Religion, Power, and the Rise of Shinto in Early Modern Japan (Bloomsbury Shinto Studies) - 9781350231863

This book sheds new light on the relationship between religion and state in early modern Japan, and demonstrates the growing awareness of Shinto in both the political and the intellectual elite of Tokugawa Japan, even though Buddhism remained the privileged means of stately religious control. The first part analyses how the Tokugawa government aimed to control the populace via Buddhism and at the same time submitted Buddhism to the sacralization of the Tokugawa dynasty. The second part focuses on the religious protests throughout the entire period, with chapters on the suppression of Christians, heterodox Buddhist sects, and unwanted folk practitioners. The third part tackles the question of why early Tokugawa Confucianism was particularly interested in ôShintoö as an alternative to Buddhism and what ôShintoö 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, an important step in the so called ôShintoization of shrinesö including the development of a self-contained Shinto clergy.

• | Author: Stefan K÷ck, Fabio Rambelli, Brigitte Pickl-Kolaczia, Bernhard Scheid
• | Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• | Publication Date: Nov 17, 2022
• | Number of Pages: 304 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback/Political Science
• | ISBN-10: 135023186X
• | ISBN-13: 9781350231863