Fred Ayles Dissertation (1)

Freddie Ayles
Student ID: 10434681
1
HIST601: Dissertation
From the foreign perspective: How far did ‘Shintō’ give impetus for
feudalJapan to develop into an imperialistand expansionistnation by
the end of the Meiji Period? (1868-1912) With a focus on Basil Hall
Chamberlain.
By: Freddie Ayles
Date: 08/05/2016
Student Number: 10434681
Deadline: 9th May 2016
Word Count: 10,477

Freddie Ayles
2
Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………3
Chapter 1: Shintō as ritual………………………………………………………9
Chapter 2: Shintō in education ………………………………………………..21
Chapter 3: Emperor-system, nationalism and the anomaly of Lafcadio
Hearn…………………………………………………………….........................30
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….40
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..42
Appendix…………………………………………………………………………51
Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to my wonderful parents – Shaun Ayles and Eilis
Rainsford, for their love and support throughout university.
Special thanks must also be given to Jonathan Mackintosh, my tutor, your insight and
knowledge of the topic helped greatly.

Freddie Ayles
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Introduction
‘It is very clear that the last word has yet to be said on the subject of Shin-tau’1; this
forewarning statement on the subject of ‘Shin-tau’ or in modern terms Shintō, the
ancient Japanese religion of kami, or ancestor worship, was composed by the
esteemed British contemporary Japanologist, Ernest M. Satow, in 1875, just seven
years into the reign of the Meiji Emperor. Satow’s stark concluding sentence in ‘The
Revival of Pure Shin-tau’ provides a clear indication as to the emerging importance of
Shintō to a nation that would resurface from two-hundred years of feudalism and a
policy of closed-borders into arguably the most extraordinarily accelerated case of
modernization. However, as this thesis will look to explore, the ideologies of Shintō
played a significant part in promoting, and enforcing the legitimacy and agenda of the
three periods of the prewar era. It was also certainly synonymous with an imperialist
and expansionist ethos that was propagated across the entirety of the social spectrum
of Japan. Indeed in November 2013, sixty-eight years after the surrender of the Empire
of Japan to the Allied Forces, and notably almost a century and a half after Satow’s
prediction on the emergence of what he named ‘Shin-tau’; The Japan Times printed an
article reporting on the return of the ancient Japanese nature cult ‘Shintō’ to Japanese
politics.
1
Ernest M. Satow, 'The Revival of Pure Shin'Tau', Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 3, (1875),
p.87.

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‘Back to the Future: Shintō’s growing influence in politics’2 alluded to the fact that after
numerous tragic incidents affecting Japan since their World War II defeat, there existed
a desire for a return to traditional Japanese moral and spiritual values; the return of
Shintō to politics. A myriad of Japan’s top elected officials, including Prime Minister Abe,
are indeed members of the political right wing group Shintō Seiji Renmei (Shintō
Association of Spiritual Leadership), with Abe becoming the first Prime Minister in 84
years to attend ‘the most important ceremony in Shintō’3, the Sengyo no Gi at Ise
Shrine, which is considered home to the emperor’s ancestors. The enforcement of the
Kimigayo imperial national anthem that was sung between 1888 and 1945; while the
restoration of subtly titled imperial markers on the annual calendar such as State
Foundation Day and Culture Day, the latter an allusion to the birthday of the Meiji
Emperor, was an objective of government.
These notable attempts by officials of the National Diet to place Shintō to the fore of
Japanese morality once more demonstrates just how influential Shintō still is to the
hearts of the traditionalist Japanese elected officials despite the near total eradication of
the paradigm by the Allied Forces during their occupation from 1945. One matter
emerges from this; why were the Allied Forces so quick to condemn Shintō in the Shintō
Directive of 1945? On the surface a seemingly peaceful ritualistic religion that put
emphasis on kami and nature worship, it is more a matter of how the Meiji, Taisho and
Showa regimes created the ‘State Shintō’ system, enforcing their own unique brand of
Shintō as a state ideology. This thesis will focus its entirety on the Meiji period (1868-
2
David McNeill, ‘Back to the future: Shintō’s Growing Influence in Politics’, The Japan Times, 23
November 2013.
3
Ibid.

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1912) and look to present the argument that the seeds of what would become ‘State
Shintō’, the radical, Mikado-worshiping, ultranationalist cult of the 1930s and the
preceding years to the Second World War were firmly planted in this era.
Indeed there is countless literature on the subject of Shintō dating from the Meiji coup
up until the death of the Meiji Emperor; while the specific focus varies notably. The
historiography of the early Meiji period is fairly limited in terms of its focus on Shintō,
perhaps due to the fact State Shintō was yet to become a readily accepted paradigm
even amongst the elité; although there are exceptions like Helen Hardacre, who
provides excellent quantitative history through careful scrutiny of survey data,
particularly on Shrine Shintō directly before and after the Meiji Restoration in her article
on The Great Promulgation Campaign4. Further work by Hardacre: ‘Shintō and the
State: 1868-1988’ is equally beneficial as it looks at rural documents rather than
‘government directives’5, providing a different perspective through the use of the later
Annales School historiographical technique of histoire des mentalités.
Walter A. Skya’s6 scholarly focus on Shintō’s role in the advancement of what he
uniquely brands ‘radical ultra-nationalism’ is particularly relevant to this thesis; it differs
from Hardacre in that the emphasis is on nationalism. While the main body of this work
encompasses the Taisho and perhaps more the Showa, his first two chapters give a
valued insight into early to late Meiji politics and the role of Shintō in the statecraft of a
conceivably fledgling sovereignty. Principally, his focus on Meiji political theorists like
4
Helen, Hardacre, 'Creating State Shintō: The Great Promulgation Campaign and the New Religions',
Journal of Japanese Studies, 12.1, (1986), 29-63,
in<http://www.jstor.org.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/stable/132446?sid=primo&origin=crossref&seq=1#page_sc
an_tab_contents> [accessed 4 January 2016].
5
Helen Hardacre, Shintō and the State, 1868-1988 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989)
p.7.
6
Walter A. Skya, Japan's Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2009).

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Hozumi Yatsuka and their ideologies of a Shintōist ‘absolutist monarchy’7 offers a more
intellectual perspective to State Shintō historiography. While it should be noted that
‘Japan’s Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism’ is not without its
imperfections; Skya’s emphasis on how Shintō disseminated genuine divine fanaticism
for the emperor and how influential Shintōist political theorists were to the the masses of
Japanese society is perhaps exaggerated. Nevertheless, for instance, his rejection of
Masao’s claim that support for the fascist movement was predominantly derived from
‘pseudo-intellectuals’8 by justly disputing that these ‘pseudo-intellectuals’ were indeed
esteemed professors and academic scholars demonstrates that his work made key
advancements in historiography of the period.
‘Shintō in History’, edited by John Breen and Mark Teeuwen is another notably
important work on Shintō, not only as an ideology constructed by the elite but as an
archaic religion; while as the title suggests, it provides a broad history of Shintō from the
earliest times until 1945, it contributes more than a mere narrative. Breen, Teeuwen and
other contributors look to challenge often assumed claims that Shintō was a unified
tradition, invariable throughout time, arguing that its interpretations often depend on
political authority: ‘Shintō is not, then... what contemporary Japanese “do at shrines”...
Shintō is, rather, what the contemporary establishment and its spokesmen would have
them think and do’9. There are indeed a myriad of texts on the subject of Shintō in this
period and one could go on, but these are the set which proved most insightful.
7
Walter A. Skya, Japan's Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2009) p.53.
8
Masao Maruyama, ‘The Ideology and Dynamics of Japanese Fascism’ (1947) in Thought and Behavior
in Modern Japanese Politics, ed. Ivan Morris (London: Oxford University,1969) p.25-83.
9
John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, Shintō In History: Ways Of The Kami, 1st edn (New York: Routledge,
2000) p.3.

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The primary source set, however, presented more challenges; the bulk of important
contemporary material like diaries and accounts of religious events such as the haibatsu
kishaku remain untranslated. However, when one accounts from a European
perspective, ‘Japanologists’ such as Basil Hall Chamberlain, W. G. Aston and Ernest M.
Satow provide differing but invaluable insight into the ‘invention’10 or ‘revival’11 of the
‘religion’ depending on their respective judgements.
Minear is among historians who have lamented that ‘the field of Japanese studies
stands in need just such stimulation’12; Western experts such as Chamberlain have
been the attention of little scholarly thought, while his relationship with the orientalist,
imperialist notions of the time are in need of investigation. The specific primary focus of
this thesis is the 1912 pamphlet by Chamberlain called ‘The Invention of a Religion’, in
which he debunks Mikado-worship or Japan-worship as a mere myth invented by the
ruling oligarchy to spiritually control its populace. Although little attention is paid to the
importance of ‘Shrine Shintō’ in propagating nationalist sentiment, the imperial elitism
that was the norm in Western scholarly thought in this period did not always apply to
him. His ethnographic standpoint, coupled with the fact that ‘despite his British
nationality, he was not happy to be called British, and did not identify himself with any
nation’13. This thesis will primarily look to explore this particular body of work, as well as
10
Basil H. Chamberlain, The Invention of a New Religion (Tokyo: Imperial University of Tokyo, 1912).
11
Ernest M. Satow, 'The Revival of Pure Shin'Tau', Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 3,
(1875), 1-87.
12
Richard H. Minear, ‘Orientalism and the Study of Japan’, review of Orientalism, by Edward W. Said,
The Journal of Asian Studies, 39.3 (1980), p.516.
13 Guo, Nanyan, 'Interpreting Japan's Interpretors: The Problem of Lafcadio Hearn', New Zealand Journal
of Asian Studies, 3.2, (2001), 106-118, in <http://www.nzasia.org.nz/downloads/NZJAS-Dec01/Guo.pdf>
[accessed 1 May 2016] p.113.

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others by Chamberlain, in order to not only assess its validity but also the scholarly
trend at the time to perceive Japan as ‘other’.
Further attention will be paid to fellow Western scholars of Japan; Lafcadio Hearn, as
will be argued, presented something of an anomaly. His private correspondence with
Chamberlain and his travel-piece ‘Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan’ define him as part of
‘the Orient’ rather than ‘the Occident’, his adoption of the emperor-system is a
demonstration of how ‘State Shintō’ influenced even foreigners in the country. Satow’s
‘The Revival of Pure Shin-tau’ provided useful contemporary opinions on the mythology
of ancient Shintō, although not offering much in terms of his perspective on Shintō as an
ideology. Isabella Bird provided useful comparison, as she derived from a different
authority than Chamberlain and Satow, both esteemed Japanologists. As a travel writer
in Japan, her accounts of experience with Japanese culture are invaluable when looking
at the ‘history from below’ of State Shintō. Yet her branding of indigenous Japanese as
‘coolies’ gives a clear indication as to the prevailing imperial racism that existed in the
West in the Meiji period.

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Chapter 1: Shintō as ritual
‘Her (Japan) power to accomplish what she has accomplished was derived from her old
religious and social training’14. Immediately after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the new
elected officials of the imperial house began to institutionalize Shintō; the ambition being
to lay a sacred foundation in which to bolster their legitimacy by ‘linking the emperor’s
religio-nationalist symbolism to a network of disciplinary institutions anchored in schools
and shrines’15. This chapter will look to explore and qualify Chamberlain’s perspectives
on the varying influence of shrines as, primarily, religious institutions, but more
pressingly as a means of propagating the national kokutai. Further attention will be paid
to other contemporary Western ‘Japanologists’, as their outlooks will provide useful
comparative insight into the issue.
Indeed from the perspective of Chamberlain, he appears to almost entirely omit the
issue of Shintō shrines from ‘The Invention of a New Religion’. Although he is certainly
in unison with the view that shrines were a means of promoting a nationalist and
expansionist philosophy, he alludes to this only briefly. In ‘The Invention of a New
Religion’ he mentions that ‘imperial envoys were regularly sent after each great victory
to carry the good tidings to the Sun Goddess at her great shrine at Ise’16; as suggested,
imperialism and militarization was synonymous with Shintō rituals, and this sentiment
14 Simon N. Patten, The Social Basis of Religion (London: Forgotten Books, 1911) p.229.
15
Fumiko Fukase-Indergaard and Indergaard, Michael, ‘Religious Nationalism and the Making of the
Modern Japanese State’, Theory and Society, 37.1, (2008), 343-374, in
<http://www.jstor.org.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/stable/40211042?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>
[accessed 3 February 2016] p.344.
16
Basil H. Chamberlain, The Invention of a New Religion (Tokyo: Imperial University of Tokyo, 1912) p.6

Freddie Ayles
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was frequently centred around jingu shrines such as Ise, whereas lesser shrines were
given much less imperialist attention. Chamberlain’s inclusion of the ‘great shrine of Ise’
is surely indicative of its influence and spiritual hold over the Japanese citizenry; as
Figure 1.1 shows, Ise visitations increased exponentially from the late-Meiji period up
until wartime, demonstrating an increasing involvement from the public in ‘Shrine Shintō’
even as early as the Meiji regime.
Figure 1: ‘Persons paying tribute at the Ise Shrines 1904-1944’
Certainly historians are in agreement on the matter, Hardacre in particular highlights its
prestige even by the end of the Edo period; stating that there were 309 oshi of the Inner
Shrine and 555 of the Outer Shrine17. Indeed these religious functionaries (oshi), or
guides, of Ise Shrine were so influential in promoting Shintō at Ise that by the end of the
period Hardacre believed that ‘everyone should make a pilgrimage there at least
once’18. Another clear indication as to the importance of major shrines in propagating
nationalist, and in turn, imperialist sentiment was demonstrated promptly by the new
17
Helen Hardacre, 'Creating State Shintō: The Great Promulgation Campaign and the New Religions',
an_tab_contents> [accessed 4 January 2016] p.34.
18
Ibid.

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Meiji government; the Yasukuni shrine was established to honour those that died
fighting to restore the political power of the imperial house to what it had been during
the ‘golden age of Shintō’19. Indeed it commemorated not only those that died in the
Meiji Restoration, but also all the souls who lost their lives fighting for the ‘Empire of
Great Japan’; the war dead from the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-
Japanese War (1905) were enshrined at Yasukuni. Above all, jinja shrines like Yasukuni
offered the populace a venue in which to honour their loved ones, which through the
rituals instilled there, disseminated a strong sense of patriotism and nationalism.
Chamberlain’s oversight in terms of the importance of the shrines is not solely exclusive
to this text however; in his earlier work: ‘Notes on some minor Japanese Religious
Practices’ he mentions that his pilgrimages to Shintō shrines over the past nineteen
years had left him with ‘no particular theories, but only with many pleasant memories’20
suggesting that, to him, shrines were nothing but curious, primitive sites of archaic
worship. As a consequence, he pays little to no attention to them as ideological
mechanisms of indoctrination. In this earlier text, he gives an account of differing objects
used in ritual, in Buddhism as well as Shintō, and his detachment from ritual is evident
when even he recognises that ‘a catalogue of objects so closely resembling each
other... must be a tax on your patience’21, deeming that such a topic may seem tedious
to the reader.
19
Paul Brooker, The Faces of Fraternalism: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1991) p.210.
20
Basil H. Chamberlain, ‘Notes on Some Minor Japanese Religious Practices’, The Journal of the
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 22, (1893), p.355.
21
Ibid., p.366

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Chamberlain’s obvious neglect of the importance of Shrine Shintō as a catalyst in
promulgating imperialist and expansionist thought is one not uncommon at the time
amongst fellow Western scholars in Japan. Isabella Bird, a 19th century English travel
writer of the upper-middle class, documented a similarly vacant opinion on shrines;
while Chamberlain cited Ise Shrine as the ‘most holiest of all Shintō shrines’ where ‘as
many as 199,000 are said to have visited it on a single day’22, Bird puts a contrasting,
negative emphasis on the meaninglessness of Ise in particular. In ‘Unbeaten Tracks in
Japan’ she states:
‘...it is the camphor groves, the finest in Japan, covering the extensive and broken
grounds with their dark magnificence, which so impress a stranger with their unique
grandeur as to make him forget the bareness and the meanness of the shrines which
they overshadow’23
.
Firstly, however, it must be noted that Bird is speaking from a much different authority;
while Chamberlain’s purpose is more ethnographic, he observes Japanese culture and
phenomena from the perspective of the natives, critics of travel writing have agreed that
‘travel literature consists of the impressions of one culture viewing another’24. As a
result, although it is useful for assessing polarized cultures, the conclusions and
judgements reached on native civilization are often not objective.
22
Basil H. Chamberlain, ‘Notes on Some Minor Japanese Religious Practices’, The Journal of the
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 22, (1893), p.367
23
Isabella L. Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (New York: G. P Putnam's Son's, 1880) p.280.
24
Lorcin, Patricia M.E., Women's Travel Writing (2005)
<http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/d/146/whm.html> [accessed 26 April 2016]

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Secondly, one question emerges from this seeming lack of emphasis on the shrine
system as a means of propagating nationalist sentiment and mobilizing the masses; as
will be explored in the second chapter, Chamberlain puts far more emphasis on
education as a catalyst. Why did occidental contemporary writers on Japan belittle the
influence of the shrine system and ritual in favour of other avenues?
The answer can be found in the prevailing ‘Orientalist’ notions in Occidental scholarly
thought. While this is only alluded to occasionally, Said himself seems to regard Japan
as part of this paradigm of the ‘Orient’, in Culture and Imperialism he states that: ‘the
relationship between America and its Pacific or Far-Eastern interlocutors--China, Japan,
Korea, Indochina--is informed by racial prejudice’25. The grave irony being that despite
Western fascination with the mysticism and spirituality of the Orient as a way of
determining the West as ‘quintessentially modern’26, Meiji Japan, as Minear states: ‘held
no special religious appeal and posed no special religious threat’27. Arguably such a
sentiment is appropriate, and using the example of Weber one can deduce the
causation of Chamberlain’s omission of the religious, ritualistic aspect of the new
‘religion’. The sociologist, philosopher and political economist was writing around the
same time as Chamberlain, and his conclusions on religion will have no doubt impacted
all academic spheres. He conducted in-depth studies of Ancient Judaism, Christianity,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism and examines how religion stimulates
social change. His work ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’, for instance,
25
Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (London: Vintage, 1994) p.350.
26
Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and the Mystic East (New York:
Taylor & Francis, 1999) p.147.
27

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explores the role of Protestantism in giving rise to capitalism. However, while his
comprehensive study of the ‘great’ world religions is commendable, the lack of a body of
work on Shintō and its role in social change causes some alarm. The fact that critical
occidental thought even in the late-Meiji period did not deem Shintō as one of the great
religions of the world is perhaps why little attention is paid to the religious, shrine aspect
of the cult; this is further supported by Said in ‘Orientalism’:
‘...the expansion of the Orient further east geographically and further back temporally
loosened, even dissolved, the Biblical framework considerably. Reference points were
no longer Christianity and Judaism... but India, China, Japan, and Sumer, Buddhism,
Sanskrit, Zoroastrianism, and Manu.’28
Said is simply stating that as the Western conception of the Orient reached further east,
‘reference points’ altered accordingly, and new religions such as Buddhism and
Zoroastrianism took to the fore. Shintō, in both Weber and Said’s examination, is not
deemed worthy of such. Whether it be due to Shintō’s lack of a sacred doctrine, or its
lengthy association with Buddhism until the 1868 shinbutsu bunri (Separation of the
Kami and Buddha) resulting in misconceptions or lack of interest, it is clear that Shintō
did not fit into European models of religion. Even Satow unwittingly comments on the
issue in his private letter to fellow orientalist Frederick V. Dickins in which he mentions
28
Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (Penguin History), 5th edn (New
York: Penguin Books, 1995) p.120

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he has contacted someone who possessed ‘original’ ideas about the myths of Shintau,
who ‘explains in a way that just suits the European sense’29.
However, was there not some accuracy in Chamberlain’s omission? ‘The Invention of a
New Religion’, written in 1912, arguably did not see Shrine Shintō in its complete form.
Figure 2.1: Total National Shrines in Japan 1898
29
Ian C. Ruxton, and Ernest Mason Satow, Sir Ernest Satow’s Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V
Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist from 1870 to 1918 (United States: Lulu.com,
2008) p.122

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Figure 2.2: Total National Shrines in Japan 1916
As the above figures demonstrate, Shrine construction was not as enthusiastic in the
Meiji period as it was in the Taisho, Showa periods. Between 1898 and 1916, only 8
prefectures possessed any sort of shrine gain in this period30 and it is remarkable that
more were not constructed, given the importance of shrines in disseminating public
interest in imperialism and expansionism. It is all the more remarkable given that in
30
Christopher M. Todd, "Mapping The Gods: A Geographic Analysis Of The Effects Of The Shrine
Merger Policy On Japanese Sacred Space" (unpublished Master of Arts, West Virginia University, 2007)
p.52.

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1900 a dedicated office for Shrine affairs, the Jingjakyoku, was assembled. Yet the Meiji
oligarchy only granted one high level official, the other ten members were of low rank31,
and as Breen remarks, the government was clearly ‘not that enthusiastic’32 on the issue
of shrines.
Chamberlain himself appropriately comments on Shintō as having ‘fallen into discredit’33
and this is true of the shrine system in the early period around the Meiji Restoration.
Hardacre estimates that at this time there were 74,642 shrines and 87,558 temples,
adding that the ‘vast majority of shrines were small and lacked full-time priests’34;
indeed the poor state of shrines was due in no small part to the popularity of Buddhism,
especially within the demographic of the peasantry. Chamberlain alludes to this in ‘The
Invention of a New Religion’ stating that the ‘common people’ clung to the Buddhist faith
of their ancestors35, and Buddhists more often than not conducted popular festivals and
burials36. However, the shinbutsu bunri, the Separation of Buddhas and Kami, altered
this considerably, transforming sacred spaces that had been an amalgamation of
Buddhist and Shintō rites into ‘facilities for Shrine Shintō’37, providing a platform for
shrine system to become a key component of State Shintō.
31
John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, Shintō In History: Ways Of The Kami, 1st edn (New York: Routledge,
2000) p.382
32
Ibid.
33
Basil H. Chamberlain, The Invention of a New Religion (Tokyo: Imperial University of Tokyo, 1912) p.5.
34
an_tab_contents> [accessed 4 January 2016] p.31
35
Basil H. Chamberlain, The Invention of a New Religion (Tokyo: Imperial University of Tokyo, 1912) p.13
36
Ibid., p.5
37
Shimazono Susumu and Regan E. Murphy, 'State Shintō in the Lives of the People: The Establishment
of Emperor Worship, Modern Nationalism, and Shrine Shintō in Late Meiji', Japanese Journal of Religious

Freddie Ayles
18
However, as Hardacre laments: ‘the greatest reason for Shintō’s passivity was
underdeveloped organizational structure’38, and the restructuring of the shrine system of
‘State Shintō’ would be a catalyst in promulgating nationalist, imperialist sentiment into
not only the far reaches of Japan itself, but penetrating the colonies it possessed, too.
Undeniably, as Japan expanded its territory, shrines expanded their influence
accordingly; Picken argues that it was ‘necessary for the Japanese kami to descend to
those lands under Japanese rule’39 and Shrines were indeed constructed with patriotic
enthusiasm. Seemingly synonymous with expansionism, among the major shrines
erected in the colonies were: Taiwan Shrine (1900), Karafuto Shrine (1910) and Chosen
(Korea) Shrine (1919). Indeed these shrines in particular were given the designation of
Kampei Taisha, or ‘imperial shrine of major grade; coupled with the fact that Taiwan and
Chosen shrines were later classed as jinju instead of jinga, suggesting that Shrine
Shintō prospered in the colonies in the late-Meiji period as it did in Japan. Certainly, on
the surface, it would appear so; but as Chamberlain laments, ‘the new legend was
enforced wherever feasible’40. While it must be noted that Chamberlain certainly
possessed a somewhat eurocentric view of Shintō as a ‘primitive nature cult... taken out
of its cupboard and dusted’41, this was a view not uncommon at the time. Aston, another
Western expert on Japan, for instance labelled Shintō ‘rudimentary’ and ‘the least
Studies, 36.1, (2009), 93-124, in<http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233855?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>
[accessed 16 December 2015] p.112
38
an_tab_contents> [accessed 4 January 2016] p.31
39
Stuart Picken, Sourcebook in Shintō: Selected Documents (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004) p.111.
40
41
Ibid., p.5.

Freddie Ayles
19
developed of religions’ in comparison to ‘great’ religions of the world42. Nevertheless,
Chamberlain’s view that the ideals of Shintō; emperor reverence being foremost
amongst these, were enforced rather than readily accepted at shrines is perhaps
appropriate.
This notion is perhaps most apt in the shrine system in the colonies of the Empire of
Japan, and none more so than in Korea, and although this issue is traditionally viewed
as a post-1912 phenomenon, it must be briefly visited in order to assess the influence of
overseas shrines.
As Kim asserts, with Japan expanding its empire in the late-Meiji period, the loyalty of
the Korean populace became ‘more urgent than ever before’43. Yet refusal to worship at
shrines such as Chosen by Korean Christians became a major issue in the interwar
period and in 1936 the Japanese head of the Home Office in a Korean province issued
a statement requiring obeisance at shrines44. While the Catholic and Methodist
churches compromised with such requirements, others, most notably the Presbyterian
church did not, emphasising that ‘Shrine Shintō’ in the colonies was not as prosperous
as it was in the motherland.
Somewhat refuting Chamberlain’s claim that the new religion was ‘enforced’, Kitasawa,
a contemporary Japanese intellectual and apparent Shintōist, reinforces the notion that
42
W. G. Aston, Shintō: The Way of the Gods (Tokyo: Logos, 1968) p.1.
43 Sung-Gun Kim, 'The Shintō Shrine Issue in Korean Christianity under Japanese Colonialism +
Nationalistic ideology during World-War-II (1931-1945)', Journal of Church and State, 39.3, (1997), 503-
521, in <https://jcs-oxfordjournals-org.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/content/39/3/503.full.pdf+html> [accessed 2
May 2016] p.503.
44 Daniel C. Holtom, Modern Japan and Shintō Nationalism: A Study of Present-Day Trends in Japanese
Religions (New York: Paragon, 1943) p.167.

Freddie Ayles
20
shrines were a means of propagating imperialist sentiment. He mentions that at Shokon
shrine in Tokyo, ‘great paper rolls are deposited, which bear the names of the Japanese
soldiers who were killed in war’45, and those that died are venerated twice a year
through imperial and military visitations. Certainly the new, constructed ‘Shintō’ was
becoming more popular amongst Japanese as a way of honouring ancestors. Although
it is estimated that confraternity membership by the end of the Edo period amounted
‘between 80 and 90 per cent of the nation’46, this was before the shinbutsu bunri, the
order for the separation of Buddhism from Shintō.
Indeed Buddhism was still held in high regard amongst the peasantry, who according to
Chamberlain at the time: ‘occupy themselves little with new thoughts, clinging rather to
the Buddhist beliefs of their forefathers’47. Chamberlain here alludes to the fact that
there still remained a large demographic that lacked the devotion in the emperor-system
‘religion’ of Shintō and instead favoured other faiths. Gluck certainly presents a similar
outlook, asserting that although the State Shintō ideology of loyalty to the emperor and
reverence for the imperial ancestors was ‘common enough in élite opinion...was not part
of the ethos of all of the people’48.
45 Shinjiro Kitasawa, 'Shintōism and the Japanese Nation', The Sewanee Review, 23.4, (1915), 479-483,
in<http://www.jstor.org.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/stable/27532848?seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents>
46
an_tab_contents> [accessed 4 January 2016] p.34.
47
Basil H. Chamberlain, The Invention of a New Religion (Tokyo: Imperial University of Tokyo, 1912)
p.13.
48
Carol Gluck, Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton

Freddie Ayles
21
Western scholarly oversight in terms of ‘Shrine Shintō’ is one that requires debate; while
contemporaries and historians have narrowed their attentions on the matter to the
interwar and pre-war period, more attention should be paid to the Meiji period, as it is in
this era that the ruling class planted the seeds of State Shintō through the shrine
system.
Chapter 2: Shintō in education
The education and promulgation of State Shintōist ideals such as ‘Mikado-worship49
were indeed objectives of the new Meiji government; the period 1889-1905 in particular
became synonymous with the completion of these objectives. This chapter will look to
scrutinize the emphasis in ‘The Invention of a New Religion’ on education as a means of
generating an expansionist and imperialist philosophy, and the Shintō aspects
incorporated into this trend. Chamberlain’s debunkment of Shintō as mere ‘invention’50
and the stress put on the falsity of the new ‘religion’ will be further linked to later
literature which identified Shintō with the concept of ‘invention of tradition’, pioneered by
Hobsbawm51.
Murakami personally stamps this period as “the period of the completion of doctrine”52,
and while critics have lamented that his perception of State Shintō ‘greatly
49
50
p.20.
51
Eric J. Hobsbawm, Terence O. Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983)
52
Shigeyoshi, Murakami, Kokka Shintō (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1970) p.78-80.

Freddie Ayles
22
overestimates the power and influence of Shintō priests’53 and neglects the people’s
participation in Shintō favor of an emphasis on ideological totalitarianism, his divisions
of the stages of the ‘State Shintō’ system are conclusive. In particular “the period of the
completion of doctrine” is apt as during the period two major doctrines of the Meiji
period, the Meiji Constitution and the Imperial Rescript on Education, were formed, with
the latter in particular shaping the education of the Japanese citizenry for what Skya
calls ‘radical Shintō ultra-nationalism’54.
‘But the schools are the great strongholds of the new propaganda’55; Chamberlain is
somewhat unsubtle in his assessment of State Shintō education. Like Murakami, he
focuses on the oppressive side of ‘the new religion’56 as a way of indoctrinating a new
generation and tightening the spiritual hold the Imperial House has over its citizenry.
And yet, even at the time of Chamberlain’s ‘The Invention of a New Religion’ which
incidentally coincided with the same year as the death of Emperor Meiji (1912), he
mentions that State Shintō still lacked a sacred document57. A similar outlook was
presented, this time by one of the pioneers of modernizing Japan, Fukuzawa Yukichi,
who agreed that ‘Shintō has not yet established a body of doctrine’.58 Indeed this a
matter to refute, and the fact that Yukichi wrote ‘An Outline of a Theory of Civilization’ in
53
[accessed 16 December 2015] p.96.
54
Skya, Walter A., Japan's Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2009)
55
56
Ibid., p.14.
57
Ibid.
58
Fukuzawa Yukichi, An Outline of a Theory of Civilization, trans. by David A. Dilworth and G. Cameron
Hurst (Tokyo: Sophia University, 1973) p.195.

Freddie Ayles
23
1875, almost forty years before Chamberlain means that he will have not considered the
Imperial Rescript on Education (1890) as such a doctrine.
Historiography has somewhat refuted Chamberlain’s claim; Susumu believes that ‘the
doctrine of State Shintō was formulated definitively’59 with its promulgation, while others
have stated that such ‘Rescripts’ of this period ‘functioned as sacred writings’60. An
inspection of the Rescript seemingly proves such assumptions.
Without doubt the Rescript was not solely a Shintō doctrine, it was an amalgamation of
different popular ideologies. Gluck supports this claim, asserting that the Rescript’s
instructions of filial piety, affection, harmony, modesty and benevolence borrowed
heavily from Confucianism61, while Brooker goes further to claim that this imitation was
‘without acknowledgment’62, giving the impression that the Imperial Rescript on
Education was perhaps a more Confucian doctrine, with an emphasis more on filiality
rather than the State Shintō ideologies of Mikado-worship and spiritual mobilization, for
instance. Although more subtle than the 1870 Imperial Rescript on the Dissemination of
the Great Teaching, which referred to the ‘ancestral kami’63 as having established the
nation and anointed a line of imperial succession, legitimizing the authority of the Meiji
Emperor through Shintō, the Imperial Rescript on Education indeed possessed aspects
59
[accessed 16 December 2015] p.95.
60
Comp, Theodore de Bary, and Carol Gluck, Sources of Japanese Tradition, Abridged: Part 2: 1868 to
2000, ed. by Wm. Theodore de Bary, 2nd edn (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) p.121.
61
Carol Gluck, Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
62
Paul Brooker, The Faces of Fraternalism: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1991)
63
Stuart Picken, Sourcebook in Shintō: Selected Documents (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004) p.92.

Freddie Ayles
24
of the new State Shintō ideology; not least the consistent acknowledgment to ‘our
imperial ancestors’64. While it is clear there is a strong Confucian core to the doctrine,
one would refute the notion that it was not a ‘sacred’ Shintō doctrine as Chamberlain
alludes to. While he recognises that this ‘lacuna’65 of a sacred text may in future be filled
by the Imperial Rescript, his opinion remains clear.
Yet one must refute his perception on the matter; the doctrine, along with others of a
similar nature such as the Imperial Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors, were
ceremoniously read before assemblies, or in the case of the latter before ‘military
personnel standing with bowed heads receiving the words as divine’66. As the
aforementioned quote articulates, it was labelled a ‘rescript’ as it functioned as a higher
authority than normal law, backed up by ominous sacred language derived from a divine
force.
We must deviate slightly from the State Shintō education anchored in schools to that of
religious preaching and sermons in order to provide a broader assessment of the
acceptance of Shintō and its role in expansionism and imperialism. At one point in ‘The
Invention of a New Religion’, Chamberlain introduces a passage by Rev. Dr Ebina, one
of the leaders of the Protestant pastorate in Japan; notably, as Skya remarks, he was a
true believer in ‘the development of democracy, the realization of true internationalism,
64
2000, ed. by Wm. Theodore de Bary, 2nd edn (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) pp. 108-109.
65
p.14.
66

Freddie Ayles
25
the liberation of the individual and human dignity in society’67. Yet this particular
discussion is arguably devoid of the liberal theories Skya claims he valued.
He starts by qualifying that the State Shintō paradigm of ancestor-worship is not part of
Christian teaching, then stating:
‘it (Christianity) is not opposed to the notion that, when the Japanese Empire was
founded, its early rulers were in communication with the Great Spirit that rules the
universe. Christians, according to this theory, without doing violence to their creed, may
acknowledge that the Japanese nation has a divine origin. It is only when we realise
that the Imperial Ancestors were in close communion with God (or the Gods), that we
understand how sacred is the country in which we live.’68
It could be argued that Rev. Dr. Ebina is an example of how State Shintō concepts such
as kami and Mikado-worship penetrated all religious and academic spheres;
Chamberlain too assumes such, lamenting that if ‘so-called Christians’ like Ebina can
contradict their faith as he does in the aforementioned text, then the rest ‘must be
devout Emperor-worshippers and Japan-worshippers’69, indicating the new emperor
ideology was observed no matter the demographic.
Yet the sober fact is that such a document would never have been allowed to print,
despite the article in the Constitution which alluded to ‘freedom of religion’, if it didn’t
adhere to and promote Mikado-worship. Article XXVIII of the Meiji Constitution stated
67
Skya, Walter A., Japan's Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism (Durham: Duke
68
p.12.
69
Ibid., p.13.

Freddie Ayles
26
that freedom of religion was granted ‘within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and
not antagonistic to their duties as subjects’70 and any counter-religious body of work,
especially Christian, would no doubt have to allude to its recognition of Japan-worship
and Mikado-worship, in order to not be deemed unpatriotic or treasonous.
Yet Chamberlain believes that Ebina’s seeming Shintōism and rejection of his own faith
is authentic, a clear indication as to the spiritual hold of the emperor ideology over the
populace: ‘how thoroughly the nation must be saturated by the doctrines under
discussion for such amazing utterances to be possible’71. Irokawa, having taken a semi-
Marxist approach to his history of the ‘emperor system’, concurs with Chamberlain’s
view. He similarly sees State Shintō as a ‘spiritual structure’, which manipulated the
people as it ‘became part of the way in which they saw the world’72. While it should be
noted that Irokawa’s approach of ‘history from below’ will have no doubt stressed élite
totalitarianism and the oppression of the proletariat class, his depiction of a spiritual
structure is an accurate way of describing the hold of the kami-emperor over his
subordinate citizenry.
Chamberlain’s emphasis on the injustice of Meiji education as a means of controlling
the spirituality of Japan through Shintō is somewhat complex. His previous works on
Japan, demonstrate a typically orientalist, eurocentric view of Japan; in ‘Things
70
71
p.13.
72
Daikichi Irokawa, ‘The Emperor System as a Spiritual Structure.’ in The Culture of the Meiji Period, ed.
and trans. Marius B. Jansen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985) p.245.

Freddie Ayles
27
Japanese’, he refers to “us Westerns”, “our European world of thought, of enterprise, of
gigantic scientific achievement”73, while in a letter to Lafcadio Hearn he describes the
Japanese as ‘far inferior to the European race’74. Yet in ‘The Invention of a New
Religion’ these orientalist notions are not as apparent; he views State Shintō as an
illusion, as ‘propaganda’, and there appears genuine concern for the Japanese
populace. The rationale behind this does not lie in orientalist or imperialist perspectives
of Japan as ‘other’, but in the new liberalism of Victorian Britain.
The foreign policy of the British Empire did not solely consist of pure imperialism or of
the illusive ‘liberal imperialism’. Advances were made in the name of liberty and William
Gladstone was one of the pioneers of such a movement that Chamberlain appears to
recognise. His speech at Dalkeith in 1879 is surely an indication of a more
compassionate, humanitarian approach to the ‘savages’ and ‘other’ that were the
countries of the Orient: ‘remember the rights of the savage... the sanctity of life in the hill
villages of Afghanistan, among the winter snows, is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty
God as can be your own’75. As he suggests, the lives of those in the Orient was
‘inviolable’ and the importance of freedom in Gladstone’s mentality76 demonstrates that
Britain’s worldview was changing. While Chamberlain is not without his critics, who
believe that he has far too long been one of the main authorities on Japan of the Meiji
73
74
Basil H. Chamberlain to Lafcadio Hearn, 4 August 1891, cited in Letters, p.157.
75
John Morley, The Life of WIlliam Ewart Gladstone (London: Macmillan, 1903) p.595.
76
Graham D. Goodlad, British Foreign and Imperial Policy, 1865-1919 (London: Routledge, 2000) p.20

Freddie Ayles
28
period77, in this particular work he debunks ‘Mikado-worship’ and ‘Japan-worship’ as
modern myths invented by the ruling class in a liberal and almost marxist fashion. As he
even states: ‘We modern Westerners love individual liberty’78, and while there still exists
even in this particular excerpt a sense of euro-centrism, of Europe as superior, he still
indicates that individual liberty did not exist under this State Shintō system.
He laments that Meiji education is moulded in order to fit the imperialistic model of State
Shintō, everything is focussed on imperialism79 and certainly historiography is of a
similar opinion. Spinks states that history books and courses in schools and university
have ‘a strong nationalistic flavour’80 and others have deviated as far as the present day
to demonstrate that State Shintō-like nationalism is still instilled in the education system.
Fukase-Indergaard for instance refers to how in Tokyo schools, the names of teachers
who fail to sing the kimigayo are noted down, while in Fukuoka prefecture, ‘they keep
track of how loud the students sing the anthem’81.
When confronted with the issue of Shintō in the Meiji education system, Chamberlain
stresses the despotism of government and the invention of tradition as mechanisms in
national mobilization; seemingly quite damning of the intentional inaccuracy of the
77
78
p.21.
79
Ibid., p.7
80
Charles N. Spinks, 'Indoctrination and Re-Education of Japan's Youth', Pacific Affairs, 17.1, (1944), 56-
70,
in<http://www.jstor.org.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/stable/2751997?sid=primo&origin=crossref&seq=1#page_s
can_tab_contents> [accessed 3 May 2016] p.61.
81
Fumiko Fukase-Indergaard and Indergaard, Michael, ‘Religious Nationalism and the Making of the
Modern Japanese State’, Theory and Society, 37.1, (2008), 343-374, in
<http://www.jstor.org.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/stable/40211042?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>
[accessed 3 February 2016] p.343

Freddie Ayles
29
curriculum. For instance, he states that the new Shintōist, loyalist and imperialist
generation of the late Meiji-era ‘is growing up which does not so much as suspect that
its cherished beliefs are inventions of yesterday’82, and Hobsbawm’s political theory of
the ‘invention of tradition’ is particularly relevant here. He makes the point that traditions
which claim to be old are more often than not ‘quite recent in origin’83, or merely
fabricated; and this theory can be observed in the Imperial Rescript on Education.
While it claims the commands of the rescript are ‘infallible for all ages’84, its exhortation
to ‘always respect the constitution and observe the laws’ reveals only the tip of the
iceberg of deceit; the constitution would only date back as far as the 1889 Promulgation
of a Constitution.
Chamberlain, as the title of this work suggests, stresses State Shintō as ‘invention’;
while other Western authorities of the time seem to neglect this notion. Aston, for
instance, disagrees in that ‘the official cult of the present day is substantially the “Pure
Shintō” of Motoori and Hirata’85. Yet Chamberlain’s depiction of the invention of State
Shintō is one that historiography agrees as the earliest criticism of the emperor-system
by a foreigner.
82
Ibid., p.14.
83
Eric J. Hobsbawm, Terence O. Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983) p.1.
84
2000, ed. by Wm. Theodore de Bary, 2nd edn (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) p. 109.
85
W. G. Aston, Shintō: The Way of the Gods (Tokyo: Logos, 1968) p.376.

Freddie Ayles
30
Chapter 3: The ‘emperor-system’, nationalism and the anomaly of Lafcadio
Hearn
Figure 4: The Emperor System
One of the most notable fruits of State Shintō is certainly what historians have branded
the ‘emperor-system’86, or alternatively ‘emperor-ideology’. The above figure is a
86
and trans. Marius B. Jansen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985) p.245

Freddie Ayles
31
hierarchical diagram of this system, and represents a paradigm that historians such as
Skya and Irokawa have stressed as oppressive and detrimental to individualism, and
the spirit of independence that contemporary liberals such as Fukuzawa Yukichi
endeavored to propagate87, ultimately fell victim to what Irokawa calls the ‘spiritual
structure’88 of Japan. Contemporary western focus on this ideology certainly points out
polarized perspectives, and this chapter will deviate slightly from the focus of
Chamberlain to that of the anomaly of Lafcadio Hearn as to explore his apparent
adoption of such a philosophy. Chamberlain’s work will provide useful comparative
insight however, and this final chapter will look to qualify these European perspectives
on the relationship between nationalistic emperor-worship and the rise of imperialism
and expansionism in Japan.
Indeed Lafcadio Hearn is one of these Western contemporaries to have a special
relationship with Basil Hall Chamberlain; it was through the latter’s help that Hearn
gained a teaching position upon his arrival in 1890 at the Shimane Prefectural Common
Middle School and Normal School in Matsue. Yet Hearn’s approach to the study of
Japan and in particular Shintō differs greatly from Chamberlain, who was ‘always trying
to observe Japan from a cosmopolitan point of view’89, and his detachment from
Shintōism, or ‘Mikado-worship’, is obvious.
87
Fukuzawa Yukichi, “Datsu-a Ron” (On Saying Good-bye to Asia), reprinted in Takeuchi Yoshimi, ed.,
Azia Shugi (Asianism) Gendai Nihon Shisō Taikei (Great Compilation of Modern Japanese Thought), vol.
8 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1963), pp. 38-40
88
89
Guo, Nanyan, 'Interpreting Japan's Interpretors: The Problem of Lafcadio Hearn', New Zealand Journal

Freddie Ayles
32
Hearns position, however, is more of a paradox. His legacy in Japan as a foreign-native
is unrivalled; some regard him as the greatest interpreter of this period due to ‘deeper
and more insightful’90 understanding of Japanese culture, and to the Japanese ‘Hearn
created a picture of Japan which seemed much more wonderful than many Japanese
could have possibly seen or imagined’91. Indeed his love for Japan was so great that he
married a Japanese and adopted a Japanese name: Koizumi Yakumo, prompting
criticism from later scholars who described him as ‘the Western novelist who loved
Japan and hated the West’92. Certainly his relationship with Shintō validates these
claims.
The Japanese populace became firmly indoctrinated into State Shintō over the period of
the reign of the Meiji Emperor through reverence for the kami emperor which was called
for routinely on a day-to-day basis. Whether it was the young student in school reciting
the Imperial Rescript on Education and bowing reverently at the emperor’s image, the
pilgrim honouring lost ancestors and the Mikado at Yasukuni Shrine, or the soldier
offering his life to Emperor Meiji in battle. Yet, Mikado-worship was not exclusive to the
Japanese citizenry; Lafcadio Hearn became known as a foreigner who adapted to and
truly loved ‘Shintōism’ and the emperor-system that derived from it93. The orientalist,
90
91
Ibid., p.107.
92
Yoshiaki, Fukuma, 'Representations of "the West,""Japan," and "the Periphery" in the Discourse of
Lafcadio Hearn Studies. (Report)', International Journal of Japanese Sociology, 20.1, (2011), 89-106,
in<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/doi/10.1111/j.1475-6781.2010.01129.x/epdf>
93

Freddie Ayles
33
eurocentric notions of Western scholarly thought at the turn of the 20th century did not
apply to him, and his days as a school teacher illustrate his loyalty to the emperor.
This particular excerpt from his essay ‘From the Diary of an English Teacher’ is a
particularly conspicuous example of his perceived involvement in State Shintō:
‘I think it is your highest social duty to honor your Emperor, to obey his laws, and to be
ready to give your blood whenever he may require it of you for the sake of Japan. I think
it is your duty to respect the gods of your fathers, the religion of your country - even if
you yourself cannot believe all that others believe’94
It must be noted, first and foremost, that although Hearn advocated emperor-worship,
he still held value for the Western concepts of individualism and liberalism. He
respected students like Adzukizawa whom he often mentions in ‘Glimpses of Unfamiliar
Japan’, who didn’t care about the opinion of his fellow students as long as ‘he thinks he
is right’95. Furthermore, his encouragement of emperor reverence and State Shintō
when in the school environment may have been for the sake of his own career. Mori
Arinori, for instance, the Minister of Education in years 1886-1889, was assassinated by
an ultranationalist in 1889 for alleged unpatriotic behaviour in not following State Shintō
‘protocol’ upon a visit to Ise Jingu two years earlier96, while Guo recalls of a Japanese
teacher, Okumura Teijiro, being fired for telling students they ‘should not care about the
94
Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Rptd, 1894) p.471.
95
Ibid., p.99.
96
Patrick Smith, Japan: A Reinterpretation (New York: Pantheon, 1997) pp.87-88

Freddie Ayles
34
country’97. Hearn’s apparent veneration for the emperor and country could have indeed
been a facade to avoid internal pressures and the risk of unemployment; yet a brief
analysis of his works disproves such notions.
One instance in which he demonstrates that State Shintō influenced even Occidental
intellectuals to glorify nationalism, and in turn imperialism, would be in his private
correspondence to Basil Hall Chamberlain dated 11 October 1893, where one would
imagine no such institutional pressure would be apparent in his private writing. He
bemoans the ‘ignorant, blind indifference of the educational powers’98 in promoting
nationalism and emperor reverence. Certainly, as has been deliberated in the second
chapter, the role of education in promoting the emperor-system was anything but
indifferent; the semi-worship of the emperor’s divine word and image upon the
ceremonious reading of the Imperial Rescript on Education on a daily basis being but
one of the myriad of nationalistic devices imposed by the Meiji government.
The rationale behind Hearn’s love of Shintō is one that is difficult to define. The
Japanese were in no certain terms more susceptible to such indoctrination, having
‘never been invaded or dominated by a foreign power’99, furthered by centuries of
Confucianist and Buddhist moral codes particularly on filial piety and loyalty to one’s
superior rendering them a subservient society; as Irokawa perfectly illustrates, it was
‘easy for the Japanese people to subscribe to the illusion of an imperial line unbroken
97
98
Lafcadio Hearn, Japanese Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (London: Forgotten Books, 2013) p.184.
99
and trans. Marius B. Jansen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985) p.249.

Freddie Ayles
35
for ages eternal’100. Yet for a ‘Western’ to seemingly adopt such an ideology is
contradictory to the ‘privilege, elitism, and imperial racism’101 described by McAdams as
having existed within Western scholarly thought at the time. However, Western
perceptions of Japan were changing. The 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle exhibited
and introduced Japanese aesthetics, with Japanese styles and art becoming
fashionable in Western countries, especially among the middle-class who were ‘buying
kimonos and fans from Liberty’s’102, while the seemingly simple and primitive lives lived
by the Japanese were viewed with ‘escapist longing’103 by those residing in the
industrialized West. Due to attempts to ‘westernize’ Japan through research such as the
Iwakura Mission of 1871, Western perception of Japan as ‘other’ or of the Orient was,
as Jackson states, ‘complex’104. This culminated in the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Naval
Alliance, which rendered Japan and Britain allies and ensured assistance if one party
goes to war with more than one other nation. As Jackson states, British and Western
scholarly thought ‘found it increasingly difficult to define itself in contrast to the ‘other’
that was Japan, because Japan was becoming increasingly like Britain’105. Indeed the
‘Western-style imperialism’106 it practiced over its neighbouring colonies of Taiwan,
100
Ibid., p.249.
101
Elizabeth McAdams, 'Isabella Bird and Japonisme Travel Writing: Common Interests', English
Literature in Transition, 57.4, (2014), 480-496, in <https://muse-jhu-
edu.plymouth.idm.oclc.org/article/546616> [accessed 1 May 2016]
102
Anna Jackson, 'Imagining Japan: The Victorian perception and Acquisition of Japanese Culture',
Journal of Design History, 5.4, (1992), 245-256,
103
Ibid., p.250.
104
Ibid., p.245.
105
Ibid., 251.
106
Daisuke Nishihara, 'Said, Orientalism, and Japan', Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, 1.25, (2005),
241-253,
[accessed 29 April 2016] p.245.

Freddie Ayles
36
Korea and China, and the adoption of Western dress in Japan’s middle-class107 prove
such notions. Though arguably it was seemingly the primitive, transparency of
Japanese culture and life, which drove Hearn to Shintōism, not its new, modern,
Western-like imitation. Hearn was ‘fascinated’ by the Shintō legends and myths, as well
as the ritualistic, religious side of the cult108, and as a consequence, confused it with the
State Shintō which was far different to its kami and nature-worshipping sister cult.
Unlike Chamberlain, Hearn could not read Japanese109, and his knowledge of the
culture of Japan derived from the people surrounding him, whether it be his wife,
colleagues, or students, he was strongly influenced by their subservience to divine
authority. The East, according to Jackson, ‘was constructed as something static and
unchanging’110 and his love for Japan can be seen in this quote.
Hearn’s exhortation to offer one’s blood to the emperor was one common enough
amongst Japanese intellectuals too; Shinjiro Kitasawa was one who shared Hearn’s
apparent Shintōism. He concluded that every Japanese was a ‘Shintōist’ in their ‘pious’
reverence of ancestors and love for emperor and country111, while stating that the
victory of the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War was down to ‘earnest loyalty to the
107
108
Guo, Nanyan, 'Interpreting Japan's Interpretors: The Problem of Lafcadio Hearn', New Zealand
Journal of Asian Studies, 3.2, (2001), 106-118, in <http://www.nzasia.org.nz/downloads/NZJAS-
Dec01/Guo.pdf> [accessed 1 May 2016] p.106.
109
Ibid., p.110
110
111
Shinjiro Kitasawa, 'Shintōism and the Japanese Nation', The Sewanee Review, 23.4, (1915), 479-483,

Freddie Ayles
37
emperor and our intense love for the fatherland’112. This nationalism certainly derives
from the State Shintō doctrines of the Imperial Rescript on Education and the Meiji
Constitution; the exhortation to ‘offer yourselves courageously to the state’113 in the
former, while Article XX of the Constitution declared Japanese ‘amenable to service in
the army or the navy’114. While the Shintōism of the Imperial Rescript has already been
debated, attention should be turned to the Meiji Constitution as to define it as a State
Shintō doctrine, as it was indeed a catalyst in forming an imperialist and expansionist
philosophy. Some historians, most notably Picken, have argued that the Meiji
Constitution contains ‘only two references to Shintō, both indirect’, indicating that the
new state religion was not a readily accepted ideology at the time of its promulgation;
one must refute these claims. Although the Constitution’s concession of religious
freedom in Article XXVIII115 may render it too progressive to be deemed as such,
Susumu disagrees, claiming that under the Constitution, State Shintō became a ‘supra-
religious national ritual system’116. Irokawa follows a similar perspective, arguing that
the Meiji Constitution firmly established tennosei117
(the emperor-system). Indeed Article
III, which alludes to the ‘sacred and inviolable’118 nature of the emperor is one which
112
Ibid., pp.482-483.
113
2000, ed. by Wm. Theodore de Bary, 2nd edn (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) p. 109.
114
Ito Hirobumi, Commentaries on the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, trans. Miyoji Ito (Tokyo:
Igirisu-horitsu gakkō, 1889) p.42.
115
Ibid., p.58
116
Shimazono Susumu and Regan E. Murphy, 'State Shintō in the Lives of the People: The
Establishment of Emperor Worship, Modern Nationalism, and Shrine Shintō in Late Meiji', Japanese
Journal of Religious Studies, 36.1, (2009), 93-124,
in<http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233855?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents> [accessed 16 December
2015] p.95.
117
118
Ito Hirobumi, Commentaries on the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, trans. Miyoji Ito (Tokyo: Igirisu-
horitsu gakkō, 1889) p.6.

Freddie Ayles
38
demonstrates the importance of Shintō in not just legitimizing the Meiji rule, but also as
a means of spiritual mobilization:
‘The sacred Throne was established at the time when the heavens and the earth
became separated. The Emperor is Heaven-descended, divine and sacred; He is
preeminent above all his subjects. He must be reverenced and is inviolable...’119
Certainly the creation theory of this article can be linked to the Shintō myth of creation in
the sacred texts of the Kojiki (712) and the Nihon Shoki (720) and once more
demonstrates the ‘invention of tradition’ as a means of spiritual authority over the
Japanese people, while the superiority of the emperor and his divinity are more obvious
‘State Shintō’ traits.
Hearn became a State Shintō nationalist as a result of such texts, and is proof that
State Shintō had the capability to influence even occidental intellectuals who had not
the subject of oppression and indoctrination from youth. His expansionist, imperialist
sentiments that derive from such an ideology have often been documented, not least by
Chamberlain, who recalls his pupil looking forward to the day when ‘the armies of the
Son of Heaven shall be summoned against Russia’120; critics have lamented that such
119
Ibid., p.7.
120
Basil H. Chamberlain, Things Japanese (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd, Rptd, 1939)
p.81.

Freddie Ayles
39
dialogue from Hearn is a demonstration that he ‘had himself been reduced to the same
state of mind that he observed in his students’ compositions’121.
Chamberlain, however, when confronted with the issue of the nationalism derived from
State Shintō, forms a more typically detached view. His response to Hearn’s letter
bemoaning the lack of nationalist incentive in Meiji education is a clear indication of his
standing as primarily an orientalist scholar:
‘What of the new songs & poems published by the authorities for the use of soldiers &
students…? What of the prostration at New Year before the Emperor’s picture? What of
the students’ military drill? What of the creation of such festivals as the Emperor’s
birthday, the late Emperor’s birthday, the late Emperor’s anniversary… To my mind
there is far too much jingo patriotism in this country.’122
Said’s anti-orientalist notion that ‘the more one is able to leave one’s cultural home, the
more easily is one able to judge it’123 is somewhat shown in Chamberlain’s thought
process here, especially in comparison with Lafcadio Hearn, who in contrast as a result
of adopting Japan as his ‘cultural home’, is not able to judge it objectively.
121
Guo, Nanyan, 'Interpreting Japan's Interpretors: The Problem of Lafcadio Hearn', New Zealand
Journal of Asian Studies, 3.2, (2001), 106-118, in <http://www.nzasia.org.nz/downloads/NZJAS-
Dec01/Guo.pdf> [accessed 1 May 2016] p.110.
122 Basil H. Chamberlain and Lafcadio Hearn, Letters from Basil Hall Chamberlain to Lafcadio Hearn, ed.
Kazuo Koizumi (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1936) p.108.
123 Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (Penguin History), 5th edn (New
York: Penguin Books, 1995) p.259

Freddie Ayles
40
Conclusion
This thesis has looked to explore Western perspectives on ‘State Shintō’, with a focus
on Basil Hall Chamberlain, whilst simultaneously investigating the relationship of the
ideology with the imperialist and expansionist sentiments, which brought the Empire of
Japan to war in 1941.
Indeed the analysis of and focus on Basil Hall Chamberlain has produced interesting
results. Considering that the Japanologist was working in Japan during the time in which
he published ‘The Invention of a Religion’, his unravelling of the emperor-system as
mere invention surely renders him a brave man considering native Japanese who spoke
out against such a paradigm were not as fortunate.
Overall, Chamberlain’s analysis is insightful, unlike other contemporary Western
intellectuals such as Aston, who simply sees Shintō as primitive and rudimentary
compared to the ‘great’ religions of the world. Although his omission of the importance
of Shrine Shintō is one criticism that is perhaps just, considering the importance of the
shrine system in disseminating nationalist sentiment.
Indeed it is clear that his focus is more on the ‘propaganda’ in education and how the
Meiji government invented tradition in order to not only legitimize its rule, but to mobilize
the country for all out warfare in the name of their ‘divine’ Mikado. In this respect
Chamberlain presents arguments, which at the time did not exist. His unique lack of
respect for authority is one not shared by his pupil, Lacfardio Hearn, who as has been

Freddie Ayles
41
discussed, is an anomaly in that he does not follow the contemporary conventions of
Western prejudice, orientalism and imperial racism.
Yes, Chamberlain at times follows these conventions. Certain allusions such as ‘We
modern Westerners’124 present a question of validity. Yet Aston, Bird, Chamberlain,
Satow, all formulate ideas of the Orient that are not uncommon for the time, the racial
prejudices are apparent in all of the above; still Chamberlain stands out as deriving from
a higher authority through, as Minear articulates, he is ‘justly noted for his lively style,
the acuity of his observations, and the acerbity of his attack on missionaries and on
foreigners who conclude that “Le Japanais n’est pas intelligent”’125
.
124 Basil H. Chamberlain, The Invention of a New Religion (Tokyo: Imperial University of Tokyo, 1912) p.
125 Richard H. Minear, ‘Orientalism and the Study of Japan’, review of Orientalism, by Edward W. Said,

Freddie Ayles
42
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44
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Freddie Ayles
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Theses
Todd, Christopher M., "Mapping The Gods: A Geographic Analysis Of The Effects Of
The Shrine Merger Policy On Japanese Sacred Space" (published Master of Arts, West
Virginia University, 2007)

Freddie Ayles
51
Appendix
Figure 1: ‘Persons paying tribute at the Ise Shrines 1904-1944’
Hardacre, Helen, Shintō and the State, 1868-1988 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1989) p.26
Figure 2.1: ‘Total National Shrines in Japan 1898’
Todd, Christopher M., "Mapping The Gods: A Geographic Analysis Of The Effects Of The
Shrine Merger Policy On Japanese Sacred Space" (published Master of Arts, West Virginia
University, 2007) p.48

Freddie Ayles
52
Figure 2.2: ‘Total National Shrines in Japan 1916’
Todd, Christopher M., "Mapping The Gods: A Geographic Analysis Of The Effects Of The
Shrine Merger Policy On Japanese Sacred Space" (published Master of Arts, West Virginia
University, 2007) p.50

Freddie Ayles
53
Figure 3: Walter Skya’s depiction of the ‘emperor-system’
Skya, Walter A., Japan's Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism (Durham:
Duke University Press, 2009) p.101

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