Sect Shinto

While Sect Shinto can be traced to the late Edo period, it became more firmly established during the Meiji era following the Meiji Restoration. Its development was influenced by the religious policies of the Meiji government, and developed during a period of expanding theological discourse that involved individuals from a broad range of social classes, as opposed to intellectuals only. In 1868, the new Meiji government issued the Shinto-Buddhist Separation Order, resulting in , a philosophy advocating the abandonment of Buddhism in Japan and the restoration of the unity of ritual and government system. Following the Taikyo Proclamation, which designated Shinto as the state religion, the Great Teaching Institute was established, but it was soon reformed into the Bureau of Shinto Affairs, and later as Shinto Taikyo. During these early religious policies, the Meiji government promoted a nationalized system of Shinto education known as . However, as principles like the separation of church and state and freedom of religion grew in popularity, the ended. This led to a division in Shinto between shrines for state-run public rituals and religious groups centered on edification. Groups that met certain conditions (such as the number of followers) were officially recognized as "independent denominations". This was the beginning of the denominational Shinto Sect. This separation strengthened the efforts to establish an institution that was a more developed version of the former Shodo Shido Practice Center. Accordingly, the Meiji government established the Office of Japanese Classics Research in Tokyo, independent of the Bureau of Shinto Affairs, to organize the ideas unique to Japan. It was later succeeded by Kokugakuin University. == Establishment ==

Formation of a united government The driving force for denominational Shintoism was the separation of Shinto and Buddhism, which began in 1868 (first year of Meiji), with the revival of the Department of Divinities. This started the Shinto-Buddhist Hanzen Order, a pre-modern imperial government directive. This directive led to the formation of the unity of ritual and government, and a Shinto government was revived. At that time, official decrees abolished the hereditary system of Shinto priests, ending the jurisdiction of the Shirakawa family and Yoshida family over Shinto.During this transition, the concept of missionaries to propagate Shinto remained. In 1870 (Meiji 3), the imperial Taikyo Proclamation designated Shinto as the state religion. The Great Teaching Institute was established in 1872 (Meiji 5) as a missionary organization but was dissolved in 1875 (Meiji 8). In the same year, it was succeeded by the Bureau of Shinto Affairs, to which the originally disparate folk-belief religions belonged. Ministry of Religion, , and the Taikyo Institute In 1872, the Missionary Office was abolished and replaced by the Ministry of Religion. In April, Shinto priests and monks were assigned positions. The Ministry was later dissolved in 1877, and was abolished in 1884. The priesthood was initially divided into two geographic divisions. The eastern division was headed by Konoe Tadafusa (priest of Ise Grand Shrine) and the western division by Senge Takatomi, the grand priest of Izumo Taisha Shrine. This led to a struggle for power between the Ise and Izumo factions. On January 30, 1873, the geographic division was abolished and the two regions were combined. However, they were once again divided later, becoming a three-part system with Senge Takatomi, Koga Takemichi, and Inaba Masakuni. Later, with the addition of Yoriyasu Tanaka, the grand priest of the Ise Grand Shrine, they became a four-part system. Simultaneously, Kurozumikyō and Shinto Shusei were specially established as denominational Shinto sects, and the compartment system was abolished. In May 1873, the Ministry of Religion issued a religious ordinance, which set standards for the approval of (religious lectures or meetings). In August, the Ministry approved the Kurozumikyō, the Toho Kami (later Misogi-Kyo), the Mitake, and the Fuji Isan (later Fuso-kyo), as well as Buddhist . In 1873, the Great Teaching Institute was established—first in Kojimachi and Kioicho and later in Masukami and Shiba at Zōjō-ji—as the head temple for of a joint Shinto and Buddhist sect. The Taikyo Institute was initiated by the Buddhist side to concretize teaching by the Ministry of Religion, but it later became focused entirely on Shinto. The Buddhist side, led by Shinshū, broke away from the institute. On April 30, 1875, the Taikyo Institute was dissolved by order of the Ministry of Religion. Bureau of Shinto Affairs The Bureau of Shinto Affairs was formed in March 1875, just before the dissolution of the Taikyo Institute. It was formed by a group of Shinto shrines at Ise Grand Shrine and other shrines throughout Japan, as well as by Shinto priests and instructors belonging to private Shinto-related . The Shinto side felt that no organization corresponded to the various Buddhist sects, and on March 27, 1875 (Meiji 8), Grand High Priest Suechi Sanjonishi, Grand Priest-in-Charge Inaba Masakuni, Yoriyasu Tanaka, Hirayama Seisai, and Konosetsu Tsume jointly petitioned the Ministry of Religion for the establishment of a government office for Shinto. The next day (March 28, 1875), the Grand Priest Suechi Sanjonishi received permission to establish the Bureau of Shinto Affairs, and on April 8, he requested that the Ministry of Religion put this into action. The content of the request was that even small shrines, centered on the Imperial Shrine at Ise, should be able to cooperate for the purpose of propagating Shinto. On April 15, the Bureau was opened in the Tokyo Branch Office of the Jingu Shinchosha. Once it was prepared, bringing together the traditionally existing shrines, Shinto , and congregations following folk beliefs, various denominations were able to branch out and become independent from it. The following year, in 1876 (Meiji 9), a dormitory was established in the Shinto Office to train priests. Additionally, the Kurozumikyō and Shinto Shusei, which had been flourishing, became independent denominations. Inaba Masakuni was the first president of the Bureau of Shinto Affairs. Yoriyasu Tanaka was the Chief of Ise Jingu and the first head of Jingūkyō. Hirayama Seisai was the grand priest of Hikawa Shrine and the first headmaster of Shinto Taiseikyo and Ontake-kyo. Kousetsu Tsume would become the second head minister of the Ontake Sect. In 1886, the Bureau was reorganized, later becoming the sect Shinto Taikyo. Controversy over shrine deities In 1880, the opinion of Senge Takatomi on the deities to be worshiped in the Bureau of Shinto Affairs' temples was controversial, leading to the division of Shinto into the Ise and Izumo factions. By order of the Meiji Emperor, a conference on Shinto was held in January 1881 (Meiji 14), attended by 118 people, including all the chief priests of government buildings and the instructors of sixth grade and above. The conference could not decide on the issue, and the Meiji Emperor made the final decision as to which deities would be worshipped there. == Separation of ritual and faith ==

In January 1882, the separation of ritual and religion was enacted by the Ministry of Home Affairs through Bill No. 7, which prohibited those in the (priest-teacher position) from performing rituals, thereby promoting the separation of those who continued to be priests performing rituals or preaching the teachings and solidifying the formation of Sect Shinto. Office of Japanese Classics Research On November 4, 1881, the Office of Japanese Classics Research was established as a successor to the Bureau of Shinto Affairs. Like its predecessor, it was a unified Shinto missionary organization established to train Shinto priests. Funded by an imperial gift, it purchased a mansion in Iidacho, Kojimachi-ku (present-day Chiyoda-ku). In the "Announcement of the Establishment of the Imperial Academy" (jointly signed by Li-Kuro Kubo, Yorikuni Inoue, Nakasaburo Itsumi, and Hans Shishino), the intention of the establishment of the academy was to train personnel to maintain (national identity). The Imperial Institute established branches in the provinces and qualified students for priesthood. The Office was later succeeded by Kokugakuin University. Academics In December 1868 (the first year of Meiji), the Imperial Academy was established in Kyoto but was abolished the following year. When the Ministry of Religion was established in 1872, it was responsible for research. In 1882 (Meiji 15), institutes of imperial studies were established one after another. This was due to a keen awareness of the need for doctrinal studies in the rites and rituals controversy. The controversy was divided between the doctrinalists (denominational Shinto sects) and the national scholars (academics). As the doctrinalists became independent, the national scholars were stimulated and the separation of doctrine and learning progressed. On April 30, Jingūkyō established Kōgakkan University in Ise. On May 30, the Department of Classics was established at the University of Tokyo. == After World War II ==

On December 15, 1945, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ) issued the Shinto Directive aimed at dismantling State Shinto. In January of the following year, the Dai Nihon Shinto-kai, the Imperial Academy, and the Jingu Bonan-kai were dissolved to form the Association of Shinto Shrines, a religious corporation. In March, Jingu-Shogakukan University was abolished by the Shinto directive; in April, representatives of each denomination explained their denomination to the GHQ Civilian Information and Education Department at Broadcasting Hall 108. In June, at a meeting at Tenrikyo's Honshiba Grand Church between the presidents of the various schools and W. K. Vance, head of the Religious Affairs Division at GHQ, the occupying forces promised not to impose any restrictions on the religious activities of the Shinto sects. Tenrikyo established a policy of restoration immediately in 1945, and Konkokyo established the Council for the Establishment of the Faith in 1951 to eliminate Shinto colors. The system in which there were 13 Shinto sects and 13 Buddhist sects recognized by the government was broken up into even smaller groups as religious organizations when the Religious Corporation Law was enacted. Shinto research institutions Many of the scholars who had played a central role in Shinto research and education were expelled and replaced by folklorists such as Shinobu Orikuchi and Kunio Yanagita, as well as younger Shinto scholars who escaped expulsion. On March 20, 1946, Kokugakuin University became a corporation, and the training of priests, which had been commissioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs, was continued from April as a new commission through the Jinja Main Office. The following year, Vance and Woodard of the Religious Affairs Division of GHQ decided that there was no problem with the study of Shinto and training of priests as a private university, and in 1948, the Shinto Affairs Department was established to form a Shinto training organization. The Shinto Scholarship Association, which had been conducting Shinto courses, was also dissolved in 1946. In July 1949, at a meeting of the Federation of Shinto Sects at the Kinko Grand Church of the Tenrikyo Tokyo Branch Office, it was decided that Shinto lectures would be held at the Shinto Training Department of Kokugakuin University on behalf of the Federation of Shinto Sects; this practice continued until 1966. Holding the Shinto course promoted the university as a Shinto university that combined both Shrine Shinto and Sect Shinto. As of 1996, Kokugakuin University was said to be the only university with a course on Sect Shinto. == Sects ==

Overview There are five main groups of Sect Shinto: In 1895, eight denominations—Izumo Taisha-kyo, Kurozumikyō, Ontake-kyo, Jikkō kyō, Shinto Taiseikyo, Shinshu-kyo, Fuso-kyo, and Jingūkyō—joined to form the (). In 1899 (Meiji 32), the group was joined by Shinto Headquarters (Shinto Taikyo), Shinrikyo, and Misogikyo, and the name was changed to ; the same year, Jingūkyō reorganized as Jingū Hōnsaikai and withdrew from the federation. In addition to Misogi-kyo, Shinto Taikyo, Jingūkyō, Konkokyo, Kurozumikyō, Fuso-kyo, Ontake-kyo, Shinrikyo, Oomoto, Shinshu-kyo, Shinto Shusei, Izumo Taisha-kyo, and twelve other denominations, the presidents of Tenrikyo and Shinto Taiseikyo also attended. Jingūkyō was a sect run out of Ise Grand Shrine that distributed Jingu Taima. It was a rival to Izumo-taishakyo and eventually left the federation and came to dominate State Shinto. Izumo-taishakyo was founded by Senge Takatomi. and has 1,266,058 followers. Jikkō kyō is a mountain worship sect traditionally seen to have been founded by Hasegawa Kakugyo (who was also associated with Fusō-kyō). (1839–1915), who was a survivor of the Ansei Purge. He worked at Ise Jingu and later was head of Tatsuta Shrine, but due to laws restricting teaching, he entrusted his children to Itō Hirobumi (before he became Prime Minister) and established a new branch based on his family traditions. Ontake-kyo is a mountain worship sect dedicated to Mount Ontake. It had 3 million members in 1930, which decreased to around 40,000 members in 2020. Shinrikyo is a Shinto sect considered to be part of the Fukko Shinto lineage of Sect Shinto, alongside Shinto Taikyo and Izumo-taishakyo. The name "Shinrikyo" is relatively common among Shinto groups, Sano's thought blurred the lines between monotheism and polytheism, entering transtheism. It is very ritual-focused, with little theoretical theology. In this way, it contrasts with Yoshida Shinto. is a subset of Sect Shinto, and consists of numerous organizations. It is influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism. New Shinto sects have shamanistic leadership, syncretism of religious and philosophical beliefs, closely knit social organization, and individualism. Some groups have characteristics of monotheism, in the extreme case making a compromise of Buddhism, Confucianism, and folk religion. == See also ==