Overseas Shinto Shrines: Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire

Description

This is the first book to comprehensively examine overseas Shinto shrines and their complex role in the colonisation and modernisation of newly Japanese lands and subjects. Through extensive use of primary resources and fieldwork, this detailed study of overseas shrines reveals the complex historical background of Japan’s modernisation and colonialism. It provides an example of the construction of a non-Western secularity, and contributes to our understanding of the relationship between religion, secularism, and the construction of the modern state. Shinto shrines became one of the most visible symbols of Japanese imperialism in the early 20th century. From 1868 to 1945, shrines were constructed by both the government and migrants across the Asia-Pacific region, from Sakhalin to Taiwan, from China to the Americas. Drawing on theories about the constructed nature of the modern categories of “religion” and the “secular”, this book argues that modern Shinto shrines were conceived and treated as secular sites within a newly invented Japanese secularism, and that they played an important role in communicating changed conceptions of space, time, and ethics in imperial subjects. The book traces the development of modern overseas shrines from their earlier conception as essential tools in civilising new land to their later focus on assimilating colonial subjects. Highlighting shrines outside of the official Japanese empire, it examines how modern Shinto shrines accommodated and clashed with competing conceptions of shrines and their location within the political system of secularism. Cover Contents List of figures Acknowledgements Notes on text/translation 1 Introduction: Religion, secularism and Japan 2 The birthplace of Japan: Kashihara Jingū and the Home Islands 3 The northern capital: Hokkaido and Karafuto in the near periphery 4 A model colony: Taiwan at the far periphery 5 Of the same lineage: Korea as annexed territory 6 A multiethnic empire: Manchuria and Asia outside of Japan 7 A distant land: Hawai‘i on the East–West border 8 Conclusion Notes Character glossary References Index