Lecture reading 7 - Ideologies, Bureaucrats and Priests: On 'Shinto' and 'Buddhism' in Early Meiji Japan

Question 1

Which two people were in control of the Restoration government’s office for religious affairs and authored shinbutsu bunri?

Answer 1

Kamei Koremi (daimyo of Tsuwano) and Fukuba Bisei (senior vassal)

Question 2

Who were Kamei and Fukuba sponsored by?

Answer 2

Kido Koin (Takayoshi)

Question 3

Who joined Kamei and Fukuba to form state policy on religion and ideology?

Answer 3

Okuni Takamasa

Question 4

Describe the policy of ‘saisei itchi’

Answer 4

Union of religion and politics. Emperor as high priest performed state ritual and as a politician oversaw government.

Question 5

How did the Kamei-Fukuba blueprint demand the forging of an entirely new Shinto? (three points)

Answer 5

1. ‘Restoration Shinto’ (fukko shinto)
2. census-gathering and anti-Christian checks to be transferred to shrine control
3. Introduction of Shinto-style funerals

Question 6

What was the solution to the fad of new shrines and the disarray of Shinto in Tsuwano?

Answer 6

Destruction of new shrines so old shrines can survive.

Question 7

What did shrines’ significance lie in, according to Kamei and Fukuba?

Answer 7

Their ideological value to the state, not religious value to commoners.

Question 8

What happened to shrines in 1871?

Answer 8

They became ‘sites for the performance of state ritual’. No longer private property, and shrines and clergy no more served religious needs of community.

Question 9

Why did local shrines and priests believe they were the victims of the modern state?

Answer 9

Shrine rituals subordinated to ideological demands of modern state and principle of heredity banned, meaning majority of shrine priests now faced summary dismissal.

Question 10

How was the disestablishment of Buddhism framed in Kamei’s objective (three points)?

Answer 10

1. Severance of all state ties
2. End to all state privileges
3. Transfer of social functions to ‘shinto’ institutions

Question 11

What was important about the introduction of Shinto funerals?

Answer 11

People may be exempt if they wished.

Question 12

What was important about fukko shinto as the religion of the imperial realm?

Answer 12

Buddhists were still able to practise privately.

Question 13

How did Okuni dismiss criticism that Buddhism’s evil was derived from its foreignness?

Answer 13

‘If Buddhists encourage people to be loyal and filial, and contribute to the peace of the realm, and exert themselves in protecting the imperial line, then they are to be regarded citizens of this sacred realm.

Question 14

What did Kyobusho policy grant to Buddhists?

Answer 14

A role in countering Christianity and stirring patriotism.

Question 15

What was Fukuba’s view on Buddhism?

Answer 15

Buddhism should maintain a distinct identity and not be subject to attempts by government bureaucrats to ‘convert all Buddhists to Shinto’.

Question 16

Who was Matsukata Masayoshi and what was his concern?

Answer 16

Satsuma samurai, later governor of Hita prefecture.

Concern was to ‘strengthen the realm’ and lamented Shinto’s inability to better Buddhism due to shrine priests stupidity and negligence compared to able and talented Buddhists.

Question 17

What did the Jingikan do?

Answer 17

Appointed ‘men of talent’ to take charge of nation’s most famous shrines and temples.

Question 18

What was Matsukata’s approach to Buddhism?

Answer 18

Several temples should be merged into one larger one, all temple priests accommodated together in surviving temple, and all who objected defrocked. Buddhist connections wit national census severed.

Question 19

Who were these proposals favoured by?

Answer 19

Iwakura Tomomi.

Question 20

What was particular about these proposals?

Answer 20

Uniquely ideological - no reference to economy.

Question 21

What did bureaucrats such as Iwakura Tomomi draft?

Answer 21

Proposals addressing economic autonomy of religious institutions. All shrine and temple land confiscated and transferred to control of local governments. Not indiscriminate or ideological.

Question 22

When was the disestablishment of Buddhism finalised and what did it entail?

Answer 22

1871. Wiping away of Buddhist influence from imperial court and breaking of Buddhist sect economy (branch temples removed from control of head temple and candidates for priesthood approved by local government and subject to veto.