Syncretism and Separation of Japanese Religious Architecture, a Case study of Onozaki Kusushi Shrine After the 1868 Shintoism-Buddhism Separation Order

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-420-4_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Shinto Shrine; Buddhist Temple; Conversion; Japan

Abstract

There are two main religions in Japan - Shinto and Buddhism - and the worship architecture of the former are called shrines, while the latter are called temples, differing both in their objects of worship and architectural styles. However, during the Tokugawa shogunate, which lasted two and a half centuries, Buddhism and Shintoism coexisted peacefully, and villagers far from the political and religious centres built a single building to worship both objects of worship. This is known as Shinto-Buddhism syncretism, but after the Meiji Restoration, the imperial government rejected this practice by issuing a decree separating Shinto and Buddhism. As Shinto was placed under the aegis of the state, Buddhist statues and Buddhist ritual objects were removed from syncretic religious architecture, which became pure shrines. This article clarifies how the two objects of worship were enshrined in a single building during the Shinto/Buddhist syncretism period, and how these buildings were converted into shrines after the Shinto/Buddhist Separation Order. As a case study, the Kusushi Shrine in Onozaki, Ishinomaki, built in 1862, is taken up.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Hideo Izumida
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/26
TI  - Syncretism and Separation of Japanese Religious Architecture, a Case study of Onozaki Kusushi Shrine After the 1868 Shintoism-Buddhism Separation Order
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Religious Architecture (ICRA 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 250
EP  - 258
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-420-4_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-420-4_17
ID  - Izumida2025
ER  -