Paper short abstract:

This presentation focuses on the modern development of Shōtoku Taishi's alleged "Five Constitutions" (Gokenpō), an apocryphal text originally produced during the early Edo Period (1600-1868), but attributed new meaning in the Emperor-centered context that followed the Meiji Restoration.

Paper long abstract:

The famous "Seventeen-article Constitution" (Jūshichijō kenpō) attributed to Shōtoku Taishi (574-622) only commanded that people revere Buddhism, making no mention whatsoever to the Japanese kami. Dissatisfied with this fact, a number of intellectuals in the early Edo-period (1600-1868) forged a new text, which they titled The Five Constitutions of Prince Shōtoku (Shōtoku Taishi gokenpō). Besides a slightly modified version of the original constitution, which in this context was renamed the "General Constitution" (tsūmō kenpō), this text also included four other Shinto-centered "constitutions," aimed, respectively, at politicians (seika kenpō), Confucianists (jushi kenpō), Shinto priests (shinshoku kenpō), and Buddhists (shakushi kenpō). The text was soon deemed a forgery and those responsible for its publication were punished, but it still remained popular thereafter. In the early Meiji period (1868-1912), when Shinto became the main standard for the new nation-wide religious policy, The Five Constitutions was again welcomed, and many commentaries, including by Buddhist priests, were published. In this new context, it was considered especially useful since it defined Buddhism as originating from a type of Shinto that had spread to India, and Confucianism as coming from the Shinto which spread to China. Therefore, in the overall scheme of The Five Constitutions, both Buddhist priests and Confucian scholars were allowed to take their positions in the new nation and were able to make use of their respective learnings. In the modern period, when the dichotomy between "foreign" and "national" becomes more pronounced than ever before, the apocryphal Five Constitutions of Prince Shōtoku served as a way for local intellectuals to justify the adoption, by the insular nation of Japan, of overseas culture while maintaining the importance of their own. In this presentation I will examine a number of annotations of the Five Constitutions published after the Meiji restoration, clarifying the characteristics of each and hoping to contribute to broader questions pertaining to religion and nationalism in modern Japan.