kami and shrines with buddhas and
temples, of Shinto with Buddhism (shinbutsu shūgō). The end to this
arrangement was marked by the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the
new government’s religious policies. Nonetheless, the ‘syncretism’ that
underpinned Shinto-type customs did not disappear overnight. Indeed,
modern Japanese religious practice remains subject to multiple influences.
Christianity is one such influence, to the extent that Christmas now takes
its place in Japan’s annual religious cycle. After the war, Valentine’s day
and more recently Halloween have also become increasingly common. It
is probably truer to say that Japanese syncretistic tendencies have merely
become more complex. As Ishii Kenji’s research has demonstrated, the
acceptance of Christian-derived customs among young Japanese is in
inverse proportion to the steady post-war decline of traditional Japanese
rites linked to, say, agricultural occupations.11 It is not the case, however,
that this same period has witnessed an increase in conversions to
Christianity. Indeed, Christians continue to occupy the same, steady one
per cent of the population. The above phenomenon is to be related rather
to changes in life style and changes in industrial patterns.
Modern and contemporary religious practice is becoming increasingly
syncretistic then, but it is characteristic of contemporary trends that, at
least on the surface, the syncretism is encouraging a new secularisation.
This applies, indeed, to Shinto practice. The first visit of the year to a
192
1111 Shinto shrine and, say, Children’s day festivities (shichi-go-san) are adhered
2 to not because they are Shinto or religious; rather they have become
3 uniquely social practices. It may be more accurate to regard this trend as a
4 consequence of the fact that the history of these customs and rites is no
5 longer conveyed in an appropriate fashion from one generation to the next.
6 Still, the secularisation of annual rites and life rites is not yet complete.
7 They retain a semblance of the religious and there is, as yet, no funda-
8 mental change to the basic function of traditional Shinto practices, either.
9 There are many cases where practices which have only become established
1011 in the modern age are defined by traditional religious views.
1 Since ancient times, people have sought to understand the divine will,
2 to learn of their fate and fortune, and have relied upon divination (uranai)
13111 to do so. Omikuji is well established, of course. This well-known custom
4 involves a believer visiting his or her local shrine, praying to the kami and
5 then purchasing a slip of paper on which fortunes are inscribed. Other
6 examples of traditional divination still practised today are palm-reading,
7 character-reading, grave-reading, name-reading, and the practice known as
8 shijū suimei or ‘divination by the four means’ (literally four pillars) of birth
9 year, birth month, birth date and birth time. Advances in technology and
20111 the advent of the new age of information and globalisation account for the
1 dissemination of non-traditional divination methods. Computer divination
2 is also now immensely popular, as is divination based on blood group, tarot
3 cards and crystals. The influence from Western culture in each of these
4 areas is apparent enough, but despite a superficial variety of method,
5 what is being sought in each case is nothing especially novel. Indeed, palm
6 reading and face reading trace their origins back to concepts rooted in
7 ancient Chinese practice of Yin Yang or the Five Phases of Matter (wood,
8 fire, earth, metal and water). The Japanese have always found it congenial
9 to interpret human relations in terms of Yin and Yang and the Five Phases
30111 of Matter. The popularity of divination by blood groups is easier to under-
1 stand in this context, perhaps. Blood and other types of divination appear
2 to be based on ‘modern’ scientific knowledge, but the ideas which sustain
3 these fashions are verifiably old.
4 Every year since 1995 the academic society Shūkyō to shakai (‘Religion
5 and society’) has been conducting annual surveys of the religious views
6 of some 5,000 students. The surveys provide further evidence of the
7 continued popularity of divination among the young. The survey results
8 suggest a striking popularity among girls. Intriguingly, there are consider-
9 able discrepancies between the numbers who actually seek out divination
40111 and the level of belief in the various forms of divination. For example,
1 belief in blood group divination is almost the same as that in palm reading
211 and greatly in excess of divination by computer, but computer divination
193
proves, in fact, to be immensely more popular. Ease of access no doubt

explains much. Some of the results from the 1995 and 1996 surveys are
shown in Table 4.1.
Certain taboos are specifically related to Shinto. There has certainly
been a wide acceptance since ancient times of the defiling nature of death,
the dead and involvement in funeral rites. Practices rooted in death-related
taboos can be found to this day; it remains taboo, for example, to stand
a single chopstick vertically in a bowl of rice, or to pass food directly
from one set of chopsticks to another. While these taboos are now usually
associated with Buddhism, they are intimately linked, too, to ancient
Shinto taboos about death. As ancient taboos die away, so new taboos
assume popularity; the idea of taboo itself stays with us. Take, for example,
linguistic taboo. In earlier times, Buddhist words were taboo in the vicinity
of the Ise shrines, and Buddhist sutras were referred to euphemistically as
‘dyed paper’, Buddhist priests as ‘the long-haired’, and the Buddhist faithful
by a designation meaning ‘arrows made from antlers’ (tsunohazu). When
you visit a sick person, it is nowadays taboo to take along a potted plant;
since the plant is rooted in a pot, the idea goes, sickness will remain ‘rooted’
Table 4.1 Divination beliefs
Belief in divination (1995)

Divination method Considerably Occasionally
accurate (%) accurate(%)
Star signs 5.3 59.8
Palm 10.7 58.9
Name 5.6 52.5
Computer 1.7 52.5
Blood group 1.7 37.3
Experience of divination (1996)
Divination method Use (%)
Kokkuri* 68.0
Computer 66.5
Character divination 31.1
Books
Palm/character reading 12.4
Star signs in magazines 11.7
Name reading 9.2
Tarot cards 6.2
Note * A version of ouija, that involves divination based on the automatic movement of a
board supported on three bamboo sticks.
194
1111 in the person. There are new taboos, too, on bringing gifts of various flow-
2 ers. Saineria (a Japanese transliteration for the cineraria plant) and cycla-
3 men are discouraged since the former in Japanese is homophonous with a
4 word meaning ‘to sleep again’, and the latter with a phrase wishing death
5 and suffering on the patient. These are examples of the modern reproduc-
6 tion of linguistic taboo derived from plays on words. This is at work, too, in
7 various admonitions that have enjoyed much popularity until recently.
8 One was directed at women who held one vanity mirror before them and
9 another behind so as to check, for example, the coiffeur at the nape of the
1011 neck. ‘Never set eyes on the thirteenth reflection!’ went the admonition.
1 This is an admixture of Western taboos against the number thirteen and
2 traditional Eastern ideas about the power of the mirror. Another admon-
13111 ition warns against using a hair dryer at two in the morning. This is another
4 admixture of the modern – here the appliance – with the classical, the idea
5 that at this hour of the morning evil spirits appear.
6 Contributing to the proliferation of these ideas are comic books; they
7 help explain why taboos have such a hold over primary and middle school
8 aged children. Indeed, a new pattern of dissemination is emerging. In
9 earlier ages, it was common for taboos to spread from the more senior
20111 members of the community to the younger as ‘traditional wisdom’; here
1 the direction is reversed. The important point remains, however, that the
2 basic ideas derive from folk beliefs of considerable antiquity.
3 The transmission among the general populace of ancient beliefs about
4 the soul owed much to the activities of people gifted with special spiritual
5 and psychic powers; they have much in common with the traditional
6 mediums or miko. There have almost always been, in all corners of Japan,
7 people able to dispel evil and communicate with the spirits of the living
8 and the dead. These people have been evident in urban areas, too. They
9 belong to no particular religious group, and often their ritual actions and
30111 magic words do not constitute a profession so much as a side-occupation.
1 Knowledge of their existence was typically spread by word of mouth.
2 Nowadays, though, in this media age they often advertise their powers in
3 the media. The media is also responsible for the introduction into Japan
4 of folk culture from the Asian mainland; indeed, there is evidence of new
5 interest in Daoist type phenomena. Concepts of the spirit are already
6 beginning to change under this neo-Daoist influence. In the 1980s, films
7 about Chinese ghosts were immensely popular in Japan, and there was a
8 new interest, too, among the younger generation in the supernatural
9 powers of wizard-like figures in modern China, especially those emanating
40111 from Hong Kong.
1 Modern Shinto practices frequently manifest what we might call a
211 ‘tourist dimension’. Communal festivals have become local ‘events’ and
195
shrine visits are increasingly a type of leisure pursuit. This phenomenon is

not unrelated, of course, to post-war society’s steady departure from the
religious world. Shrine visits and pilgrimage were, in origin, always an
admixture of religious elements and entertainments, but in post-war Japan
the leisure dimension has increased disproportionately. Such practices as
senja mōde (thousand-shrine pilgrimage) which involves visiting multiple
shrines, especially those dedicated to Inari, and shichi fukujin mairi (tours
of temples and shrines that venerate one or more of the seven gods of good
fortune, Ebisu, Daikokuten, Bishamon, Benzaiten, Hotei, Fukurokuju and
Jurōjin) are popular among young people today, but their abiding concern
seems to be collecting the stamps available from the railway stations on
the pilgrim’s route. This phenomenon, that sees shrines transformed into
tourist sites, is not of course confined to shrines; it applies more generally
to all sacred places. If veneration is never entirely absent, it is subordinated
to the pleasure, entertainment dimension. The dilution of shrine-related
belief in post-war Japan is a consequence of the increasngly tenuous
relationship between people and shrines during the same period. Before
the war, veneration of shrines was promoted by the state, but with the
post-war reaction against state Shinto, the numbers visiting shrines
dropped considerably. This adverse reaction has, in recent years, been
overcome somewhat, but the religious significance of shrines is unques-
tionably less than it was in the pre-war period, and shrines are on their
way to becoming ‘part of the scenery’, as it were, and little more. It goes
without saying that all customs are directly influenced by social change,
and Shinto customs are no exception. They continue to transform in
fundamental ways in response to the social shifts of post-war society. As
members of the generation educated in pre-war Japan decrease in number,
so will the impact of social change on Shinto customs be felt still further.
Notes
1 There are now several studies in English on this fundamental aspect of Meiji
religious policy. See Allan G. Grapard, ‘Japan’s ignored cultural revolution:
The separation of Shinto and Buddhist divinities in Meiji (shinbutsu bunri)
and a case study: Tonomine’ (History of Religions 23–3, 1984); Martin Collcutt,
‘Buddhism: the threat of eradication’ in Jansen, Marius and Gilbert Rozman,
eds, Japan in transition: from Tokugawa to Meiji (Princeton University Press
1986); Helen Hardacre, Shinto and the state, 1868–1988 (Princeton University
Press 1989); James E. Ketelaar, Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism
and its Persecution (Princeton University Press 1990); and John Breen,
‘Ideologues, bureaucrats and priests: on “Shinto” and “Buddhism” in early
Meiji Japan’ in Breen and Teeuwen, eds, Shinto in history: Ways of the kami
(Curzon 2000).
196
1111 2 On the missionary and evangelist movements, see Helen Hardacre, Shinto and
2 the state, 1868–1988 (Princeton University Press 1989).
3 3 On the modern shrine system, see also Wilbur Fridell, ‘The establishment of
shrine Shinto in Meiji Japan’ (Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 2, 1975);
4
Helen Hardacre, ‘Shrine rites’ in idem Shinto and the state, and John Breen,
5 ‘Ideologues, bureaucrats and priests’.
6 4 On state Shinto, see Nitta Hitoshi, ‘Shinto as a non-religion: the origins and
7 development of an idea’ and Sakamoto Koremaru, ‘The structure of state
8 Shinto: its creation, development and demise’, both in Breen and Teeuwen,
9 eds, Shinto in history: Ways of the kami (Curzon 2000).
1011 5 See Hardacre, Shinto and the state, chapter 7.
1 6 There are very few comprehensive studies of sect Shinto. Among them are
2 Tsurufuji Ikuta, Kyōha Shintō no kenkyū (Taikōsha 1939), Nakayama Keiichi,
Kyōha Shintō no hassei katei (Moriyama Shoten 1932) and, for the post-war
13111
period, Inoue Nobutaka, Kyōha Shintō no keisei (Kōbundō 1991).
4 7 On Ontake see, for example, Akaike Noriaki, ‘The Ontake cult association
5 and local society: the case of the Owari-Mikawa region in central Japan’
6 (Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 8–1/2, 1981).
7 8 A basic reference work for new religions is Inoue Nobutaka et al., Shinshūkyō
8 kyōdan, jinbutsu jiten (Kōbundō 1996). This book carries much detailed
9 information on the Shinto-rooted new religions. A general academic work on
20111 the new religions is Inoue Nobutaka, Shinshūkyō no kaidoku (Chikuma Shobō
1996).
1
9 See Carmen Blacker, ‘Millenarian aspects of the new religions in Japan’ in
2 Donald Shively, ed., Tradition and modernization in Japanese culture (Princeton
3 University Press 1998).
4 10 See Helen Hardacre, ‘Shinmeiaishinkai and the study of shamanism in
5 contemporary Japanese life’ in Peter Kornicki and James McMullen, eds,
6 Religion in Japan (Cambridge University Press 1997).
7 11 Ishii Kenji, Toshi no nenchū gyōji: Hen’yō suru Nihonjin no shinsei (Shunjūsha
8 1994).
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40111
1
211
197
SELECTED READING
In Western languages
General
Blacker, Carmen, The catalpa bow: A study of shamanistic practices in Japan, London:
George Allan and Unwin 1975.
Bocking, Brian, A popular dictionary of Shinto, Curzon 1996.
Breen, John and Mark Teeuwen, eds, Shinto in history: Ways of the kami, Curzon
2000.
Havens, Norman and Inoue Nobutaka, eds, Encyclopedia of Shinto, Tokyo:
Kokugakuin University. Vol. 1, Kami, appeared in 2001.
Japanese journal of religious studies vol. 29/3–4, special issue ‘Tracing Shinto in the
history of kami worship’, Autumn 2002.
Kōdansha encyclopedia of Japan
Kuroda Toshio, tr. James C. Dobbins and Suzanne Gray, ‘Shinto in the history of
Japanese religion’, The journal of Japanese studies 7–1, pp. 1–21, 1981.
Sources of Japanese tradition, 2nd edition, 2 vols, New York: Columbia University
Press 2001.
Teeuwen, Mark and Fabio Rambelli, eds, Buddhas and kami in Japan: Honji suijaku
as a combinatory paradigm, Curzon 2003.
The ancient and classical periods

Aston, W.G., Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697, Tuttle
1972.
Bock, Felicia G., Engi-Shiki. Procedures of the Engi Era, 2 vols, Tokyo: Sophia
University, 1970–2.
Grapard, Allan G., ‘Religious practices’ in Donald H. Shively and William H.
McCullough, eds, The Cambridge history of Japan. Vol. 2, ‘Heian Japan’,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999.
Ebersole, Gary L., Ritual poetry and the politics of death in early Japan, Princeton
University Press 1989.
198
SELECTED READING
1111 McMullin, Neil, ‘On placating the gods and pacifying the populace: The case of
2 the Gion goryō cult,’ History of Religions 27–3, 1988.
3 Naumann, Nelly, Die einheimische Religion Japans. Teil 1. Bis zum Ende der Heian-
4 Zeit. Leiden: E.J. Brill 1988.
5 Naumann, Nelly, Die Mythen des alten Japan, Munich: C.H. Beck 1996.
6 Philippi, Donald L., Kojiki. Translated with an introduction and notes, University of
Tokyo Press 1968.
7
See also articles included in works listed in the ‘general’ section.
8
9
1011 The medieval period
1 Grapard, Allan G., The protocol of the gods: A study of the Kasuga cult in Japanese
2 history, University of California Press 1992.
13111 Japanese Journal of Religious Studies vol. 16/2–3, special issue on Shugendo, Summer
4 1989.
5 Kuroda Toshio, tr. Fabio Rambelli, ‘The discourse on the “Land of the Kami”
6 (shinkoku) in medieval Japan: National consciousness and international aware-
7 ness’, JJRS 23/3–4, pp. 353–85, 1996.
8 Morrell, Robert E., Sand and pebbles (Shasekishū): The tales of Mujū Ichien, a voice
9 for pluralism in Kamakura Buddhism, Albany, NY: State University of New York
20111 Press 1985.
1 Naumann, Nelly, Die einheimische Religion Japans. Teil 2. Synkretistische Lehren und
2 religiöse Entwicklungen von der Kamakura- bis zum Beginn der Edo-Zeit. Leiden:
3 E.J. Brill 1994.
4 Scheid, Bernhard, Der eine und einzige Weg der Götter: Yoshida Kanetomo und die
5 Erfindung des Shinto, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften 2001.
6
Teeuwen, Mark, Watarai Shinto: An intellectual history of the Outer Shrine in Ise,
7
Leiden: Research School CNWS 1996.
8 Tyler, Susan, The cult of Kasuga seen through its arts, Ann Arbor: University of
9 Michigan Press 1992.
30111 See also articles included in works listed in the ‘general’ section.
1
2
3 The early modern period
4 Bocking, Brian, Sanja takusen: Oracles of the three shrines, Richmond: Curzon Press
5 2002.
6 Hardacre, Helen, Religion and society in nineteenth-century Japan: A study of the
7 southern Kanto Region, using late edo and early Maiji Gazetteers, Ann Arbor:
8 Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2002.
9 Harootunian, H.D., ‘Late Tokugawa culture and thought’ in Marius Jansen, ed.,
40111 Cambridge history of Japan: 19th century, Cambridge University Press 1989.
1 Kenny, Elizabeth, ‘Shinto funerals in the Edo period’, Japanese Journal of Religious
211 Studies 27/3–4, 2000.
199
SELECTED READING
Ooms, Herman, Tokugawa ideology: Early constructs, 1570–1680, Princeton:

Princeton University Press 1985.
The modern period

Antoni, Klaus, Shintō & die Konzeption des japanischen Nationalwesens (kokutai),
Leiden: E.J. Brill 1998.
Ashkenazi, Michael, Matsuri: Festivals of a Japanese town, Honolulu: University of
Hawai’i Press 1993.
Averbuch, Irit, The gods come dancing: A study of the Japanese ritual dance of
Yamabushi Kagura, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program 1995.
Creemers, W.H.M., Shrine Shinto after World War II, Leiden: E.J. Brill 1968.
Garon, Sheldon M., ‘State and religion in Imperial Japan, 1912–1945’, The Journal
of Japanese Studies 12–2, Summer 1986.
Grapard, Allan G., ‘Japan’s ignored cultural revolution: the separation of Shinto-
Buddhist divinities and a case-study: Tōnomine’, History of Religions 23–3, 1984.
Hardacre, Helen, Kurozumikyō and the new religions of Japan, Princeton: Princeton
Hardacre, Helen, Shinto and the state, 1860–1988, Princeton: Princeton University
Press 1989.
Nelson, John, Enduring identities: The guise of Shinto in contemporary Japan,
Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press 2000.
Plutschow, Herbert, Matsuri: Festivals of Japan, Avon: Japan Library 1996.
Reader, Ian, Religion in contemporary Japan, Basingstoke: Macmillan 1990.
Reader, Ian and George Tanabe, Practically religious: Worldly benefits and the
common religion of Japan, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press 1998.
Sered, Susan, Women of the sacred groves: Divine priestesses of Okinawa, Oxford
Smyers, Karen A., The fox and the jewel: Shared and private meanings in contem-
porary Japanese Inari worship, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press 1999.
In Japanese
General
Itō Satoshi et al., eds, Nihon shōshi hyakka: Shintō, Tōkyōdō Shuppan 2002.
A short Shinto history in the form of brief introductory essays on selected
themes.
Kokugakuin Daigaku Nihon Bunka Kenkyūjo, comp., Shintō jiten, Kōbundō 1994.
Dictionary of Shinto.
Ono Yasuhiro et al., comp., Nihon shūkyō jiten, Kōbundō 1985.
Dictionary of Japanese religions.
200
SELECTED READING
1111 Umeda Yoshihiko, Jingi seidoshi no kisoteki kenkyū, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1964.
2 An elementary study of the system of kami ritual.
3
4 The ancient and classical periods
5 Inoue Mitsusada, Nihon kodai no ōken to saishi, Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai 1984.
6 Royal power and ritual in early Japan.
7 Kōnoshi Takamitsu, Kojiki no sekaikan, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1986.
8 The world of the Kojiki.
9 Mizubayashi Takeshi, Kiki shinwa to ōken no matsuri, Iwanami Shoten 1991.
1011 The myths of Kojiki and Nihon shoki and rituals of royal power.
1 Ōba Iwao, Matsuri: Kōkogaku kara saguru Nihon kodai no matsuri, Gakuseisha 1996
2 (new edition).
13111 Archeology and early Japanese ritual.
4 Okada Seishi, Kodai ōken no saishi to shinwa, Hanawa Shobō 1970.
5 Rituals and myths of royal power in early Japan.
6 Okada Seishi, Jinja no kodaishi, Ōsaka Shoseki 1985.
A history of shrines in early Japan.
7
Okada Shigekiyo, Kodai no imi, Kokusho Kankōkai 1982.
8
Abstinence and ritual taboos in early Japan.
9 Takatori Masao, Shintō no seiritsu, Heibonsha 1993.
20111 The emergence of Shinto.
1 Yoshida Atsuhiko, Nihon no shinwa, Seidosha 1990.
2 Japanese mythology.
3 Yoshie Akiko, Nihon kodai no uji no kōzō, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1986.
4 Uji clans in early Japan.
5 Yoshie Akiko, Nihon kodai no saishi to josei, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1996.
6 Women in early Japanese ritual.
7 Wada Atsumu, Nihon kodai no girei to saishi, shinkō, 3 vols, Hanawa Shobō 1995.
8 Ceremonies, rituals and beliefs of early Japan.
9
30111 The medieval period
1
2 Hagiwara Tatsuo, Kamigami to sonraku, Kōbundō 1978.
3 The kami and the villages.
Kubota Osamu, Chūsei Shintō no kenkyū, Chūseishi Gakkai 1959.
4
A study of medieval Shinto.
5
Kuroda Toshio, Kuroda Toshio chosakushū, 8 vols, Hōzōkan 1998.
6 Collected works of Kuroda Toshio.
7 Murayama Shūichi, Honji suijaku, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1974.
8 Kami as emanations of buddhist divinities.
9 Nakamura Ikuo, Nihon no kami to ōken, Hōzōkan 1994.
40111 Kami and royal power in Japan.
1 Sakurai Yoshirō, Chūsei Nihon no ōken, shūkyō, geinō, Jinbun Shoin 1988.
211 Royal power, religion and performing arts in medieval Japan.
201
SELECTED READING
Satō Hiroo, Kami, hotoke, ōken no chūsei, Hōzōkan 1998.

Kami, buddhas and royal power in medieval Japan.
Tsuda Sōkichi, Nihon no shinwa, Iwanami Shoten 1948.
The myths of Japan.
Yamamoto Hiroko, Henseifu – Chūsei shinbutsu shūgō no sekai, Shunjūsha 1993.
Metamorphoses: Kami–Buddhist amalgamation in medieval Japan.
Yamaori Tetsuo, Kami to okina no minzokugaku, Kōdansha Gakujutsu Bunko 1991.
The folklore of kami and okina plays.
Yoshie Akio, Shinbutsu shūgō, Iwanami Shinsho 1996.
Kami–Buddhist amalgamation.
The early modern period

Fujii Sadafumi, Kinsei ni okeru jingi shisō, Shunjūsha 1944.
Kami thought in early modern Japan.
Hagiwara Tatsuo, Chūsei saishi soshiki no kenkyū, zōhoban, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan
1975.
A study of organisational structures of kami ritual in medieval Japan.
Kishino Toshihiko, Bakuhansei shakai ni okeru kokugaku, Azekura Shobō 1998.
Nativism in the society of the bakuhan system.
Kobayashi Kenzō, Suika Shintō no kenkyū, Shibundō 1940.
A study of Suika Shinto.
Koyasu Nobukuni, Norinaga to Atsutane no sekai, Chūō Kōronsha 1977.
The worlds of Motoori Norinaga and Hirata Atsutane.
Miyaji Naokazu, Shintōshi, 3 vols, in Miyaji Naokazu ronshū 5–8, Sōyōsha 1985.
Essays on topics in Shinto history.
Murayama Shūichi and Shimodo Sekiyo (eds) comp., Onmyōdō sōsho, 4 vols,
Meicho Shuppan 1991–3.
The Way of Yin and Yang.
Nishida Nagao, Nihon Shintōshi kenkyū, 10 vols, Kōdansha 1978–9.
Studies in Shinto history.
Ōtō Osamu, Kinsei nōmin to ie, mura, kokka, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 1996.
Early modern peasants: households, villages and the state.
Shinjō Tsunezō, Shinkō, Shaji sankei no shakai-keizaishiteki kenkyū, Hanawa Shobō
1982.
A historical socio-economic study of pilgrimage to shrines and temples (revised
edition).
Takano Toshihiko, Kinsei Nihon no kokka kenryoku to shūkyō, Tōkyō Daigaku
Shuppankai 1989.
State power and religion in early modern Japan.
Yamaguchi Keiji, Sakoku to kaikoku, Iwanami Shoten 1993.
Closing the country, opening the country.
Yanagita Kunio, Teihon Yanagita Kunio shū, Yanagita Kunio zenshū, Ketteiban Yanagita
Kunio zenshū, Chikuma Shobō.
Collected works of Yanagita Kunio.
202
SELECTED READING
1111 The modern period

2 Inoue Nobutaka, Kyōha Shintō no keisei, Kōbundō 1990.
3 The formation of sect Shinto.
4 Inoue Nobutaka, Shinshūkyō no dokkai, Chikuma Shobō 1996.
5 A reading of the new religions.
6 Inoue Nobutaka et al., comp., Shinshūkyō kyōdan, jinbutsu jiten, Kōbundō 1996.
7 Dictionary of the new religions.
8 Ishii Kenji, Sengo no shakai hendō to jinja Shintō, Taimeidō 1998.
9 Social change and shrine Shinto in post-war Japan.
Kokugakuin Daigaku Nihon Bunka Kenkyūjo, comp., Kindai tennōsei to shūkyōteki
1011
ken’i, Dōmeisha Shuppan 1992.
1 Religious authority and the modern emperor system.
2 Murakami Shigeyoshi, Kindai minshū shūkyōshi no kenkyū, revised edition, Hōzōkan
13111 1972.
4 A study of modern popular religion.
5 Ōya Wataru, Kyōha Shintō to kindai Nihon, Tōhō Shuppan 1992.
6 Sect Shinto and modern Japan.
7 Sakamoto Koremaru, Kokka Shintō keisei katei no kenkyū, Iwanami Shoten 1994.
8 A study of the formation of state Shinto.
9 Tamaru Noriyoshi, comp., Shinpojiumu, Gendai tennō to Shintō, Tokuma Shoten
20111 1990.
Symposium: The emperor and Shinto in modern Japan.
1
Tanaka Yoshitō, Shintō 13ha no kenkyū, 2 vols, Daiichi Shobō 1987 (reprint).
2 A pre-war study of the thirteen sects of Shinto.
3 Yasumaru Yoshio, Kamigami no Meiji ishin, Iwanami Shoten 1979.
4 The kami and the Meiji Restoration.
5
6
7
8
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40111
1
211
203
INDEX
‘Abbreviated Record of the Essentials of Analects of Confucius 129

the Mountain lineage’ (Sanke yōryakki) ancestor worship 7–10, 54, 56–7, 121,
75, 89 154; in Japan compared to China and
Abe no Seimei 98 Korea 9
abhis. eka (Skt.) see kanjō (ritual initiation) ancestral deities 35, 54, 56, 126
accession 37, 55, 66; see also enthronement ancestral rites 121–2, 128, 157
Adachi 182 Ancient Learning see kogaku
administrative law (Ryō) 36 Ancient Learning faction see kogakuha
‘Age of Man’ 31 ‘Ancient Tales’ (kuji) 27
‘Age of the Gods’ 28, 31, 90, 133–4, 137, angry spirits (goryō) 65, 76–8, 104; goryōe
147, 149 ceremony 78; see also malevolent spirits,
agricultural rites see rites revengeful spirits (onryō)
agriculture 46, 171; see also rice cultivation animals 100; see also hōjōe
Ajiki Tenkai 190 animism 7, 14
Akagi Tadaharu 182 Annen 89
Aki province 135 annual rites 161, 193
Akita 153 Ansai see Yamazaki Ansai
Akyū-bō Sokuden 97 anthropomorphism 130; see also human-like
‘All under Heaven’, see tenka deities
amalgamation of Buddhism and Shinto: anti-Buddhism 109, 129, 143, 154; see also
amalgamated Shinto (shūgō shintō) 68; haibutsu kishaku
amalgamation of kami cults and anti-foreignism 155
Buddhism (shinbutsu shūgō) 11, 63–4, An’yōji lineage 87, 103
67–72, 110, 149; kami as emanations of Aoki Nagahiro 125
Buddhist divinitites 72–8; shinbutsu Aoyama cemetary 139
hanzenrei (policy of clarification of kami Arakida Hisaoyu 151
and Buddhas) 163 Arakida lineage 88
amalgamation of Buddhism and Confucianism archaeology 15
in Korea 7 aristocracy 55, 58, 82, 90, 96
amalgamation of Buddhism and Taoism in Asahi Shinmei shrine 125
China 7 Asake district 35
Amano Sadakage 147 Asakusa area 125
Amaterasu (Sun Goddess) 13, 14, 31, 56, 58, Asami Keisai 135, 147
81, 82, 84, 86, 90, 94, 112, 134, 149, 189, ascetic practices 112, 186
190; ‘death and rebirth’ 31; divine decree ascetics 178
(shinchoku) 32, 34, 35, 57; move to Ise 20; Ashikaga 115
see also ‘Guidelines for Rituals Focusing on Ashikaga Academy 10
Amaterasu’ Ashikaga Yoshimasa 111, 114
Ame no iwato kanjō (‘Cave in Heaven assorted rites 172
Initiation’) 91–2 Atobe Yoshiakira 135, 137
Ame no Koyane 40, 54, 90, 112, 134 Atsuta shrine 174
Ame no Minakanushi 86 auspicious directions (ehō) 142
Ame no Uzume 40 Avalokiteśvara (Skt.) see Kannon
Amidagamine 116 Awaji 77
Amida Nyorai 75; Amida’s name (nenbutsu) Awa province 178
93; Amida trinity 75 Azumamaro see Kada no Azumamaro
204
INDEX
1111 bakufu see Edo bakufu Byakkō shinkōkai 186

bans: on private and local calendars 142; on Byōdōji 90
2 private worship 96
3 Baozhi (Hōshi) 69 calendars 23, 28, 136, 142, 154, 161
‘barbarians’ 34 Catholic church 2
4 bell-shaped bronze objects see dōtaku ‘Cave of Heaven’ (ame no iwato) 31, 35, 44,
Benzaiten 196 82, see also kami-asobi
5 beppyō jinja 171 ‘Cave of Heaven Initiation’ (ame no iwato
6 bessho 95 kanjō) 91–2
Bichū 148 cefeng (Ch.) see sakuhō
7 birds 15–17 centre of civilisation see chūgoku
8 ‘birth of the land’ 30–1; see also founding ceremonial space 19; see also ritual space
myths character-reading see divination
9 Bishamon 196 charities see religious charities
1011 Bizen 181 charms see omikuji
‘black door’ (kurodo) 168 Chiba prefecture 187, 189
1 bodhisattvas, granting title of bodhisattva to chiefly lineages 24
2 kami 73 chief priests 180, 181; see also gūji
body (tai) 187 ‘child’ churches 185
13111 bon festival 122 China 7, 71, 80, 91, 130, 173, 191; Chinese
4 Bonshun, see Yoshida 114 biographies of monks 103; Chinese
Bonten see Brahmā divination 97; Chinese law see ritsuryō
5 Book of Changes (Yijing) 9, 28, 97, 101, 132 system; Chinese myths 17; Chinese
Boshin War 103 notions of kingship 14; Chinese
6 Brahmā (Bonten) 73 philosophical texts 92; Chinese poetry
7 branch-temple 186 83; Chinese religio-cultural sphere 7;
Brazil 190 Chinese religions 2, 6, 7, 9, see also
8 Budai (Hotei) 69, 196 Taoism, Yin and Yang thought;
9 Buddhism 2, 52, 149; attacks on Buddhist Chinese-style bureaucracy 53; Chinese
institutions 181; see also haibutsu kishaku; system of mausolea (zongmiao) 90;
20111 Buddhism and emperor 168; Buddhism and Chinese thought contrasted with
1 Shinto see Ryōbu Shinto; Buddhism and the Japanese myths 28; Chinese writing 23,
state 79; Buddhism-derived new religions 9, 154; contemporary Chinese culture 195;
2 161, 175, 184; Buddhism’s influence on overlordship of Chinese emperor 30;
3 Shinto-derived new religions 2, 184; centres recognition of Yamato kings by Chinese
of Buddhism 80; Buddhist concept of emperor 20; rites of Chinese origin
4 retribution (inga ōhō) 127; Buddhist Dharma 123–5
(buppō) 29; Buddhist emanations see gonshin chinjugami 126; see also deities
5 (‘kami who are Buddhist emanations’); chinkon kishin 187
6 Buddhist kami 28, 74, 88, 91, 94; see also Ise Chiyo motokusa 129
Shinto, Ryōbu shinto, Sannō Shinto; Chōgen 85
7 Buddhist wish-fulfilling gem (nyoi hōju) 82; chokusai 168
8 ‘enjoying Buddhist Law’ (hōraku) 70; chokusen 97
expulsion of Buddhist monks 109; Mahayana Chōshūki 75
9 Buddhism 7, 103; manifestations of Buddha chōyō (autumn festival) 123–5
30111 102; ‘Old Buddhism’ 93; religious system of Christianity 7, 8, 156, 175, 184, 192; counter-
Buddhism 28; resistance against introduction Christian measures 122
1 of Buddhism 28; resistance by aristocracy Christmas 192
2 against Dōkyō’s accession 55; tension ‘chroniclers’ (kike) 89
between Buddhism and kami cults 70; see Chūchō jijitsu 130
3 also esoteric Buddhism, haibutsu kishaku chūgoku (centre of civilisation) 130
(anti-Buddhist destruction); shinbutsu bunri Chūkyōin 165
4 (separation of Buddhism and Shinto), chūsei Shintōsetsu (‘medieval Shinto thought’)
5 shinbutsu shūgō (amalgamation or 78–9
identification of Buddhism and Shinto) cintāman. i 82
6 Bungo province 71, 125 ‘Civil Examinations’ 37
7 Bunhitobe see Funhitobe clans (uji) 23; clans and the court 57; clan
Bunkachō 175 deities see ujigami; clan genealogies 54; clan
8 bunrei see ‘inviting’of kami heads (uji no kami) 23, 52; clan members
9 Bureau of the Consecrated Imperial Princess (ujibito) 23; clan rituals as private affairs 52;
see saigūryō clan shrines 89; competiton 53;
40111 Bureau of Yin and Yang see Onmyōryō disappearance of clans 57; ties with imperial
1 Bureaucratisation of priesthood see priesthood lineage 53; weakening of clans 53; see also
burial mounds 14, 16, 19 Nakatomi clan, Inbe clan
211 Buzen 71 colonialism and Shinto sects 191
205
INDEX
commentaries: on Kokin wakashū 92; on Nihon Deguchi Nao 187

shoki 103; tradition of writing commentaries Deguchi Nobutsune 131
92 Deguchi Nobuyoshi 131–2
‘common people’ 183–4 Deguchi Onisaburō 187
communication with spirits 187, 195 deities: contact with deities 8; ‘deities of evil
communications networks 161 (maga-tsu-hi no kami) 58; ‘deities to rectify
community groups 10 evil’ (naobi no kami) 58; deities with
confiscation of shrine land see shrine land extraordinary kami powers see myōjin; deity
confraternities (kō) 6, 11, 108, 139–43, 174–7, of education 78; deity of food 20; deity
180 tablets (ofuda) 2; deity of war 18; ‘disease
Confucianism 2, 9, 11, 110, 128–31, 130, dieties’ (ekishin) 77; ‘fashionable deities’
132–8; Confucian concept of heaven 115; (hayarigami) 141, 158; foreign deities 1, 29;
Confucian education 145; Confucian guardian deities 18, 52, 126; see also ‘Earthly
funerals 158; Confucianism and Emperor deities’, Hachiman (deity), Inari (deity),
Tenchi 35; Confucianism and Shinto see Kasuga (deity), Kunitokotachi (deity), Miwa
Juke Shinto (Confucian Shinto), Suika (deity)
Shinto, Yoshida Shinto; Confucianists 109; Demon King of the Heaven of Desire see
Confucian rationality 128–32; Confucian Dairokuten Maō
sages 130; Confucian state ideology 48; lack dengaku 66
of a Confucian social class in Japan 128; descent of royal ancestor from heaven see royal
Neo-Confucianism 129–30 lineage, imperial lineage
Confucius 69 dharma king (hōō) 55
constituents 4, 11, 18, 22, 108, 163, 167, Diamond Realm (Kongōkai) mandala 68, 84, 91
171–2, 183; definition of constitutents 4; didactic tales (otogizōshi) 92
see also worshippers directions: ‘East as sacred direction’ 27; ehō
cosmogony 155 (auspicious directions) 142; practice of
court: court intermediaries see Yoshida family changing directions (katatagae) 99
and Shirakawa family; court and shrines 119; ‘discreet’(on’yō) teaching 112
court and temples 120; offerings by court to ‘disease deities’ (ekishin) 77, 78
selected shrines 11; problem of court district governors (gūji) 33, 45–6, 49, 61
mediation 142 divination 8, 28, 32, 101, 110, 193, 194;
courtiers 11, 77 astrology 78, 98, 106; character-reading,
‘creativity’ (zōka) 127 computer divination, name-reading, palm-
Crown Prince Sawara 77 reading 193; geomancy 154; shijū suimei
curses (tatari) 70, 77 (‘divination by the four means’) 193; tortoise
shell divination 8
Daianji 73 ‘divine decree’ of Amaterasu see Amaterasu
Daidai-kō 180 ‘divine entertainments’ see kami-asobi
Daigoji Sanbōin 97, 120 ‘diviners’ see Urabe
daigongen (Great Avatar) 116 Divine Seal 36–8, 82
Daigorinji 90 ‘divine treasures’ 25, 45
daijingūji see Ise shrine doctrines 4, 86, 90, 165; Buddhist-derived new
Daijingū Shozōjiki 75 religions 184; kami doctrines 90;
daijōsai 32, 37, 109 Kurozumikyō 182; Ōmoto doctrine 187; sect
Daikokuten 196 Shinto 166; Shinto doctrines 63; written
daimyō 101, 125, 131 doctrine 3; Yoshida Shinto doctrines 112
daimyōjin (‘Magnificent kami’) 117 Dōgen 93–4
Dainichi (Skt. Vairocana, Sun Buddha) 69, 72, Dōjō kagaku 148
75, 91, 104; Dainichi Nyorai 75; Dōjun 87
Dainichi-hongoku (‘the original land of Dōkō 120
Dainichi’) 81; identifying Amaterasu with Dōkyō 55
Dainichi 149 dōtaku (bronze objects) 16
Dainihon Kannonkai 189 droughts 17, 48, 51, 64, 100
Dairokuten Maō (Demon King of the Heaven of Dutch studies 156
Desire) 82, 92 dwelling places of kami see ritual sites
Daishōgun 99 dwellings of local chiefs (miya, yake, yakata) 16
Dajōkan 162
dancers 41 ‘Earthly deities’ (kuni-tsu-kami) 14, 25–6, 32
Dan no ura 82 ‘Eastern Emperor’ 27
Daoism see Taoism East-Asian folk religion 6–10
‘days of misfortune’ (suijitsu) 99 Ebisu 190, 196
Dazaifu 78, 103 economy 44, 122, 140, 155
death 14, 23, 193; see also subterranean world edicts: Edo edict on shrines and priests 142;
of death Meiji period 162; see also Religious juridical
decapitation 36 persons edict, shrine-temple separation edicts
206
INDEX
1111 Edo 131, 150, 153; life cycle 143; magistrate Emperor Saga 91
for temples and shrines (jisha bugyō) 182 Emperor Shirakawa 82, 96
2 Edo bakufu 104, 108, 115, 117–21, 123, 131, Emperor Shōmu 72
3 136, 142, 145, 150, 153, 155, 157; control of Emperor Sūdō (posthumous title) 77
shrines and priests 118–21; magistrate for Emperor Suiko 21
4 foreign affairs 179; military governor Emperor Suinin 21
(shoshidai) 179; regulations for the control of Emperor Sūjin (Mimaki-iri-hiko) 17–21, 24–5
5 shrines and their priests (shosha negi kannushi Emperor Sutoku 78
6 hatto) 118 Emperor Taishō 163
Edo faction 151 Emperor Temmu 21, 24, 29–31, 35, 45
7 Edo period 4, 113, 123, 127, 131, 174, 177, Emperor Tenchi 21
8 186 Emperor Wakatateru 19
ehō (auspicious directions) see directions Emperor Yōmei 1, 21, 29, 71
9 ‘eight grave offences’ 36 Emperor Yūryaku 19, 20–1, 24, 71
1011 Eight Great Dragon-Kings ‘Empowerment of the three mysterious
Eight Great Imperial Collections (Hachidaishū) qualities’ 112
1 148 Empress Jingū Kōgō 24
2 ‘(the) eight hundred myriad kami’ (yaoyorozu Empress Kōgyoku 100
no kami) 28, 31, 34 Empress Shōtoku 54
13111 Eight protector deities of the imperial family Empress Suiko 26, 31, 33
4 see Hasshinden shrine Enchin 89
Eison school 87, 90, 93 engi (foundation stories) 11, 86
5 ekishin see ‘disease dieties’ Engishiki 50, 57
ekizei 97 ‘enjoying Buddhist Law’ (hōraku) 70
6 elders (otona, toshiyori) 67, 115 enlightenment 102; original enlightenment
7 ema (pictured horses) 99 (musa honnu) 76; Tendai school 80
emanations (suijaku) 93–4 Ennin 89
8 ‘emanations of a Buddha’ (keshin) 7; see also En no Ozunu 95
9 keshin, gonshin Enryakuji 79, 89
emigrants (Japanese) to North and South Enryakuji gokoku engi (‘Origins of the
20111 America 173 Protection of the State by Enryakuji
1 Emishi 34 temple’) 89
emperor (tennō) 11–12, 187; divine attributes enthronement 23, 32; accession 37, 55, 66;
2 169; emperor ‘system’ 164; eternal line of ceremonies 42, 58; rites 32, 109, 135–6
3 emperors (bansei ikkei)169; ‘first emperor’ epidemics 18, 51, 70, 77, 98
(sumera-mikoto) 24; ‘First Emperor to Rule era names 188
4 the Realm’ (hatsu-kuni-shirasu sumera-mikoto) eschatological pessimism 79
17; living deity 38, 169; magico-religious esoteric Buddhism 6, 68, 74, 83, 87, 91, 95, 97,
5 powers 38, 41; modern emperor system 159, 120, 143
6 168–73; pilgrimages 96; priest-king 169; ‘Esoteric secrets of the Age of the Gods’ (Jindai
pro-emperor movement 135; sacralisation hiketsu) 88
7 56; ritual prerogatives 25, 39, 43; ritual title essence (hontai) 112
8 of Great King (ōkimi) 22; as supreme ‘essence, form and function’ 112
commander of military forces 169; title of eulogy of the deceased (shinobi) 23
9 tennō 30; see also enthronement Europe 192
30111 Emperor Ankan 23 executions 38
Emperor Antoku 82 exile 36
1 Emperor Buretsu 21 exorcism 77, 98, 99, 124; exorcist tablets (jufu)
2 Emperor Chōai 21 100, 107; see also jugon
Emperor Hanayama 96 expositions of sacred objects (kaichō) 141
3 Emperor Heizei, 57
Emperor Higashiyama 135 ‘family’ of kami 54
4 Emperor Ichijō 64, 82 fashionable deities (hayarigami) 141, 158
5 Emperor Jinmu 21–8, 110 female religious founders 185, 188–90
Emperor Jitō 21, 30–1 female ritualists 22, 72
6 Emperor Kammu, 56–7 festivals 36, 117, 125–6, 128, 196; chōyō
7 Emperor Keiko 21 (autumn festival) 123–5; ‘festival of the
Emperor Keitai 21, 24 realm’ (tenka matsuri) 126; festivals and laws
8 Emperor Kinmei 21, 25–6 relating to kami worship in the Yōrō code
9 Emperor Kōtoku, 21, 29, 58 36; five feast days (gosekku) 123, 125; Great
Emperor Mimaki-iri-hiko see Emperor Sūjin Festivals 36; Kanda festival 126; Owari
40111 Emperor Momozono 137 festival 117; Sannō festival 126; shrine
1 Emperor Montoku 65 festivals x; tanabata 123; thanksgiving 162
Emperor Ōjin 21, 25, 66, 71 fetishes 15
211 Emperor Reigen 135–6 figurines 59; see also purificatory figurines
207
INDEX
‘first emperor’ (sumera-mikoto) 24 genpon sōgen shintō (Shinto as founding

‘First Emperor to Rule the Realm’ principle of the universe) 111
(hatsu-kuni-shirasu sumera-mikoto) 17 Genrōin (Senate) 178
‘first shrines’ (ichi-no-miya) 65–6, 110 Genroku period 123–4, 140
‘Five books of Shinto’ (Shintō gobusho) 86 ghosts (mononoke) 78
five elements see Five Phases of Matter GHQ (General Headquarters of the Supreme
five feast days (gosekku) 123, 125 Commander for the Allied Powers) 159,
‘Five Kings of Wo’ 19 170, 188
Five Phases of Matter (wood, fire, earth, metal Gien 121
and water) 2, 7, 9, 86, 97, 130, 193 Gigen 89
folklore 2, 99, 195 Gion shrine (Gionsha) 64–5, 78
folk religion 2, 6, 108 gō (groups of villages) 67, 126
‘folk Shinto’ (minzoku Shintō) 1, 160–1, Gobusho 147
192–6 Gobusho setsuben 147
foreign deities see deities Gōdanshō 75
foreign diplomacy 19, 31, 51 God of Great Origin 112
‘foreign kami’ 28 gohei (sacred stick) 101
‘formula of great purification’ (ōharae no gohō zenshin (‘protector deities of the Buddhist
kotoba) 44, 92 Law’) 71
‘founded religions’ 2 Goi Masahisa 187
founding myths see engi gomiso 8
founding myths of Japan see myths Go-Mizuno’o 124
fraud (of texts)146 gongen (avatar) 73; gongen bosatsu 73
freedom of religion 170 gongūji 174
Fubitobe see Funhitobe gonnegi 174
Fudesaki 187 gonshin (‘kami who are Buddhist emanations’)
Fudoki (provincial gazetteers) 11, 45 11, 72, 76
Fujidō 181 goryō (goryō ceremony) 78 see also angry spirits
Fuji-kō (Mount Fuji Confraternity) 140, Goryū (‘August Lineage’) Shinto 91
175–7, 181, 186 gosekku (five feast days) 123, 125
Fujiwara 40, 54, 57, 59, 90; clan ancestor 90; Gosen wakashū 148
clan shrine of Fujiwara 54, 89 gōsha (local district shrines) 166
Fujiwara no Hirotsugu 77 gōsha teisoku (regulations for guardian shrines)
Fujiwara no Kisshi 78 167
Fujiwara no Muchimaro 103 Go-Shirakawa 96
Fujiwara no Tanetsugu 77 Goshūi wakashū 83, 148
Fujiwara Seika 129 Go-Toba 78, 96
Fujiwara Teika 129 Go-Uda 87, 96
Fukami Tōshū (Handa Haruhisa) 190 government directives 183
Fuken Bosatsu 75 Go-Yōzei 116
fukko see ‘Restoration Shinto’ Goyuigō (apocryphal ‘testament’) 91
Fukōkenjaku Kannon 75 Gozu Tennō (‘Bullhead Deva King’) 78, 163
Fukui 189 granaries (kura) 15
Fukurokuju 196 ‘grandchild’ churches 185
function see hataraki grave-reading 193
funerals 125, 137, 172; funeral rites 23, 194; graves 14
Shinto funerals (shinsōsai) 138; wake Great Avatar (Daigongen) 116
(mogari) 23 ‘Great Bodhisattva Hachiman’ (Hachiman
Funhitobe 40 Daibosatsu) 73
Fun’ya no Miyatamaro 77 Great Festivals 36
Furukawa river 18 Great General of Heaven (Ten no Daishōgun)
fusha (metropolitan district shrines) 166 184
Fushimi 150 ‘Great King’ (ōkimi) 12, 17, 22, 26
Fushimi Inari tradition 149 ‘great shrine’ (taisha) status 35
Fusōkyō 174–6, 181 Great Teaching (taikyō) 164
Futabayama 188 ground-breaking rites 172
Futodama 40, 134 guardian deities see deities
Futsunushi 54 guardian shrines 167; local tutelary shrines
121
Gekū (Outer Shrine of Ise) 85 ‘Guidelines for Rituals Focusing on Amaterasu’
Gendō see Yano Harumichi (Tenshōdaijin giki) 84
General Headquarters of the Supreme gūji 174; see also shrine governor of Ise shrine
Commander for the Allied Powers see GHQ gunji see district governor
Genji monogatari 152 gunjin chokuyu (Rescript for Soldiers and
Genkō shakusho 130 Sailors) 169
208
INDEX
1111 gushō 174 ‘heavenly deities’ (ama-tsu-kami) 14, 24, 26,

Gyōki 69, 71, 103 31, 33–5, 37; ‘Heavenly Grandson’ 30, 32,
2 gyōkizu (first map of Japan) 85 34, 44
3 Gyōkyō 73 Heian court 99, 144
Heian period 3, 65, 68, 70, 72, 74, 77–8, 81,
4 Hachidaishō see Eight Great Imperial 83–4, 91, 95–6, 98, 115, 156
Collections heihō (military theory) 100
5 Hachijuttsū injin 91 Heijōkyō (Nara) 52, 54
6 Hachiman (deity) 5, 11, 66, 72–8, 90, 116; as Heike (or Taira) 64, 82
ancestral deity; Buddhist identifications of hell 154
7 Hachiman 72–5; first mention of Hachiman hereditary principle 22, 33, 40, 46, 49, 55,
8 103; martial characteristics 103; protector 73, 92, 123, 163, 177, 180; hereditary
deity 94 priest families 109, 110, 118, 135, 149,
9 Hachiman Daibosatsu (‘Great Bodhisattva 171, 181
1011 Hachiman’) 73, 112 hermits see hijiri
hafuribe 43, 46 Hibi kanai kokoroe no koto (‘A guide to everyday
1 hafuribe myōchō (list of priest officials) 48 living’) 182
2 Hagiwara Kaneyori 130 Hideyoshi see Toyotomi Hideyoshi
haibutsu kishaku (anti-Buddhist destruction) 67, Hie (kami of Hie) 94; as emanation of
13111 163 Śākyamuni 74
4 haiden 173 Hie Sannō (Mountain King of Hie) 88
hakamagi (‘wearing the hakama’) 143 Hie (or Hiyoshi) shrine 65, 75, 88–9, 128, 179
5 Hakke gakusoku 154 hierarchy 4, 42, 50, 51, 166, 171, 186
Hakozaki-gūki 75 Higashiyama district 116
6 Hakuhō period 71 hijiri 95–6
7 Hakusan 74 Hikawa shrine 168, 179
Hakusuki no E 31 hikime 137
8 hanashizume (‘Pacifying the Flowers’) 36 Hikita Koremasa 125
9 Handa Haruhisa (Fukami Tōshū) 190 hiko 21
‘hanging buddhas’ (kakebotoke) 74 Hilo Daijingū 173
20111 haniwa (clay cylinders) 19 himachi 121
1 hanpei 51 himatsuribe (‘sun worship group’) 26
‘happy living’ (yōkigurashi) 186 hime 21
2 harae (purification) ix, 44, 46, 58–60, 77, 113, himegami 54
3 131, see also Nakatomi harae, ōharae, ōharae himohajime 144
no kotoba, purification himorogi 15–16, 40, 134
4 haraedo no ōkami 59 hina dolls 124
haraegushi 59 hina matsuri 124
5 harae-tsu-mono (purification goods) 58 Hindu deities 7
6 ‘hard’ networks 11 Hino Tomiko 111
harvest-related festival and rituals 18, 32–3, Hirano shrine 64–5
7 36–7, 109, 122, 124–5, 156, 162; see also Hiraoka 54
8 kinensai, nemuri nagashi, niiname, Hirata Atsutane 150, 153, 158
thanksgiving, toshigoi Hirata Kanetane 154, 181
9 Hase 20 Hirata school 155
30111 Hasegawa Kakugyō 176 Hirayama Gentarō 179
Hase Yoshio 189 Hirayama Seisai 179–81
1 Hasshinden shrine (shrine to the eight deities Hirose shrine 64
2 which protect the imperial families) 114, Hirota shrine (Nishinomiya) 25, 64–5
135 history: compilation of ‘correct’ history of the
3 hataraki (function) 112 state 30; historical study of Shinto xi
hatsumiya or hatsu miyamōde (newborn’s first History of the Early Han (Hanshu) 100
4 visit to local shrine) x, 162 Hitachi province 46, 176
5 hatsumōde ix hitogami (man-made god) 116
Hattori Nakatsune 153 hitogatashiro (purificatory figurines) 99
6 hayarigami (‘fashionable deities’) 141 Hitonomichi kyōdan 188
7 Hawaii 173, 190–1 Hiyoshi shrine see Hie shrine
Hawaii Daijingū 173 Hōbutsushū 75
8 Hawaii Izumo Taisha 173 hōhei (‘making offerings’) 51, 109, 117
9 Hayashi Razan 129–30, 146 hōjōe (raising merit by releasing captured
head-temple 186 animals) 66
40111 healing 8, 28, 71, 140, 175–6, 182, 184–5, Hokkaidō Ontakekyō 190
1 187, 189 Hokke Shinto (‘Lotus Shinto’) 94
heaven: Confucian concept of heaven 115; Hōkōji 116
211 origin of heaven and earth 34 Hokuriku region 24, 120
209
INDEX
Home Ministry 183 separation of kami and Buddhas 168;

Home provinces (Kinai) 23, 50–2, 64, 67, uninterrupted succession 130; see also
70–1, 99, 111, 120, 122–3, 127, 140, 142 protection of imperial family
Honchō jinjakō 130, 146 imperial jewel (yasakani no magatama) 81
Honchō monzui 74 imperial lineage 55, 79, 82, 91; descent of royal
Hōnen 93, 94 ancestor from heaven 28, 29–36, 44
hongaku (‘original enlightenment’) 80, 104 ‘imperial medicine’ 179
Hong Kong 195 ‘Imperial Records’ (teiki) 27
honsha (‘original shrine’) 54 imperial regents 57, 115; regent Ichijō
Honzanha 96, 120–21 Kaneteru 135
honji suijaku theories (‘traces left by original Imperial Rescript on education (kyōiku
source’) 68–9, 73–6, 78, 80–1, 83–4, 87, chokugo) 164, 169
93–4, 149 imperial rituals 1, 123, 168; imperial rituals
hontai (essence) 112 and festivals 123; mitamashizume 41; niiname
Hori Keizan 152 41; separation between kami and Buddhist
Hōshi (Baozhi) 69 rites in imperial rituals 55; see also
Hoshijima Ryōhei 182 enthronement, daijōsai, sokui no gi
Hōshi kashō kuden (‘Oral Traditions of Abbot imperial rule: origin and nature of imperial rule
Baozhi’) 84 32
Hoshina Masayuki (Lord of Aizu) 132, 135, imperial sword (ame no murakumo no tsurugi)
138 81
hoshizume (Pacifying Fire) 36 impurity (kegare) 37, 43, 44, 53, 58–9, 69, 99
Hossō school 120 Inaba Masakuni 179
Hotei (Budai) 69, 196 Inai Sadao 189
‘hot water ordeals’ (kugatachi) 8–9 Inari (deity) 141
Huainanzi 17 Inari shrine 64, 121, 191
Huiguo 91 Inariyama burial mound 19
human-like deities 28 Inbe family 33, 37, 39, 40, 43–4, 57, 61, 81,
human traits of kami 16, 28, 30, 32, 54, 70, 74, 125
76–7; see also haraegushi Inbe no Hiromichi 57
independence of sects 175–6, 178–81, 183,
Ibukiya 154–5 188, 191
Iburi Izō 185 India 80; dhāran. ı̄ spells 83; Indian poetry 83
Ichijō Kaneteru 135 indigenous writing 154
Ichijō Kaneyoshi 148 individualisation of ritual practice 53
ichi-no-miya (‘first shrines’) 65–6, 110 Indra (Taishakuten) 73
identification of Shinto with Buddhism see inga ōhō see Buddhist concept of retribution
shinbutsu shūgō initiations 88, 90–2, 137; see also kanjō (ritual
identity: between Buddhism and Shinto initiations)
(shinbutsu shūgō); between heaven and initiatory Shinto lineages 11
humankind 134; clan identity 57; of injin (or kirikami) 91
Confucianists 128; incipient national Inner and Outer shrine, see Ise shrine
consciousness 150; of the Japanese 64; Inoue Kowashi 169
national identity of Japanese 164, 177; of Inoue Masakane 182–3
New Buddhism 80; Shinto identity ix, Insei period 79, 82–3, 89, 96, 103
108–59 intellectual Shinto lineages 11
Iesu no mitama kyōkai 184 intelligentsia 188
Ieyasu see Tokugawa Ieyasu intercession see right to intercession at court
Iio Sōgi 148 ‘interim offerings’ 50
Ijun 190 ‘intermediaries [between man and the kami]’
ikigami (‘living deities’) 7 see Nakatomi clan
Imamura shrine 181 internationalisation 192
Iminomiya Jinja (Shimonoseki) 25 introduction of Buddhism 28
immigrants 19, 23, 40, 98 invented traditons xi; ‘invention’ of Shinto xi
imperial ancestors 21, 31, 34–5, 71, 86 ‘inviting’ of kami (bunrei) 5, 54, 66, 89, 94
imperial ancestor worship 56 Ippen 93
imperial authority 29, 79, 81; see also Ise 20, 147; Ise confraternities (Ise-kō) 141; Ise
legitamacy kanjō (‘Ise initiation’) 92; Ise pilgrimage 141,
imperial certificates of court rank and status 158
(sōgen senji) 113 Ise Shinto 64, 86–7, 91, 130, 147; Ise Ryōbu
imperial collections of poetry 83 Shinto see Ryōbu Shinto; Ise Shinto and
imperial decrees (senmyō) 5, 33 Miwa Shinto 90; revival of Ise Shinto 131–2
imperial family 110, 115; linkage with shrine Ise shrine 20, 32–3, 35, 55–7, 64–5, 75, 83–4,
Shinto 168; as model of family life 169; 86, 90, 110, 116, 163, 168, 170, 177, 194,
‘official creed’ of imperial family 168; 202; ancestral mausolea 56–7; architecture
210
INDEX
1111 16; dedicating imperial princess to Ise shrine jingi shizoku see kami clans
(saigū) 20; emperor 168; governor of Ise Jingishō ministry 180
2 shrine (daijingūji) 55; Inner Shrine (Naikū) jingūji (‘shrine temples’) 70
3 20, 88; Inner and Outer shrines 56, 84, 87; Jingū Kōgō (regent) 21, 25, 80
Kōtaijingō gishikichō and Toyuke-jingū gishikichō Jingūkyō 175, 180
4 (ritual procedures) 56; network 11; offerings Jinja honchō 159, 169, 170–4
52, 57; Outer Shrine (Gekū or Toyuke Jinja saishiki 17
5 daijingū) 20, 85, 88; rituals 35, 42; special Jinja shinpō 171
6 status 35; taboo of Buddhism 84; titles of jinjitsu 123
priests 174; Jinmyōchō (‘List of Kami’) 50
7 Ishii Kenshi 192 Jinnō shōtōki 149
8 Ishio Kansuke 182 Jinshin war 35
Islam 7–8 jisha bugyō (Edo magistrate for temples and
9 Isono Hiromichi 182 shrines) 182
1011 Isonokami shrine 18, 25, 45, 64 Jishū 165
itako 8 Jishū school 94
1 itinerant lifestyle 95 jisshin (‘real kami’) 76
2 Itō Rokurobei 175, 186 Jiu 188
Itō Tōgai 143 Jiun 143, 158
13111 Itsukushima shrine 64 Jizō Bosatsu 75, 141
4 iwasaka (large rocks) 15, 18, 134 Jōdo (Pure Land) sect 3, 93, 125, 165, 184
Iwasaki Shōō 190 Jōkei 93
5 Iwashimizu monjo 103 Jōmon period 12, 13, 14
Iwashimizu shrine 64, 65, 73 Judaism 7
6 Izanaki (Izanagi) 30–1, 44, 58–9, 154 jufu (exorcist tablets) 100, 107
7 Izanami 30, 58, 154 jugon (Taoist exorcists) 98
Izumikyō 175 jūhachi shintō gyōji 112
8 Izumo 17 Jūichimen Kannon 75
9 Izumoji Nobunao 135 Juke Shinto (Confucian Shinto) 128–32
Izumokyō 180 Jumoku (or ‘tree’) model 176
20111 Izumo shrine 174, 177 Jurōjin 196
1 Izumo taishakyō 174–5, 177
Izumo taisha keishin-kō 177–8 ka (divine protection) 132
2 Izu province 110, 190 kabane (titles) 24
3 Kada Arimaro 150
Japan 80; as a ba (‘place’) different from China Kada no Azumamaro 149–50
4 79; Buddhist views of 80–1; country name Kada Nobuna 150
30; as an extended family 10; as ‘land of the kagaku (study of poetry) 148
5 Gods’ 11, 78–84, 178; as original land of kaichō see expositions of sacred objects
6 Dainichi (dainichi-hongoku) 81; ōyashima no kakebotoke (‘hanging buddhas’) 74
kuni (‘Land of the Eight Great Islands’) 30; Kakinomoto Hitomaro 35
7 realm (tenka) 115; as sacred nation (shinkoku Kakugyō Tōbutsu 158
8 Nippon) 169; self-image of 81; ‘uniquely Kamakura Buddhism 93–4
Japanese’ character of Shinto 6, 10; Zokusan Kamakura period 66, 79, 87, 89, 120
9 hendo (Japan located on periphery of kami: kami-asobi (‘divine entertainments’) 31,
30111 Buddhist universe) 80 35, 40; estate kami adopted as protector
Japanese studies (wagaku) 148 deities 126; ‘family’ of kami 54; iconography
1 jewels 15, 40; jewel-makers (tamatsukuri) 39 of kami 74; inflation of kami ranks 51; kami
2 Jiba 186 and Buddhism 5, 9; kami of the birth place
Jikigyō Miroku 140, 158 (ubusunagami) 126; kami clans (jingi shizoku)
3 Jikkō-ha 181 11, 40; ‘kami containers’ (yorishiro) 74; kami
Jikkōkyō 174, 176, 181 cults 13–17; kami districts (shingun) 47;
4 Jikkōsha 181 kami as emanations of Buddhist divinities
5 Ji Kōson (Nagaoka Yoshiko) 188 72–8; kami fields 37; kami of fields and
Jin (Ch. dynasty) 19 mountains (ta no kami, yama no kami) 2;
6 Jindai hiketsu (Esoteric Secrets of the Age of kami hall 15; ‘kami of Han’ (kanjin)100;
7 the Gods) 88 kami of the hearth 43; kami hills (shintaizan)
jindai moji (‘characters from the age of the 15, 18; kami households (kanbe) 37–8, 40–1,
8 gods’) 154 48, 63; ‘kami-inhabited mountains’ (mimuro-
9 jingihaku 39–40, 55 yama or kannabi-yama) 15; kami as invisible
Jingi hōten 146 spirits 74; kami lands (shinpō) 48; ‘kami-law’
40111 jingikan see Ministry of Kami Affairs (jingiryō) 32, 38; ‘kami nuns’ (negi-ni) 72;
1 jingi kanryō chōjō (Supreme head of shrine and kami poems 83; kami possession 8, 9, 21;
kami affairs) 111 ‘kami seat’ 33; kami ranks (shin’i or shinkai)
211 jingiryō (‘kami-law’) 32 48, 50; kami as ri 133; kami rituals 17, 34,
211
INDEX
101, 32; kami and Taosim 6; kami temple Kaze no kami (Festival of Tatsuta) 36
(miyadera) 73; kami theories 6, 87–90, 92–3, Kazusa 154
106; ‘kami who are Buddhist emanations’ kegare see impurity
(gonshin) 11, 72, 76; kami wishing to escape Kehi Jingōji 70, 103
from kami state through Buddhism 70, 103; kei (‘respect’) 133
kami worship 1, 5, 12, 15, 52, 63; kami Keichō 149, 158
worship as communal affair 63; kami worship keinai gigai (‘respect lies within and rectitude
and social changes 52; local kami 47; without’) 133
messenger from the kami 185; ‘real kami’ Keiran jūryōshū (‘A Collection of Leaves
(jisshin) 76; real bodies of kami (mishōtai) 74; Gathered in Stormy Waters’) 76, 89
saigū kami law 11; suffering of kami 70 Keishin seikatsu no kōryō (Principles for a life of
Kamikaze no ki 125 kami-reverence) 170
kamioki (‘leaving the hair’) 143 Keizan Jōkin 94
kamisan 8 kensha (prefectural shrines) 166
kamitsukasa (‘kami office’) 39 Kenshin (abbot) 89
Kamiyo jikisetsu 147 keshin (‘temporary appearances’ or ‘emanations
Kamiyo seigi 147 of a Buddha’) 7, 69; see also gonshin
Kamo family 136 kessha (‘religious societies’) 188
Kamo shrine 64, 168 keyhole-shaped burial mounds (zenpō kōen fun)
Kamo Mioya 135 19, 20
Kamo no Mabuchi 150–1, 158 ki 129–30
Kamo no Yasunori 98 kiboku 97
Kamu-Yamato-Iwarehiko (Emperor Jimmu) 24 Kifune shrine 64
kana 149 Kigen 188
kanbe (kami households) 37–8, 40–1, 48, 63 kike (‘chroniclers’) 89
kanchō (state-approved appointee) 166, Kikke Shinto 136–7, 146
178–80 kimi (kabane title) 25
Kanda festival (Kanda Myōjin shrine) 126 Kimongaku 134
Kanda Myōjin shrine 128 kimon sanketsu (‘three geniuses of Kimongaku’)
Kan’eiji temple 117 135
Kanemigi, see Yoshida Kanemigi kinensai (Praying for the Harvest) 36, 43, 50
kanjin (‘kami of Han’) 100 kinensai heihaku seido (‘system of kinensai
kanjō (ritual initiation) 90–2 offerings’) 43
kanmiso (Deity Raiment) 36 ‘king’ (Ch. wang) 26
Kannabiyama 54 kin groups 10, 49, 53; quasi-kin groups 66;
kanname (‘Tasting the First Fruits at Ise’) 36, 55 see also community groups
Kannon (Skt. Avalokiteśvara) 69, 84 Kings of Wo 21
kannushi 43, 46 Kinmanmon 190
kanpaku see imperial regents Kinmichi see Ōgimachi Kinmichi 137
kanpeisha 166 Kinoshita Chōshōshi 148
kanrodai 186 Kin’yō wakashū 148
kansha see ‘official shrines’ kirikami (or injin) 91
Kansō family 182 Kitabatake Chikafusa 88, 149
Kanto region 54, 120, 140, 154 Kitajima Naganori 180
Karafuto (Sakhalin) 191 Kitakyūshū 175, 180, 191
Karei 138 Kitamura Sayo 188, 191
karin-barae (riverside purification) 99 Kitano shrine 64, 116, 125
karma 70, 154 Kitano Tenmangū shrine 78
Kashii-gū 25 kitōshi 8
Kashikodokoro 82 Kiyohara Nobutaka 148
Kashima shrine 18, 39 Kiyomaro see Ōnakatomi no Kiyomaro
Kasuga (deity) 72 Kiyomihara code 29
Kasuga Daimyōjin 113 kō see confraternities
Kasuga daimyōjin honji chūshin 75 Kofun periods 14, 29
Kasuga-sha shiki 75 Kōfukuji 72, 90, 96, 120
Kasuga shrine 54, 64–5, 75, 89 Kōgakkan University 174
Kasuga texts 90 kogaku (Ancient Learning school ) 130, 151
Katō Chikage 151 kogakuha (Ancient Learning faction) 151
Katō Kōken 135 Kogoshūi 57, 81
Katori shrine 18, 39–40, 54 Kojidan 75
Kawabe Kiyonaga 132 Kojiki 11, 13, 17, 18, 20, 27, 30–2, 34, 42,
Kawachi 54 57–9, 81, 86, 112, 134, 152–3; influence of
Kawagoe 117 Chinese thought 27
Kawakami Tadamasu 182 Kojikiden 152–3
Kawamura Hidene 147 Kōjindani 17
212
INDEX
1111 kojitsuka (experts on the truth of ancient Kyūsei shinkyō 189

times) 146, 152 Kyūseishuko 189
2 Kokin shingaku ruihen 146 Kyushu 13, 19, 24, 72
3 Kokinwakashū 92, 148
kokka no sōshi (shrines as ‘sites for the land: donation of land to shrines 118; landed
4 performance of state ritual ‘) 163 estates (shōen) 79; leading landholders
kokka Shintō (state Shinto) 1, 169–70, 196–7 (myōshu) 102; reclamation of land 49
5 kokkuri 194 ‘Land of Darkness’ (yomi no kuni) 30
6 kokoro (heart) 133 ‘Land of the Gods’ 78
kokugaku (national learning) 11, 108, 145–56 ‘Land of the Middle’ (naka-tsu-kuni) 30, 31, 34
7 Kokugakuin 174 ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ 31
8 kokuheisha (‘provincial offical shrines’) 166 ‘Land of Roots’ (ne no kuni) 30
Kokuikō 151 language: classical Japanese 152; linguistic
9 Kokura 191 taboos 193–4
1011 kokusō (provincial hereditary ritual office) 177, Laozi 69, 103
180 ‘Latter Days of the Law’ (mappō) 79
1 kokutai 164 laws and regulations: Bakufu regulations for the
2 Kokuzōki 45 control of shrines and their priests (shosha
Komatsu Shin’yō 189 negi kannushi hatto) 117; kami law 11; laws
13111 Kongōkai (Diamond Realm) mandala 68, 84, 91 relating to kami worship in Yōrō code 36;
4 Konjin 186 lawsuit over the character ‘imperial’ 86;
Konkō Daijin 186 penal law 36; regulations for guardian
5 Konkōkyō 174, 176, 184, 186, 190–1 shrines (gōsha teisoku) 167; regulations for
Korea 3, 7, 8, 9, 17, 19, 25, 28, 71, 128, 148, shrines and shrine priests 11; ‘regulations for
6 172, 190, 191; Japan’s defeat against Silla shrine rites’ 167; saigū kami law 11; see also
7 and Tang forces 31 ritsuryō law, Taihō code
kōri no tsukasa see district governors legal recognition of sects 177
8 Kōshō 76, 89 legal status: of kanbe or tomobe 40; of mikannagi
9 koshōgatsu (‘little new year’) 122 40
Kōshōji 87 legends xi, 21, 24–5, 83–6, 92–3, 95–6, 112;
20111 Kōtaijingū gishikichō 56 legend of Emperor Jinmu 24; see also myths
1 Kotani Rokugyō 181 legitimacy 26–7, 66, 103, 115–16
Kōten kōkyūjo 167 licences: to local shrines and priests 114;
2 Koyama Mihoko 187 marriage and travel licences 123; shuinyō 118
3 Kōya Myōjin 73 lineage: of nobility 112; see also chiefly
Kōyasan 72, 95 lineages, imperial lineage, royal lineage
4 kugatachi (‘hot water ordeals’) 8 linguistic taboos 193–4
Kuji hongi 92 ‘List of Kami’ (Jinmyōchō) 50
5 Kūkai 68, 69, 87, 91, 103 literature 92; didactic tales (otogizōshi) 92;
6 Kumano 74, 94 Genji monogatari 152; Japanese literary
Kumano shrine 75; three Kumano shrines 120 studies and Shinto 109; literary theory 152;
7 Kumano region 120 medieval literature 92; setsuwa (collection of
8 Kumazawa Banzan 130, 138 tales) 92; see also miracle tales
Kŭm river see defeat against Silla and Tang ‘little new year’ (koshōgatsu) 122
9 forces 31 ‘living deities’ (ikigami) 7
30111 kun (Japanese reading of Chinese characters) ‘living deity’(aki-tsu-kami) (i.e. Ninigi) 32
149 ‘living deity of Nagasu’ 188
1 kuni (small ‘states’) 17–18 local chiefs 45; and religious authority 47
2 kuni no miyatsuko 45, 46 local district shrines (gōsha) 166
kunitama (‘spirit of the land’) 18 long-nosed goblin (tengu) 78
3 Kunitokotachi (deity) 112 lotteries 101; see also omikuji
Kunōzan 117 Lotus school of Nichiren 93, 125
4 Kurita Hijimaro 151 ‘Lotus Shinto’ (Hokke Shintō) 94
5 kurodo (black door) 168 Lotus sutra 70, 94
Kurozumi Munetada 181
6 Kurozumikyō 174, 176, 181–2, 191 Mabuchi see Kamo no Mabuchi
7 Kuse Kannon 75 maga-tsu-hi no kami (‘deities of evil’) 58
kyōbushō 165, 178, 181 magic spells 100; see also curses, spells
8 kyōdōshoku (‘state evangelist’) 164–5, 185 magical practices 164
9 Kyōen 90 Mahāyāna Buddhism see Buddhism
kyōin (teaching institutes)165 Maitreya see Miroku
40111 kyōsoku sanjō 166 ‘makers’ 11, 22, 49
1 Kyoto 150 malevolent spirits 99, 187; see also angry spirits,
kyōtō 174 revengeful spirits
211 kyōzō (mirror pictures) 74 Manchuria 173
213
INDEX
Mangan 95 Ministry of Kami Affairs (Jingikan) 11, 12, 33,

manifestations of Buddha 69, 102, 112; see also 37, 38–44, 49, 60, 97, 114, 119 , 136, 162–3,
Buddhism, gonshin, kami, keshin 178
‘manifest form’ see ki Ministry of State (dajō kanpu) 38, 49, 103
‘manifest’ teaching (‘kenro’) 112 Ministry of Worship 44, 51
Mañjuśrı̄ (J. Monju) 69–70 minzoku Shintō see ‘folk Shinto’
man-made god (hitogami) 116 mioyagami 35
‘man of the heavenly realm’ (tenkabito) 115 miracle tales 95
Mano Tokitsuna 146 Miroku (Maitreya) 69, 72, 75, 140
Man’yō daishōki 149 mirrors: ix; Eastern idea of power of the mirror
Man’yō faction 151 194; mirror pictures (kyōzō) 74; sacred mirror
Man’yōshū 35, 56, 148–50 111; as symbols of secular power 17, 32, 74,
Man’yōshū Hekianshō 149 81–2, 111
mappō (‘Latter Days of the Law’) 79 Misaku 178
maps: gyōkizu (first map of Japan) 85 Mishima shrine 179
marriage 33, 123 mishōtai (kami’s real bodies) 74
martial deity see Hachiman misogi (purification) 58–60
Maruyamakyō 175, 181, 184, 186 Misogikyō 174, 176, 182–3
master of rituals (saishu) 55 missionary activity (Shinto) 125, 191, 197;
‘masters’ (onshi or oshi) 96 ‘missionary’ (senkyōshi) system during Meiji
‘masters of Yin and Yang’ 99 164–5; mitamashizume (Pacifiying the Spirit
Masuho Zankō 125, 127 of the Emperor) 36, 41; proselytising 178,
masuraoburi 150 180, 182–3, 185, 187, 191; ‘state evangelists’
Matachi of Yahazu clan 46 164–5, 185; muraji (kabane title) 26; tandoku
maternal lineage 13, 53 fukyō (independent prosyletising) 185
Matsuno’o shrine 64 Mito 117, 149, 176
Matsuoka Obuchi 137 Miwa (deity) 76
matsuri see festivals Miwa clan 20
matsurigoto (‘secular rule’ and ‘ritual’) 12, Miwa daimyōjin engi (‘Origins of the great Deity
17–22 of Miwa) 91
Matsushita Matsuzō 188 Miwa Shinto 90–1
Maui Jinja 173 mixed-category sects 181
‘mausolea’ (sōbyō) 56, 90 miya see dwellings of local chiefs
Medieval Nihongi (chūsei Nihongi) xii, 78, 84, Miyachi Masato xi
88–95 miyadera (‘kami temple’) 73
medieval Shinto 83–4, 112, 130, 149 Miyakejima 182
‘medieval Shinto thought’ (chūsei shintōsetsu) Miyake Shōsai 134
78–9 miya mandara (shrine mandala) 74
medium see miko Miyaoi Yasuo 155
meigen 136 miyaza see shrine guilds
Meiji Constitution 164 Mizuno Nanboku 182
Meiji government 160, 162, 176; Meiji state modern emperor system 168–70
191 modern Shinto practices 195
Meiji period x, 175, 177, 183 modern shrine system (until Second World
Meiji religious policy 196 War) 159, 162–7, 197
Meiji shrine ix, 11, 168, 174 mogari (wake) 23
merging of Buddhism and Shinto see Mongol invasions 81
amalgamation of Buddhism and Shinto Monju (Skt. Mañjuśrı̄) 69–70, 75
Meshiakyō 189 mono no aware 152
‘metropolitan district shrines’ (fusha) 166 Mononobe clan 18, 39
Mexico 191 Mononobe no Okoshi 29
michiae (‘Banquet on the roads’) 36, 98 monopoly of Yoshida family as intermediaries
Miidera 120 113, 119
mii-san (snake) 18 monzeki (senior temple) 120
mikannagi (dancing girls) 41 Morishita Keitan 182
Mikasayama 54 Motoda Eifu 169
mike 47 Motoori Norinaga 152–3
miki (sake) 47 Motoori Ōhira 153
Miki Tokuchika 188 mountain ascetics 120–1, 157
miko (medium) 9, 41, 184–5, 195 mountain-focused Shinto sects 180–1
mikogami 54 Mount Fuji 178, 181
Minami-gun Daianji tōchūin engi 75 Mount Fuji Confraternity see Fuji-kō
Minamoto no Yoritomo 66 Mount Hakone 95
Minamoto no Yoriyoshi 66 Mount Hakusan 95
Minamoto no Yoshinaka 82 Mount Hiei 73, 79, 88, 95
214
INDEX
1111 Mount Hiko 97 Nara period xi, 71, 77

Mount Iwaki 187 Nashinoki Sukeyuki 135
2 Mount Kaguyama 24 ‘national creed’ 108
3 Mount Katsuragi 95 National Histories 27, 30; influence of Chinese
Mount Miwa 12, 18, 20, 90 thought on National Histories 27; see also
4 Mount Murō 90, 91 Kojiki, Nihonshoki
Mount Ontake 178, 190 nationalism 167
5 Mount Takachiho 32 National Learning (kokugaku) 6, 108–9, 126,
6 Munakata shrine 19, 51 130, 145–56, 160, 165, 174, 177; Hirata
mura 67 brand of National Learning 163, 179, 181;
7 muraji 26 National Learning scholars as priests 167;
8 Murata Harumi 151 orthodox lineage of National Learning 156;
muraza (village guilds) 67 religious shift of National Learning 153
9 Muromachi period 94, 101, 110, 120 National Studies movement see National
1011 Muryōju Nyorai 75 Learning
musa honnu (original enlightenment) 76 native deities 1, 28
1 musuhi (musubi) 34 native elements of Shinto xi
2 Mutobe Yoshika 154 nativism vii, 109, 157, 158, 199
mutual aid associations see confraternities (kō) negi 174
13111 Myōchikai 3 ne no kuni see ‘Land of Roots’
4 Myōe 93 Neo-Confucianism 129–30
Myōken cult 102 neo-syncretism 9
5 myōjin (‘kami of name’, deities with ‘network’ i, 4, 5, 11, 49, 65–6, 161, 163,
extraordinary kami powers) 50 171–2, 188; of Buddhism 108, 122; change
6 myōjin rituals (myōjinsai) 51 of network in post-war shrine system 172;
7 myōjin shrines 51 definition of ‘network’ 4; hard network 11;
myōshu (leading landholders) 102 network for official rituals 44–5; network of
8 myths: ‘birth of the land’ 31; of clans 13, 25, early modern Shinto 6, 108; network of
9 58, 61; founding myths of Japan and of the National Learning 108; network of official
imperial lineage 13, 29, 30, 34; function of shrines 5; network of rule of Yamato kings
20111 myths 31; interpreting 150; merging of 24; network of shrine system 165, 167, 171;
1 myths and genealogies 23; as metaphors 150; soft network 11
of origin 40; in school education 169; of New Buddhism (Kamakura period) 80
2 shrines 25; ‘shooting of the suns’ 17, 95; see new kuni no miyatsuko 45, 46
3 also engi; Kojiki, Nihonshoki new religions 2, 160–1, 170, 175, 182, 191,
197, 203; see also Buddhism-derived new
4 Nagaoka Yoshiko (Ji Kōson) 188 religions, Shinto-derived new religions
nagashi-hina (‘dolls set adrifit’) 100 Nezu shrine 128
5 Nagoya festival 117 Nichiren 93–4, 165, 184
6 Nagoya Tōshōgō 146–7 nie 25, 32
Naikū see Ise shrine Nihongi 84, 92–3; see also Nihon shoki
7 Naishidokoro 82 Nihon no matsuri 128
8 Naishidokoro no mikagura 82 Nihon ryōiki 70
Nakae Tōju 130, 138 Nihon seidō kyōdan 190
9 Naka Izu 189 Nihon shoki 1, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20, 27, 29, 30,
30111 Nakamikado 135 58, 71, 80–1, 83, 92, 112, 147, 149;
Nakamura Kazuko 189 commentaries on 103; and influence of
1 Nakatomi clan, 26, 33, 37, 39, 42, 54, 55, 125; Chinese thought on Nihon shoki 27;
2 division into two clans 40 Medieval (chūsei Nihongi) xii, 78, 84, 88–95;
Nakatomi harae (Nakatomi purification) 58, 92, rediscovery of 84, 134, 137
3 112–13, 124, 125, 132 Nihon shoki tsūshō 147
Nakatomi harae kunge 85 niiname (New Tasting) ritual 37, 41, 109, 114,
4 Nakatomi no harae fūsuisō 135 156, 168
5 Nakatomi no Kamako 29 nijūnisha seido (system of twenty-two shrines)
Nakatomi purification see Nakatomi harae 110
6 Nakayama Hideshi 184 Nikkō pilgrimage 117
7 Nakayama Miki 184–6 Nikkō reiheishi 117
Nakayama Shinnosuke 185 Ninigi 13, 31–2, 34, 40, 81, 134
8 Nakayama Zenbei 184 ni no miya (‘second shrine’) 65, 89
9 name-reading see divination Nitta Kuniteru 17
Nanbokuchō period 82, 88, 90, 110 Niu Kawakami shrine 64
40111 Naniwazu 19, 25 Niu Myōjin 72
1 naobi no kami (‘deities to rectify evil’) 58 Noh 92
naorai 47 Norinaga see Motoori Norinaga
211 Nara 57, 79, 90 norito prayers 5, 40, 42, 11, 173
215
INDEX
North America 173, 190–1 onryō see ‘revengeful spirits’

nuidonoryō 40 Ontake-kō 176
nukemairi 141 Ontakekyō 174, 176, 179, 180–1, 190, 197
Numata Yukiyoshi 150–1 Ontake-kyōkai 180
nyoi hōju (Buddhist wish-fulfilling gem) 82, 91 oracles 20–1, 70, 72, 93, 113; ‘oracles of the
Nyorin Kannon 75 three shrines’ (sanja takusen) 90, 105, 113,
156, 202
Ōbie (‘great Hie) 73, 89 ‘Oral Traditions of Abbot Baozhi’ (Hōshi kashō
Obie (‘small Hie’) 73, 89 kuden) 84
obitoki (‘untying the belt’) 143 ‘original enlightenment’ (musa honnu) 76
objects used in rituals: sacred objects (kaichō) ‘Original Shinto of the fifty-six transmissions’
141; sacred stick (gohei) 101 (Sōgen gojūrokuden) 125
oboe (‘legal supplement’ issued by bakufu) 119 ‘original shrine’ see honsha
occupational groups 42 ‘The Original Vow of the Two Shrines
Oda Nobunaga 115, 116 Explained According to the Great Vehicle of
Ōe no Masafusa 89 the Rishukyū’ (Ryōgū honzei rishu makaen) 87
Ōe no Masahira 74 ‘Origins of the Great Deity of Miwa (Miwa
offences: illegal intrusion into Great Shrines daimyōjin engi) 91
and Shrines 36 ‘Origins of the Protection of the State by
offerings 46, 100; imperial offerings 33, 56; see Enryakuji’ (Enryakuji gokoku engi) 89
also hanpei, hōhei oshi, onshi (‘masters’) 11, 96, 108, 177
‘Official regulations for shrines and priests’ Otataneko 20
(shosha negi kannushi hatto) 115 Otokoyama 73
‘official shrines’ (kansha) 5, 12, 44, 49–50, 166 Ōtomo 18
official shrine worship in medieval period 64–7 otona (village elders) 114
ofuda (deity tablets) 2 Ōuchi Yoshitaka 114
ofusuma 33 overseas dissemination of Shinto-derived new
ogamiya 8 religions 190; foreign converts 192
Ōgimachi Kinmichi 135–6, 146 overseas shrines 173
Ogyū Sorai 138, 152 Owari fudoki 147
ōharae (‘Great Purification’) 43, 59, 98 Owari 117, 146–7
ōharae no kotoba 92 Owari festival 117
Ōharano shrine 64–5 Oyakami (parent god) 186
Okada Kōtama 189 Ōyamakui see Obie (‘small Hie’)
Okada Mokichi 187–8 Ōyamanezu no mikoto shinji kyōkai
Okada Seishu 189 ōyashima no kuni (‘Land of the Eight Great
okagemairi 141; see also pilgrimages Islands’) 30
Oki Kumaomi 155
ōkimi see ‘Great King’ pacification: goryōe ceremony 78; ‘Pacifiying
Okinawa 8, 190 the spirit of the Emperor’ see mitamashizume;
Ōkuninushi 154, 190 ritual pacification 77
Ōkuni Takamasa 155, 156, 158 parent god (Oyakami) 186
Oki no Shima 19–20 parishioners see ujiko
Ōkuro family 136 patrilinear aspects of clan system 13, 23, 51, 53
‘Old Buddhism’ 93 penal law 36
old kuni no miyatsuko 45–6 persecution 187, 191
omi (kabane title) 25 pilgrimages 96, 117, 140, 161; to Ise 85, 141;
Ōmi code 39 to Konpira 141; mandalas (sankei mandara)
ōmi Festival 36 96; to Narita 141; to Nikko 117; okagemairi
omikuji 8, 101, 173, 193 141; to Ōyama 141; senja mōde (thousand
Omimaro 40, 55 shrine pilgrimage) 196
Ominuki 140 Pimiko see Queen Pimiko of Yamatai
Ōmi region 24, 130 PL kyōdan 188
Ōmiwa shrine 15, 64 ‘place’(ba) see Japan
Ōmononushi (kami of Miwa) 18, 20 ‘Plain of High Heaven’ (takama-ga-hara) 13, 30
Ōmoto 184, 186–7, 190–1 poetics 92, 148, 150; poeticists 151
Ōmotokyō 186 poetry 92; circles 145; of Insei period 84; on
Ōnakatomi clan 55 kami 83; medieval 93; shi poems (Chinese)
Ōnakatomi no Kiyomaro 55–6 83; waka 83, 92; waka and kami power 83;
ōname (Great Tasting) 37 Waka kanjō (‘Waka Poetry Initiation’) 92
Ōnamuchi 89 politics 13, 17, 29, 57, 65, 130, 137, 155, 178;
Ōnin War 109, 111, 148 political power 17–22, 40, 58, 66, 114, 137;
onmyōdō (‘Way of Yin and Yang’) 97–100; political system 12, 13, 58, 79; ‘traditions’ as
see also Yin and Yang thought political tools 49
Onmyōryō (Bureau of Yin and Yang) 97 posthumous title of king (wafū shigō) 23
216
INDEX
1111 power: conception of power 20; political and registration with Buddhist temples see terauke
ritual power 17–22; power struggles between system
2 local elites and centre 46, 49 regulations see laws and regulations
3 ‘prayer’ 133, 185; see also norito Reiha no hikari kyōkai 189
prefectural shrines (kensha) 166 reiheishi 116
4 priests (Shinto): conflict between shrine priests Reikiki (Record of Subtle Qi) 87–8, 92
and mountain ascetics (bettō) 121; Reiju 188
5 bureaucratisation of priesthood 163, 167; reinōsha 8
6 dismissal from priesthood 118; priesthood reisha (‘spirit shrine’) 132
174; priestly clans 35, 39; priest officials reishu taijū (spirit privileged over body) 187
7 (shinshoku or harifube) 48; titles and ranks of Reiyūkai 9
8 priests 174; see also Inbe clan, Nakatomi clan relations: with continent 19–20
Prince Inoue 77 religion: ‘founded religions’ 2; typological
9 Prince Iyo 77 similarites between religions 3; ‘world
1011 Princess Iitoyo no Ao 21 religions’ 2
Princess Okiko 124 religionists 109, 143, 183, 185
1 Princess Yamato-hime 21 religious charities 184
2 Princess Yamato-totobimomoso-hime 20 religious founders 184
principle see ri Religious juridical persons edict (shūkyō
13111 Principles for a life of kami-reverence (Keishin hōjinrei) 170, 183
4 seikatsu no kōryō) 170 Religious organisations law (Shūkyō dantaihō)
private estates (shōen) 118, 126 188
5 privately (i.e. illegally) ordained monks religious practices see ‘folk Shinto’
(shidosō) 95 ‘religious societies’ (kessha) 188
6 ‘Procedures of the Engi period’ see Engishiki religious system xii, 3, 14, 28, 49, 168, 183
7 Profound Commentary on the Architecture of Renmonkyō 175
the Two [Ise] Shrines (Ryōgū gyōmon Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors (gunjin
8 jinshaku) 87 chokuyu) 169
9 proselytising 178, 180, 182, 183, 185, 187, 191; Restoration 182–3, 185; Restoration
see also missionary activity (Shinto) government and creation of sect Shinto 174;
20111 protection: of the capital 99; of emperor 99, Restoration period 156, 186
1 124; of Home Provinces 99; of imperial ‘Restoration (fukko) Shinto’ 6, 139, 152, 154
family 168; ‘protector deities of the Buddhist retribution see Buddhism
2 Law’ (gohō zenshin) 7, 1; protector deities of revelations 182, 186, 187, 189–90
3 Japan 52; at sea 25; see also deities revengeful spirits (onryō) 2; see also angry spirits
provincial governors (kokushi or kuni no (goryō), malevolent spirits
4 tsukasa) 45, 65 ri (principle) 129–30, 133
provincial landowning elite 66 rice cultivation 12, 15, 17, 46, 14; renewal of
5 ‘provincial offical shrines’ (kokuheisha) 50 the spirit of the rice 33; see also miki
6 provinical purification rituals (shokoku ōharae) right to intercession at court 119
44 Rinzai Zen school 93
7 provincial shrines (sōsha) 65, 110 Rinzai Zen Shōichi lineage 87
8 Pure Land sect see Jōdo sect Risshō Kyōseikai 3
purification ix, x, 53, 97, 189; figurines rites: agricultural rites 16, 18, 43, 65–6, 192;
9 (hitogatshiro) 99; goods (harae-tsu-mono) 44, ancestral rites 121; burial rites 23;
30111 58; provinical rituals (shokoku ōharae) 44; contemporary rites of state 171;
purificatory wand (nusa) 43; rituals 43, 99, enthronement rites see enthronement;
1 173; rituals for entire country (tenka ōharae) esoteric Buddhist court rites 80; for building
2 44; riverside purification (karin-barae) 99; works 172; for flourishing of local
state purification ritual 44; see also ‘formula communities 171; for pacification 23; for
3 of great purification’ (ōharae no kotoba), safety 171; for the souls of the dead 172;
misogi (purification), Nakatomi harae, ōharae funeral rites 23, 194; of granting and
4 purity 34, 39, 44, 99, 134, 174; see also receiving spirit of the rice 33; ground-
5 impurity breaking rites 172; of passage 143; prescribed
Pusan 191 by Jinja honchō 11; Shinto wedding rites 162;
6 sleep-dispelling rite (nemuri nagashi) 12; of
7 qi (Ch.) see ki succession 19, 23, 29; see also rituals
Qingjing faxingjing 69 Ritō shinchi shintō 129
8 Queen Pimiko of Yamatai 18, 21 Ritsu school 87
9 ritsuryō law 29, 35
rakugo 165 ritsuryō state 30; and kami 44–58
40111 ‘re-acting’ of imperial myths 29, 33, 41 ritsuryō system 5, 12, 15, 59, 77, 8; and clan
1 ‘real kami’ (jisshin) 76 deities 51–8; collapse of ritsuryō economy
realm of devas (tendō) 70 44; imperial rituals 1, 123, 168; imperial
211 regents see imperial regents rituals and festivals 123; mitamashizume 41;
217
INDEX
niiname 41; separation between kami and Sandaikō 153

Buddhist rites in imperial rituals 55; and San Francisco Treaty 191
ritual 47; see also daijōsai, enthronement, sanja takusen (‘oracles of the three shrines’) 90,
sokui no gi 105, 113, 156, 202
rituals: clan ritual 53; as confirmation of Sanjōnishi Sanetaka 148
hierarchical relations 66; distinction sankei mandara (pilgrimage mandalas) 96
between public and private ritual 63; Sanke yōryakki (‘Abbreviated Record of the
matsurigoto (‘ritual’) 12; nagashi-hina (‘dolls Essentials of the Mountain lineage’) 75, 89
set adrift’) 100; ritual contracts 46; ritual sankyōitchi (three creeds) 110
dolls 124; ritual initiations, see kanjō; ritual Sannō festival 126
as maintenance of order and stability 45; san no miya (‘third shrine’) 65
rituals of Meiji state see state ritual; ritual Sannō Shinto, 69, 88–93, 130
objects 17; ritual pacification 77; ritual Sano Tsunehiko 179
power 50; ritual prayer see norito; ritual Sanshu no jingi kanjō (‘Three Regalia
procedures at Ise shrine see Ise shrine; rituals Initiation’) 92
for the protection of the state 48, 71; ritual Sarume 40–1
space and ritual sites 13–17, 19, 41; ritual sarume (dancing girls) 41
worship 35; ritual worship and political rule Satō Naokata 135, 137
21; tsukinami ritual, 55, 114, 156; see also Sawara see Crown Prince Sawara
harvest-related festivals and rituals, imperial ‘school of Eison’ 87
rituals, kami ritual, women ‘scribes’ see Funhitobe
ritualists 21, 33 sea routes 71
riverside purification (karin-barae) 99 ‘second shrine’ (ni no miya) 65
royal lineage 23–7, 35; descent of royal secret rites see esoteric Buddhism
ancestor from heaven 28, 29–36, 44 secret transmission 134, 137
Ruiju jingi hongen (Rubricated origins of the sect Shinto 1, 6, 11, 160, 161, 164, 166, 167,
kami [of Ise]) 88 170; creation of sect Shinto 174; definition
Rushana 75 174; distinguished from shrine Shinto 164,
Ryōbu Shinto (Shinto of the two mandalas) 166–7; individual sects Shinto organisations
64, 69, 84–8, 110, 131, 143, 149; founder of 177–83
87; Ise Ryōbu Shinto 90–1; ‘Ryōbu Shinto ‘sectarian Shinto’ groups 159–61
texts’ 84; Ryōbu Shūgō Shinto 68 ‘secular rule’ (matsurigoto) 17–22
Ryōgū gyōmon jinshaku (Profound Commentary Seichō no ie 184, 186–7, 191
on the Architecture of the Two [Ise] Seiji yōryaku 75
Shrines) 87 Seiken yuigen 135
Ryōgū honzei rishu makaen (‘The Original Vow Seimeikyō 189
of the Two Shrines Explained According to Seimei no jissō (True facets of life) 188
the Great Vehicle of the Rishukyō’) 87 Seiwa Genji 66
Ryōjin hishō 75 Seizon 81
Ryōshūge 47 sekai jinrui ga heiwa de arimasu yō ni (slogan)
Ryūju Bosatsu 75 187
Sekai kyūseikyō 184, 186–92
sacred mountains 108 Sekai mahikari bunmei kyōdan 187, 189, 192
‘sacred space’ 87 sekku (annual festival) 38
sacrifices 100; see also offerings ‘self-coagulating’ island of Onogorojima 30
Saichō 68, 89 self-denial (tsutsushimi) 131
Saidaiji lineage 87, 90 Senate (Genrōin) 178
saigū (dedicating an imperial princess to the Ise Senba Hideo 190
shrines) 20, 26, 35 Senba Kimiko 190
saigū kami law 11 Sendai 116
saigūryō (Bureau of the Consecrated Imperial Sendai kuji hongi 57, 112
Princess) 55 sendatsu 181
Saigusa (Festival of Izakawa) 36 Sengen shrine 181
saikyojō (Shinto licences) 113 Senge Takatomi 177, 180
sairei (‘spectacle’) 128 Sengoku period 113, 120
saisei itchi 163 senja mōde (thousand shrine pilgrimage) 196
saishu see master of ritual senkyōshi 164; see also missionary activity
Saitō Gesshin 128 (Shinto)
Sakata group 182 Senju Kannon 75
Sakata Kaneyasu 182 senmyō (imperial decrees) 5, 53
Sakhalin (Karafuto) 191 senso daijōsai 32
sakuhō (Ch. cefeng) 26, 30 Senzai wakashū 83, 148
Śākyamuni 69, 75 separation of Buddhism and Shinto: kami and
salvation 70, 76, 96, 186 Buddhist rites separated in court ritual 55,
samurai 182 56; shinbutsu bunri (separation of Buddhism
218
INDEX
1111 and Shinto) 67, 163; shinbutsu hanzenrei Shinsei-ryūshinkai 187

(policy of clarification of kami and Buddhas) Shinsen shōjiroku 57
2 163 Shinshū-kō 178
3 separation of religion and state 170, 188 Shinshūkyō 174–5, 178, 181
sesshō see imperial regents Shinshū sect 165–6
4 setsuwa (collection of tales) 92 shinsōsai see funerals
seven gods of good fortune (shichi fukujin mairi) Shinto: and Confucianism see Juke Shinto
5 196 (Confucian Shinto), Suika Shinto, Yoshida
6 ‘Seven river rapids around Kyoto’ 99 Shinto; and imperial kami 29; construction
‘Seven shrines of the mountain kings’ 89 of Shinto as religion 14; Shinto customs
7 shaden 173 163, 192–6; Shintō denju 130; Shinto-derived
8 shaku (ceremonial baton) 48 new religions (Shintō-kei shinshōkyō) 1, 6, 9,
shamanism 8–9, 16–18, 21, 189, 197, 201 11, 159, 160, 161, 175, 176, 183–92, 197;
9 sheji (Ch. provincial shrines) 90 Shinto directive (Shintō shirei) 169; early
1011 Shibata Hanamori 181 modern Shinto 112, 130; ‘Shinto ethical’
shichi fukujin mairi 196 perspective 150; Shinto evangelism 169;
1 shichi-go-san 143–4, 162, 193 Shintō gobusho (‘Five books of Shinto’) 86,
2 Shijū okuhi no den (‘the transmission of the 147; shintō goma 112; Shinto historians xi;
forty secrets’) 132 Shintō honkyoku 175, 179–80, 185; Shinto
13111 shijū suimei (‘divination by the four means’) identity 108–59; and imperial kami 29;
4 193 ‘indigenous religion’ 2; and Japanese literary
Shikaidō 188 studies 109; ‘Shinto initiations’ 92;
5 Shika wakashū 148 Shintōjimukyoku 175, 179–81; Shinto land
shiki (large rocks) 15 119; Shinto licences (saikyojō) 113; ‘official
6 Shikibu see Takeuchi Shikibu creed’ 168; origins of Shinto 12; religious
7 shikinen sengū 35 system 159; revivalism 160, 177; sects 175;
Shimamura Mitsu 175 Shinto specialists (shintōkata) 131; shūgō
8 Shimo goryōsha 135 shintō (Shinto amalgamated with Buddhism)
9 Shimokōbe Chōryū 148 68; ‘substance’ 108; texts 84, 87–8, 92, 93,
Shimosa 154 105, 146, 149, 131; ‘the way of the king’
20111 Shimoyama ōsuke 180–1 130; 172; yuiitsu Shinto (one true Shinto)
1 shinabe 26 112; see also amalgamation of Buddhism and
Shinano 155 Shinto, missionary activity (Shinto), sect
2 shinbutsu bunri (separation of Buddhism and Shinto, ‘sectarian Shinto’, shinbutsu bunri
3 Shinto) 67, 163 (separation of Buddhism and Shinto),
shinbutsu hanzenrei (policy of clarification of shrine Shinto
4 kami and Buddhas) 163 Shintō Shōseiha 174–5, 178, 181, 191
shinbutsu shūgō see amalgamation of Buddhism Shintō taikyō 174, 179
5 and Shinto Shintō taiseikyō 174–5, 178
6 Shingon fuhō san’yōshō 81 Shintō taisha-ha 178–9
Shingon Ono lineage 87 Shintō tenkōkyō 187
7 Shingon school 3, 69, 72, 84, 90, 120 165, Shintō yurai no koto 92
8 184; Shingon Sanbōin school 87 Shiojiri 147
shin’i see kami ranks shipping routes 51
9 Shinji shōmeikai 187, 189 Shirakawa family 11, 109, 114, 119–20, 139,
30111 shinjōsai (‘ritual of first fruits’) 33 142, 154, 156, 162, 174, 182; court
shinju kengaku (Shinto and Confucianism in intermediaries 139; dispute between
1 parallel) 134 Shirakawa and Yoshida families 120
2 shinkai see kami ranks Shirakawa Masafuyu 136
Shinkakukai 187 Shirakawa Shinto 154, 182
3 Shinkokin faction 151 Shishino Nakaba 181
Shinkokin wakashū 148, 151 shissōke 119
4 shinkoku (‘Land of the Gods’) 80 Shiyūkai 191
5 shinkoku Nippon (Japan as sacred nation) Shōdō 95
169 shōen (private estates) 5, 79
6 Shinmei aishinkai 189 Shōgoin 96
7 shinmeibu 89 Shōgoin temple (Kyoto) 120
shinmei-zukuri 16 Shōkannon 75
8 shinobi (eulogy of the deceased) 23 Shoki the ‘Devil Destroyer’ 124
9 Shinran 93, 94; Shinran’s position on kami Shokoku ichinomiya junkeiki 125
worship 93 Shoku Nihongi 72, 103
40111 Shinreikai (newspaper) 188 shōkyōin 165
1 Shinri jikkō no oshie 188 ‘shooting of the suns’ 17, 95
Shinrikyō 174–5, 179, 191 shōnegi 174
211 shinsai 168 shosha 166
219
INDEX
shosha negi kannushi hatto (official regulations Sōreiryaku 138

for shrines and priests) 115, 118 Sōsai benron 138
shoshidai (bakufu military governor) 179 sōsha (‘provincial shrines’)
Shoshin honkaishō 94 Soshintō 188
Shōtoku Taishi 69 Soshintō kyōdan 188
shrines: Buddhist theories on shrines 130; sōson, sōmura, sō 67, 102
business 172; confiscation of shrine land 18; Sōtō Zen sect 3, 93
early modern shrine system 108; first shrine soul 155, 195
visit of the year 193; former state shrines ‘Source of the Sun’ 30
171; fusha (metropolitan district shrines) South America 173, 191
166; gōsha (local district shrines) 166; kokka Southern and Northern dynasties 26
no sōshi (shrines as ‘sites for the performance spells 83
of state ritual’) 163; Meiji period 166, 168; spirit (rei) 187; ‘spirit of the land’ (kunitama)
national system of shrine rites 1, 167; 18; spirit possession 187; spirit purification
national umbrella organisation for shrines techniques 189; spirit of the rice 34, 41;
(Jinja honchō) 170; number of shrines ix, 50; spirit ritualists 8; ‘spirit shrine’ (reisha)132;
origins of shrines; provincial shrines 90; spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu 116; spirit world
reisha (‘spirit shrine’) 132; shrines in Asia 187
173; shrine etiquette 173; shrine governor ‘spirit responses of the Three Powers’ (i.e.
of Ise shrine (daijingūji) 55; shrine guilds Heaven, Earth and Man) 112
(miyaza), 67, 114, 123, 157; shrines as ‘spring rituals at common rise fields’ (shunji
mausolea 57, 118; shrine parishioners saiden) 47
(ujiko) 126, 171; ‘shrines of provincial state: centralisation of Japanese state 15, 39;
magistrates’ (shashoku) 90; shrine Shinto 1, contemporary rites of state 171; demise of
5, 11, 111, 159, 162–7, 168–72, 177, 183, classical state 79; medieval state structure
188, 190, 197, 202; ‘shrine temples’ (jingūji) 79; ritual of Meiji state 163; stability of the
55, 70, 72, 101; ‘shrine-temple separation state 39; ‘state evangelists’ (kyōdōshoku) 185;
edicts’ (shinbutsu bunri rei) 67; shrines and state ideology 164; state as protector of
tourism 195–6; withdrawal of shrines from Buddhism 79; state ritual 15, 43–4, 167;
Asia 191 state’s definition of divinity 187; state
Shūgendō 6, 83, 95–7, 176 Shinto (kokka Shintō) 1, 169–70, 196–9;
shūgenja see yamabushi 96 state-sponsored shrines 11
shūinjō (licences) 118 status: distinctions 109; hierarchy 142; and
Shūi wakashō 148 Confucianism 128
Shūkyō dantaihō (Religious organisations law) ‘substance’ 4, 5, 6, 11, 18, 22, 27, 29, 32, 108,
188 109, 161, 164, 172, 177; definition of
Shūkyō nenkan 175 ‘substance’ 4; of modern shrine system 167;
Shūsei kōsha 178 of rule of Yamato kings 18, 22; subterranean
Silla (Korean kingdom) 31 world of death 44
sincerity (shōjiki) 134 succession ceremonies 29–36
‘six disciples’182 Sūden 117
slaves (nuhi) 23 sugata (form) 112
snakes: kami appearing as snakes 18, 46, 76 Sugawara no Michizane 77, 116
sōbyō (imperial ‘mausolea’) 90 Sugiura Kuniakira 150
social criticism 188 sui (divine beneficence) 132
society: reorganisation of local society 113; suijaku (emanations) 68, 93
effect of social changes on kami worship 52; Suika-ō shintōkyō no den 137
lower classes 140 Suika Shinto 132–8, 146–7, 157–9; orthodox
‘soft’ networks 10 line of Suika Shinto 147
Soga clan 27 Sukui no hikari kyōdan 189
Soga no Iname 28 Sūkyō mahikari 187, 189
Sōgen gojūrokuden (Original Shinto of the Sumiyoshi shrine 19, 51, 64, 65, 174
fifty-six transmissions) 125 Sumiyoshi Taisha 25
sōgen gyōji 112 sumo wrestling 66
sōgen senji (imperial certificates of court rank Sun Deity see Amaterasu
and status) 111, 113 superstition 2
Sōjiji 94 Susanowo 31, 34, 44, 58, 59, 106
sokui no gi 32–4 Susanowo lineage 91
Song Confucianism 130–2 sutras 70
Song period 19, 129–30 Suwa lineage 91
sonsha (village shrines) 166 Suwa shrine 15
Sōō 89 Suzunoya 153
‘Sons of Heaven in the Land of the Rising syncretism 7, 9, 69, 192; syncretic Shinto
Sun’ (hi izuru tokoro no tenshi) 27 see amalgamation of Buddhism and
sorcery 18 Shinto
220
INDEX
1111 systemisation of kami worship 15, 39 temples: building of temples for salvation 70;
‘system of kinensai offerings’ (kinensai heihaku compulsory registration with temples 123;
2 seido) 43, 44 issuing of marriage and travel licences 123
3 ‘system of twenty-two shrines’ (nijū nisha seido) ‘temporary appearances’ of Buddhas (keshin)
64, 65, 101, 110, 118 69, 76
4 temporary shrines 33
taboos 2,14, 23, 39, 55–7, 99, 125, 142, 194, ten (heaven) 115, 133
5 195; taboo on Buddhism 55–6, 84–5, 87; tenarai-juku (academies of learning) 145
6 ‘taboo keepers’ see Inbe clan Tendai sect 65, 69, 73, 76, 79–80, 85, 88–9,
Tachibana Moroe 136 95–6, 117, 120–1, 165
7 Tachibana no Hayanari 77 tendō (realm of devas) 70; (‘Way of Heaven’)
8 Tachibana no Mitsuyoshi 125 115
Tada Yoshitoshi 146–7 tengu see long-nosed goblins
9 Taga no Ōkami 70 Tenjin cult 78
1011 Taichō 95 tenjin gōitsu (identical principle of heaven and
Taigenkyū saijōsho (‘Shrine of the Great humankind) 133
1 Origin’) 111 Tenjin shrines 11
2 Taiheiki 92 Tenjin yuiitsu den (‘transmission of the identity
Taihō code 38, 40, 46 of heaven and man’) 133, 134
13111 Taikyōin (‘Great Learning Insitute’) 165–6, tenjin yuiitsu no michi (identical way of heaven
4 178–9 and man) 133, 134
Taikyokuden hall 33 tenka (‘All under Heaven’) 22, 115
5 Taira (or Heike) 64, 82 tenkabito (‘man of the heavenly realm’) 115
Taira no Kiyomori, 64 Tenkai 117
6 Taira no Shigehara 85 tenka matsuri (‘festival of the realm’) 126
7 Taiseikyō 181–2 tenka ōharae 44
Taisei kyōkai 179 Tenman Tenjin 78
8 Taishakuten (Indra) 73 tenmei chokuju (‘direct revelation from heaven’)
9 taisha (‘great shrine’) status 35 182
taisha-zukuri 16 tennō see emperor
20111 Taishō period x, 169 Ten’onkyō 188
1 Taiwan 9, 173, 190–1 tenri (heavenly principle) 133
taizō (womb) mandala 68, 84, 91 Tenri believers 185
2 Takagi no kami 34 Tenrikyō 174, 176, 184–6, 190–1
3 takama-ga-hara see ‘Plain of High Heaven’ Tenri’s ‘vertical thread’ 186
Takami-musubi 33–4 Tenshōdaijin giki (‘Guidelines for Rituals
4 Takamusubi 134 Focusing on Amaterasu’) 84
Takano Toshihiko 131 Tenshō kōtaijingūkyō 188, 191
5 takatsuki model 176–7 Tenshōkyō 190
6 Takayama 189 terakoya (temple schools) 145
Takayasu Ryūsen 190 terauke system 122
7 Takemikazuchi 54 texts: fraud of texts 146; Kasuga texts 90;
8 Takenouchi no Sukune 25 sacred texts 187; Shinto texts 84, 87–8,
Takeuchi Shikibu 137 92–3, 105, 131, 146, 149; study of imperial
9 Tamaki Masahide 135–7, 146–7 classics 167; texts of kami tradition 92; texts
30111 Tama no mihashira 153 of medieval Shinto 84
tamatsukuri see jewel-makers textual analysis 109, 146
1 tanabata 123 thanksgiving 162
2 Tanaka Yoritsune 180 theophany 8
tandoku fukyō (independent prosyletising) 185 ‘third shrine’(san no miya), 65
3 Tang dynasty 26, 97 this-worldly orientation 186
tango 123 three creeds (sankyōitchi) 110
4 Tanigawa Kotosuga 137, 147 ‘three geniuses of Kimongaku’ (kimon sanketsu)
5 Taniguchi Masaharu 188 135
Taoism 7, 35, 110, 112, 130, 195; Taoist ‘three most august children’ of Izanaki 31
6 exorcists 98 three poisons (greed, hate, ignorance) 76
7 taoyameburi 150 three regalia (sanshu no jingi) 81–2
‘Tasting the first Fruits at Ise’ (kanname) 36, 55 ‘Three Regalia Initiation’ (Sanshu no jingi
8 Tateyoko injinshū 91 kanjō) 92
9 Tatsuta shrine 6 Tōdaiji 71–2, 79, 113
taxation 46, 48, 188; nie (royal taxes in Tōdaiji monks 85
40111 specified regional products) 25, 32; see also Tōdaiji yōroku 75
1 kanbe Toda Mosui 148
teaching institutes (kyōin)165 Tōfukumon’in 124
211 temizuya 58, 173 Tohokami-kō 176
221
INDEX
toji (wife or sister of clan head) 52 ubusunagami (kami of the birth place) 126
Tokio Munemichi 182 Uchū shinkyō kōmeikai 189
Tokiwa no Ōmuraji 39 Ueda Gensetsu 135
Tokudaiji family 137 ujigami (clan deities) 13, 51–8, 66, 126–7
Tokudaiji Kinmura 137 ujiko (shrine parishioners) 11, 127
Tokugawa bakufu 117 Umeda Shinmei shrine 182
Tokugawa Hidetada 117 Umenomiya shrine 64–5
Tokugawa Iemitsu 117, 131 Unden Shinto 143
Tokugawa Ietsuna 117 uneme 33
Tokugawa Ieyasu 117, 121, 146, 157; Unmeiden 81
deification 116–17 Urabe (‘diviners’) family 40–1, 110; Urabe
Tokugawa Kazuko 124 (Yoshida) family 125
Tokugawa Mitsukuni 138, 149 uranai 8
Tokugawa Tadanaga 148 Urabe Hiramaro 110
Tokugawa Tokumatsu 144 Urabe Kanenobu 110
Tokugawa Yoshinao 146 Urata Chōmin 180
Tsunayoshi 144 Usa Hachiman shrine 71, 73
Tōhoku region 120 Usa takusenshū 72
tomobe 40 Usui Masatane 135
tomo no miyatsuko 26, 39
Tomobe Yasutaka 135, 137 Vairocana (Skt.) see Dainichi
Tomokiyo Yoshinobu 187 Vedic deities 73
torii gate ix villages 13, 66; village chiefs 16; village kami
tortoise shell divination 8 ritual 47, 48; village shrines (sonsha) 166;
Tosa province 132 see also gō, mura, sōson
toshigoi 114, 156 Vinaya 87
Tōshōgū shrine 11, 114–17
Tōshōsha 116–17 Wadō period 49
Tōto saijiki (Customs of the Eastern Capital) wagaku 148
144 Wakabayashi Kyōsai 137
Toyo 71 waka poetry 83, 92; waka and kami power 83;
Toyokuni Daimyōjin (‘The magnificent deity of Waka kanjō (‘Waka Poetry Initiation’) 92
the land of the plenty’) 116 wake (mogari) 23
Toyokuni shrine 11, 116 wakō dōjin (‘dimmed his light and mingled
Toyotomi Hideyoshi 115, 121, 148 with dust’) 76, 103
Toyuke daijingū 85 Wang Yangming 129, 130
Toyuke-jingū gishikichō 56 warrior groups 66; see also samurai
Tōzanha (Tōzan lineage) 120–1 warriors 11; warrior class 163
Tōzanha sendatsu shō 120 Watarai Ieyuki 86, 88
‘traditions’ as political tools 49 Watarai priests 88
transmigration of souls 70; see also realm of Watarai Shinto 86, 91, 112, 147
devas (tendō) Watarai Tsuneyoshi 86, 87
transmission: of Buddhist kami practices by Watarai Yukitada 86
monks 91; of myths 48; of rituals 92; of texts ‘way of heaven’ (tendō) 115
132, 134; ‘the transmission of the forty ‘way of the king’ 130
secrets’ (Shijū okuhi no den) 132; ‘way of the lord and vassal’ 134
‘transmission of the identity of heaven and ‘Way of the Planets and Stellar Mansions’
man’ (Tenjin yuiitsu den) 133 (sukuyōdō) 98
tribute 19–20, 26–7, 30 ‘Way of Yin and Yang’ (onmyōdō) 97–100;
trinity of shrines 90 see also Yin and Yang thought
Tsuboi Yoshichika 146 Weizhi (History of the Wei) 18
Tsuchimikado family 136, 142 ‘will of heaven’ 9
Tsuchimikado Yasutomi 136 Wish-Fulfilling Gem (nyoi hōju) 91
tsuchi shimaru (‘earth compacts’) 131 ‘Wo’ 18; Kings of Wo 19, 21
Tsukinami (‘Thanking for the Harvest’) 36, womb (Taizō) mandala 68, 84, 91
43, 55 Women’s Palace 40
tsukinami rituals see rituals women 46–9; maternal lineage 13, 53; ritual
Tsukiyomi 31, 58 and female members of royal clan 21; see also
tsutsushimi (self-denial) 131, 133 female religious founders, female ritualists,
Tsutsushimi no den 134 toji
Tsurugaoka Hachimangūji 66 World Buddha 91
Tsuwano 154, 155 ‘worldlings’ 76
tutelary deities see deities Worldmate (Cosmomate) 190
twenty-two shrines see ‘system of twenty-two worshippers x, 45, 52; foreign converts 192;
shrines’ (nijū nisha seido) see also ‘constituents’, ujiko
222
INDEX
1111 yabusame 65 Yoshida family 108, 120, 125, 139, 142, 154,
Yahata 71 156, 162, 174; monopoly of Yoshida family
2 Yahazu clan 46 as intermediaries 113, 119
3 yakata see dwellings of local chiefs Yoshida Hasshinden 114
yake see dwellings of local chiefs Yoshida Kanemi 114, 116
4 Yakushi Nyorai 75 Yoshida Kanemigi 114
yamabushi (Shugendō practioners) 96, 120 Yoshida Kanemoto 66, 110, 111, 113–14
5 Yamaga Sokō 130 Yoshida preachers 25
6 Yamashiro 182 Yoshida Shinto 109–15, 125, 129, 130–2,
Yamato court 12–15, 17–20, 24–5, 31, 35; 147; definition 112; ‘eighteen
7 Yamato court and Chinese Emperor 22, 27; manifestations’ 112; three main rituals
8 Yamato kings 24, 26–7 112
Yamato-hime no mikoto 87 Yoshida shrine 65
9 Yamato-hime no mikoto seiki 133 Yoshida Sueaki 125
1011 Yamato no Okunitama (‘Yamato’s Great Spirit Yoshida Teishun 125
of the Land’) 20 Yoshika see Mutobe Yoshika
1 Yamato shrine 64 Yoshikawa Koretari 130, 132–3
2 Yamazaki Ansai 132–3; Ansai Confucianism Yoshikawa Shinto 130–1, 138, 147
137 Yoshimi Yoshikazu 137, 146–7, 149
13111 Yanagita Kunio 128 Yoshimura Masamochi 178
4 Yanhui 69 yōshū 111
yangban 128 Yūtarō see Yano Yūtarō
5 Yano Harumichi 155 yubinuki 144
Yano Yūtarō 187 Yuiitsu Shinto 112, 131
6 yasakani no magatama (imperial jewel) 81 yuki and suki 32–3
7 Yasaka shrine 78 yuta 8
yashiro 16, 47, 49
8 Yasumaro Yoshio xi Zaidan hōjin Jingū hōsaikai 180
9 Yayoi period 12–14, 16 Zankō see Masaho Zankō
Yijing see Book of Changes Zen Buddhism 87, 101, 165, 182
20111 Yin and Yang thought 2, 9, 78, 86, 94, 97, 112, Zenrinji temple 129
1 131, 136, 149, 158, 193 Zhu Xi 129, 132, 135, 138, 146, 152
Yōfukuki 132 Zōeki ben bokushō zokkai 147
2 yōkigurashi (‘happy living’) 186 Zōjōji temple 165
3 yomi no kuni ‘Land of Darkness’ 30 zōka (‘creativity’) 127
yoriai 102 Zoku honchō ōjōden 75
4 yorishiro (ritual objects or ‘kami containers’) Zokusan hendo (Japan located on periphery
15, 17, 74 of Buddhist universe) 80
5 Yōrō code 36, 47 zongmiao (Ch.) 90
6 Yoshida Bonshun 114, 116 Zonkaku 94
7
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1111

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

ISBN 0-203-46288-2 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-34082-5 (Adobe eReader Format)

baby (hatsumiya), or their child’s third, fifth and seventh birthdays

1111 by various elites – be they court aristocrats, warriors, Buddhist monks, or

Kyoto Tado Miyakejima

Japan: Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku

In the field of Religious Studies, Shinto is usually described as an ‘indi-

period (794–1192) can be studied as belonging to a different religious

Shugendo. This amalgamation generated changes in the substance of kami

The East-Asian sphere of religious culture and Shinto

cultural sphere, Mahāyāna Buddhism absorbed multifarious forms of

off from it), there is a tendency to include maternal ancestors as well.

Users Users Students Followers

Network: Network: Sects’ buildings, sacred sites

Soft Kami initiations Soft Students’ networks Law on religious

Substance Kami as Buddhist emanations Substance Kokugaku, Confucianism Teachings of founders

Intellectual Shinto lineages Shinto-derived

Figure I.1 An overview of Shinto history

for collecting firewood and foodstuffs, and played an important role in

1111 Through a combination of military power and diplomacy, the Yamato

The royal lineage

Emperor Jinmu: clan alliances and legend

In the subsequent myth of the ‘descent of the Heavenly Grandson’,

Laws relating to kami worship in the Yōrō code

Ryō (administrative) law

The Ministry of Kami Affairs

Katori, and in that way succeeded in fashioning a growing ritual estab-

system based on the appointment of individual officials was superimposed

the Funhitobe handed the emperor a purificatory sword and recited a

Shrines: the kami and the ritsuryō state

conflicts were resolved by drawing up ritual contracts, promising the kami

efforts were invested in the worship of these deities as protectors of Japan.

Ōnakatomi clan. These measures placed new emphasis on the emperor’s

Shikishima no / Yamato no kuni ni / akirakeki / na ni ou tomo no o /

Misogi and harae

Ministry of Kami Affairs survived, albeit much transformed. Now, its

Official shrine worship in the medieval period

1111 governor of Aki province in 1146, and initiated a large-scale pilgrimage by

As we saw in Chapter 1, Buddhist divinities were, at first, worshipped in

continent, and it is therefore thought that the religion established itself

The kami as emanations of Buddhist divinities

kami in the eleventh century. An early example is in a letter from 1004

1111 Table 2.1 Buddhist identifications of shrines

powers of Buddhism persisted throughout the medieval period, and even

Here, the traditional image of kami as snakes (exemplified by the snake-

Japan as a ‘land of the gods’

terms, this new perspective on Japanese emperorship led to a rise in status

when it was found miraculously unscathed among the ashes. In spite of

Ryōbu Shinto: Buddhist speculations around Ise

1111 south-west of Ise in Shima province. Sengūin, then, can be identified as

Sannō Shinto and the ‘medieval Nihongi’

(‘Cave of Heaven Initiation’), the Sanshu no jinki kanjō (‘Three Regalia

1111 Of particular importance here was the relationship between kami

1111 under the Shingon temple Daigoji Sanbōin. In addition to these, a

Ema (‘pictured horses’)

50 Ōmori Shirō, ‘Jindai no yūkei’, Nihon bunkashi ronkō (Sōbunsha 1975).