Local shrines and the creation of ‘State Shinto’

Abstract

If we understand ‘State Shinto’ to refer to a concerted effort of the government to utilize shrines for popular edification (or propaganda), its origins cannot be traced back to the early years of Meiji, but must rather be sought in the 1910s and 1920s. This essay argues that the creation of ‘State Shinto’ in this sense of the word drew heavily on the activism of local shrine priests, and sees their involvement in the national management and administration of shrines in that same decade as a decisive moment. The religious nationalism advocated by such local priests transformed social understandings of both ‘religion’ and ‘shrines,’ and contributed more to the repressive atmosphere that clung to shrines in the early years of Shōwa than did top-down state enforcement.