Articles
Domain Shinto in Tokugawa Japan
Domain Shinto in Early Modern Mito : Impacts on Village Populations and Rural Networks
Abstract
Tokugawa Mitsukuni’s religious policies in Mito domain during the 1660s are famous for their radical retrenchment of Buddhist institutions but were also designed to promote a system of one shrine per village. As Mitsukuni aimed at a complete separation of Shinto shrines from Buddhism, his reforms can be regarded as a typical case of Domain Shinto. Nevertheless, he could not achieve a comprehensive implementation of his policies. In the village of Noguchi, the subject of this case study, a tutelary shrine had existed since the early ninth century. It was, however, managed by a Buddhist temple. Its festivals were rooted in Buddhist practices mixed with a few Shinto elements. Probably owing to its comparatively high status, Noguchi’s tutelary shrine remained under Buddhist influence for at least one hundred and twenty years after Mitsukuni’s Domain Shinto measures. Only in the first half of the nineteenth century had all Buddhist elements been removed. Based on firsthand sources, this article reconstructs the relatively slow transformation of Noguchi’s religious practice while analyzing the surprisingly large networks of Noguchi’s leading families, in which their village shrine played a vital role.