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- Convenors:
-
Stefan Koeck
(Austrian Academy of Sciences IKGA)
Bernhard Scheid (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
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- Chair:
-
Stefan Koeck
(Austrian Academy of Sciences IKGA)
- Section:
- Religion and Religious Thought
- Sessions:
- Friday 27 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
Domain Shintō is related to regional Shintō reforms in the mid-17th century. It features aspects like shinbutsu bunri that point beyond the immediate historical situation. The long-term perspective of local phenomena for larger religious transformations will thus be a topic of this panel.
Long Abstract:
The mid-17th century saw a sudden increase in Shintō-related reforms in several domains in Japan. Although the reforms varied in scope and intensity from domain to domain they shared several similarities: Domain leaders conceived and enforced Shintō-friendly or shrine focussed policies, Buddhism and Shintō became clearly separated (shinbutsu bunri) and certain Buddhist groups were repressed.
Domain Shintō (hanryō shintō) appears to be a useful term to describe the distinction between regional Shintō politics, which were individually implemented by administrations of various domains, and the official Shintō cult of the Tokugawa dynasty, which was supervised by Buddhist institutions. Hanryō shintō also designates a new approach to analysing the range of phenomena that were typical for the religious policies of domains like Mito, Okayama, Aizu or Izumo and Wakayama.
The three presentations in this panel will take up different aspects of hanryō shintō in various domains. The first talk will deal with various external factors that influenced the emergence of Domain Shinto, in particular the general distribution of shrine priests and their legal situation, as well as intellectual trends such as Yoshida Shinto and Confucian Shinto.
Developments in Mito will be discussed in the second presentation. The cornerstones of Mito's policies were the strengthening of Shintō and purging Buddhist institutions of deviant elements within the domain. The talk will focus on the policies' effects on the local level by presenting the case of the village Noguchi. The third talk will focus on developments in Okayama. The Shintō reforms in Okayama cemented the separation of Shintō and Buddhism irrevocably in this domain. The talk will introduce examples of the internal development of Okayama's hanryō shintō from the beginnings in 1666 throughout the Edo period.
The panel aims to shed light on the macrosociological significance of local phenomena by relating local history to larger religious transformations. In this way, it contributes to an understanding of local shrine reforms in the long-term history of Shintō, drawing attention to elements such as shinbutsu bunri in the 17th century that in general are viewed as characteristics of the religious reforms of the early Meiji period.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 27 August, 2021, -Stefan Koeck (Austrian Academy of Sciences IKGA)
Paper short abstract:
Religious reforms in the 1660s that separated Shintō and Buddhism in Okayama-han are the first example of shinbutsu bunri covering a major domain. Shintō emerged by the reforms as a separate religion. The talk will discuss long-term developments of Okayama's Domain Shintō in the Edo period.
Paper long abstract:
The Shintō-related reforms introduced 1666 in Okayama-han by the daimyō Ikeda Mitsumasa (1609-1682) were originally meant to reduce and consolidate the exorbitant number of shrines in the domain. Like in other domains (e.g. Mito), too, one aimed at a system of one shrine per village that should cater to the respective ujigami. In the aftermath of a severe domain-internal persecution of Buddhism in the same year, however, Shintō was charged with new responsibilities of religious control of the populace. This changed the scope of the Shintō reforms in Okayama decisively in ways not foreseen at the outset, and made Okayama-han a forerunner of developments that can be observed in other domains only a century later at the earliest.
The nature of Shintō that ensued in Okayama is a prime example of Domain Shintō. Initiated by Mitsumasa and his domain government it showed characteristics like a domain-wide separation of Shintō and Buddhism, the development of a professional Shintō clergy or the utilizing of Shintō for means of domain administration.
One focus of this talk will be the long-term effects of Okayama's Shintō reforms of the late 1660s. While several reforms were abandoned rather quickly by Mitsumasa's son and successor Tsunamasa (1638-1714) in the following decades others remained untouched. In this respect, attention will be given to the emerging of Okayama's professional Shintō clergy and its subsequent development in terms of administrative and cultic functions. By considering external factors like Yoshida Shintō or the relations between Okayama-han and the Tokugawa government the question of the extent of autonomy in the development of Domain Shintō in Okayama shall also be discussed.
Brigitte Pickl-Kolaczia (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on the effects of Mito's religious policies in the late 17th century on the local level. Examining the case of the village Noguchi-mura, it aims to shed some light reforms' impact on the population's religious practice and identity.
Paper long abstract:
Mito's religious reforms consisted of mainly Shintō-friendly policies including the - formal - separation of Buddhist and Shintō institutions and the implementation of a system of one shrine per village. Parallel to strengthening Shintō, Mito's lord Tokugawa Mitsukuni clamped down on temples that did not fit the concept of Buddhism in Japan devised by the ruling Tokugawa shogun, according to which temples should be led by an erudite monk of irreproachable character and fulfil the administrative task of religious control assigned to them by the Tokugawa government. This led to the abolishment of over 1.400 temples in Mito. While the domain's leaders followed their own agenda when conceiving the policies to re-create Mito's religious landscape, they did take into account the population's wishes, at least in some cases.
This talk will examine the impacts these policies had on the population by presenting the case of the village Noguchi. Noguchi's tutelary shrine was Saeki Jinja, which traces its origins back to the early Heian period. Even after the reforms in 1666, Saeki Jinja remained affiliated to the Shingon temple Renkakuji, which acted as its bettō-ji. The fact that the domain administration did not indiscriminately make decisions over the population's heads leads to the questions whether Saeki Jinja's ongoing affiliation with Renkakkuji was due to the residents' refusal to accept the separation of temple and tutelary shrine in their community or to more pragmatic reasons, such as the lack of a proper Shintō priest. The paper will therefor look not only into how the reforms affected religious practice in Noguchi but also investigate its residents' agency.
Bernhard Scheid (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
My presentation deals with various external factors that influenced the emergence of Domain Shinto, in particular questions of ruler deification as well as intellectual trends such as Yoshida Shinto and Confucian Shinto.
Paper long abstract:
Our project on "Domain Shinto" (hanryō shintō) presented in this panel deals in essence with a series of religious reforms that seem to anticipate the well-known "separation of Shintō and Buddhism" (shinbutsu bunri) of the Meiji period: In the latter half of the 1660s, some leading daimyo whom the posterity labeled "illustrious lords" (meikun) reduced the Buddhist clergy in their domains by more than half, while at the same time renovating and re-establishing old shrine facilities. Other daimyo preceded these measures or followed lead although in more modest dimensions. In either case, the reforms seem to derive from a critical attitude towards Buddhism comparable to Meiji Japan. How do these facts fit with the general religious policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate? As has been pointed out in recent research, the Tokugawa saw Buddhism as their most important tool against Christianity and promoted Buddhist schools as agents of ideological control. What then prompted individual daimyo to put their emphasis on Shinto (and/or Confucianism) rather than on Buddhism? Was this an indirect criticism of the official government line or rather an attempt to make the anti-Christian inquisition prescribed by the state even more efficient? According to my present view, there was a mix of both aspects at work. In addition, I regard the need for religious or rather ritual autonomy on the part of local daimyo as an additional incentive to look for alternatives to Buddhism, especially in the field of death rites. This brings questions of daimyo deification, in particular the deification of Hoshina Masayuki, as opposed to the deification of Tokugawa Ieyasu to the fore. My lecture will discuss this in the context of Yoshida Shinto, Confucian Shinto, and the general situation of shrine priests.