Figure 1.--This is Prince Naruhito in 1969 participating in a Shinto ceremony. He is wearing his school uniform. Notice the people bowing in the background.

The Japanese Imperial Family is strongly associated with the Shinto religion. Shinto is a highly nationalistic Japanese religion developing from the animist beliefs of the early Japanese people. It was strongly influenced by Buddhist beliefs arriving from China. About the time that Shinto ritual and beliefs began go be formalized, the Yamato dynasty extended its control over much of the Japanese Home Islands. As is common in dynastic rule, the Yamato claimed devine origins and began to employ Shinto as well as Buddhism as a state religion. This close relationship between Shinto and the Japanese state continued for more than a millenia. Shinto taught that the Emperor was divine, but over much of subsequent Japanese history, the country was governed by warring nobels or in more recent history, the powerful Shogun who never dared replace the emperor. The Emperor Meiji overthrew the Shogunate (1860s) and launched the modernization of Japan. This included constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion. The Japanese military after World War I used Shinto to teach that the Japan were a chosen people destined to rule the world and promoted the emperor cult to unheard of extremes as part of an effort to expand the Japanese Empire. Here we are unsure to what extent Emperor Hirohito was involved in this process. There is no indication he objected. To what extent he promoted it, we do not know, Nor do we know if he really believed it. This eventually led to the horrendous Pacific War. Nationalist attempted to purse Shino of Buddhist elements. All Japanese including Buddhists and Christians had to attend services at Shinto shrines. Emperor Hirohito's role in the War is a highly controversial subject. After the War, as part of the democritization of Japan, the Emperor denined his devinity and freedom of religion was reinstituted. Here the Emperor's role in building a democratic Japan is generally accepted by most historians. There continues to be a close association between the Royal Family and Shinto. Here we are not sure about the details, but suspect it is rather like the relationship between the British monarchy and the Anglican Church. Hopefully our Japanese readers will provide more details.

Created: 1:59 AM 10/15/2006
Last updated: 5:45 PM 5/22/2009