Episode 555 – The Gods March Overseas, Part 1

November 22, 2024

What even is religion, when you get down to it? Why do we treat religion the way that we do? And when our modern notions of religion came up against an empire whose very legitimacy was based on a religious myth, how did those tensions play out?

Sources

Shimizu, Karli. Overseas Shinto Shrines: Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire

Rots, Aike P. “Public Shrine Forests? Shinto, Immanence, and Discursive Secularization.” Japan Review, no. 30 (2017)

Images

Some of the original plans for Kashihara Jingu, from 1890.
Expansions to Kashihara Jingu, undertaken with the labor of local volunteers in the 1910s.
A rally in 1940 on the grounds of Kashihara Shrine in support of the war.
The 2600 year anniversary celebrations of the Japanese Empire in 1940 were a major event throughout the empire–here are hte celebrations at Kashihara.
The main shrine of Kashihara Jingu.