Shaping the Environment for “State Rites” in Prewar Japan and Its Legacies

When the Meiji government adopted Shinto as the basis for its “non-religious state rites,” it established a series of special government shrines nationwide. Primeval forests were artificially created and nurtured as a source of sacredness at more prominent institutions, including Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. Meanwhile, to strengthen national consolidation at local levels, the government issued an Imperial ordinance for merging shrines (Jinja gōshi rei) in 1906, thereby either amalgamating or abolishing the pre-Meiji indigenous shrines that were deeply rooted in local communities. A decline in the number of these shrines resulted in the deterioration of local cultures, traditions, and worship. It also caused the diminution of sacred forests hitherto secured by these smaller local shrines and harmed the surrounding ecology. To protect the natural environment and save local communities, Minakata Kumagusu (1867-1941), biologist, mycologist, anthropologist, campaigned in 1911 against the Imperial ordinance as it applied to Mie and Wakayama; he succeeded in 1918. Taking a different approach, some founding members of the Society for Preserving Beautiful Sceneries and Historic and Natural Monuments (est.1911) selectively protected certain pre-Meiji shrines under the 1919 preservation law rather than denounce the Imperial ordinance. Later incorporated into the Education Ministry, the society went on to ensure that the environment was part of National Polity until 1945. This paper explores the effects of the shrine reforms of the Meiji period on the natural environment in prewar Japan. It examines why and how individuals and organizations sought to preserve nature, and it considers their postwar legacies. It addresses how a new generation of Shinto priests seek to present Shinto faith as “a guardian of nature and ecology” in the 21^st century, even though the memory of the 1906 ordinance still divides the Shinto community and academia with respect to the relations of Shinto shrines with the state.