Religion, power, and the rise of Shinto in early modern Japan
Stefan Köck (Editor), Bernhard Scheid (Editor), Brigitte Pickl-Kolaczia (Editor)
Focusing on the growing awareness of Shinto in a fundamentally Buddhist religious environment, this book sheds new light on the relationship between religion and the state in early modern Japan. It starts with an analysis of how the central government aimed to control the populace via Buddhism, and, at the same time, submitted Buddhism to the sacralization of the ruling Tokugawa dynasty. Closely related to this are chapters on the suppression of outlawed religious groups such as Christians, heterodox Buddhist sects, and unwanted folk practitioners. The following cluster of chapters tackles the question of why early Tokugawa Confucianism was particularly interested in "Shinto" as an alternative to Buddhism and what "Shinto" actually meant from a Confucian stance. The final part of the book explores attempts to curtail the institutional power of Buddhism by reforming Shinto shrines. While these reforms seem few and far between, they were conceived by leading power holders and contributed to a "Shintoization of shrines" including the development of a self-contained Shinto clergy--back cover
Print Book, English, 2021
Bloomsbury Academic, London, United Kingdom, 2021