The Emperor of Japan: A historical study in religious symbolism
Year: 1979
Type: article
Abstract: Scholars of modern Japanese history agree that the em-peror-system served as the key principle of social and political unification from the very beginning of the Meiji period. Freed from the authority and symbols of the Tokugawa regime, Meiji Restoration leaders chose the emperor-system as the principle by which to rule the nation and increase its wealth and military strength. But why did they choose this principle? And why was their strategy successful? In general，there appear to have been three elements that made possible the success of the strategy to unify and govern the people by means of the emperor:(1) the homogeneity of the structure of community, including common acceptance of the ethical values of loyalty and filial piety, (2) the edu cational system comprised of the schools, the army, and religious institutions, together with ideological control en forced by police power, and (3) the power of the emperor as a religious symbol that combined indigenous popular religion and officially sponsored national Shinto. In this study I propose to focus on the third element: the meaning of the emperor as a religious symbol for the common people. Their attitude toward the emperor is an important element in the structure of Japanese feeling and belief. I think I can show that this feeling or attitude gave to the new government a high degree of support from all strata of Japanese society. But before exploring the religiously symbolic meaning of the emperor for the Japanese people, jt is necessary to lay a foundation by outlining the history of the Japanese
Author: Koichi Mori
Language: English
Topic: Japanese History and Culture
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2342587433