The
was a bureau of the
Meiji government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
.
It was established in 1877 to administer matters related to religion, including
shrines
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
and
temples
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
, and
Sect Shinto
Sect Shinto () refers to several independent organized Shinto groups that were excluded by law in 1882 from government-run State Shinto. These independent groups may have more developed belief systems than mainstream Shrine Shinto which focuses m ...
such as
Tenrikyo and
Kurozumikyō
Kurozumikyō (黒住教), literally "the Teachings of Kurozumi," is a Japanese new religion largely derived from Shinto roots and founded in 1846. The founder, a Shinto priest by the name of Kurozumi, is claimed to have had a Divine union with Ama ...
.
It was a bureau of the
Home Ministry.
[ 秦郁彦編『日本官僚制総合事典：1868 - 2000』 東京大学出版会、2001年。]
In April
1900
As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
(33rd year of Meiji), the bureau was divided into two bureaus, the
Bureau of Shrines and the
Bureau of Religion. Temples, Christianity and new religions were transferred to the
Bureau of Religion.
This was an official acknowledgement of
Secular Shrine Theory
Secular Shrine Theory or was a religious policy and political theory that arose in Japan during the 19th and early 20th centuries due to the separation of church and state of the Meiji Government. It was the idea that Shinto Shrines were secular ...
or the idea that
Shrine Shinto was not a religion and as a result under state control, hence the separate
Bureau of Shrines under the
Home Ministry.
See also
*
Department of Divinities
The , also known as the Department of Shinto Affairs, Department of Rites, Department of Worship, as well as Council of Divinities, was a Japanese Imperial bureaucracy established in the 8th century, as part of the ''ritsuryō'' reforms. It was fi ...
*
Ministry of Religion
*
State Shinto
was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as ...
*
Association of Shinto Shrines
The is a religious administrative organisation that oversees about 80,000 Shinto shrines in Japan. These shrines take the Ise Grand Shrine as the foundation of their belief. It is the largest Shrine Shinto organization in existence.
Description ...
References
Government agencies established in 1877
Buddhism in the Meiji period
Shinto
Home Ministry (Japan)
Religious policy in Japan
Defunct government agencies of Japan
Pages with unreviewed translations
{{State Shinto