Paper short abstract:

The Meiji partition of Shinto and Buddhism has been termed a revolution. Anrakuji is a non-revolutionary example. Originally a Buddhist temple, it gradually incorporated Shinto elements, and, before the Meiji, had already evolved into Dazaifu Tenmangū, a Shinto shrine with few traces of Buddhism.

Paper long abstract:

In 1984, Allan Grapard published a paper labelling the Meiji policy of separating Shinto and Buddhism a 'cultural revolution,' and offered Tōnomine as a case study. I would like to introduce an example in which the change was more evolution than revolution. Today, Tenjin, the deified spirit of Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), is identified as a Shinto kami, but Tenjin’s original religious affiliation was unclear. The first 'shrine' dedicated to him was established in 905 at the site of his tomb, just outside Dazaifu, his place of exile. It soon evolved into Anrakuji, a Buddhist temple with close ties to Michizane’s descendants in the capital. Traditional accounts of Michizane’s deification are ambiguous. Although they include more Buddhist elements than modern devotees might expect, they also incorporate a Shinto version of how Kitano, the Tenjin shrine in the capital, was founded. Initially, Anrakuji retained its Buddhist orientation, but Shinto practices gradually crept in and, in 1097, for the first time, a document refers to it as 'Tenmangū Anrakuji,' 'Tenmangū' being the name associated with Shinto shrines dedicated to Tenjin. In medieval times, Anrakuji became involved in civil wars and even made unseemly contributions to Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea. It also became a major landholder in Kyushu. Michizane’s descendants in the capital controlled the temple and revenue from its estates helped support them. These estates are the focus of most surviving sources from the period. Its religious practices, in contrast, are poorly documented. Nomenclature, however, suggests Shinto elements became dominant. In 1294, for the first time, a document dropped the 'Anrakuji' from the institution’s name, and, by end of the fourteenth century, most sources referred to it simply as 'Tenmangū,' and that is what Edo-period visitors called it. Literary sources continued to use 'Anrakuji,' and Buddhist elements remained, but they became peripheral. The Meiji separation of Shinto and Buddhism was merely the final step in a process that had begun centuries earlier.