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13 - Religion in the Tokugawa Period

from Part III - Social Practices and Cultures of Early Modern Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2024

By
Mark Teeuwen
Edited by
David L. Howell
David L. Howell
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

This chapter sketches the main features of the landscape of “faith” in Tokugawa-period Japan. This was a time when every person in Japan was legally obliged to register with a Buddhist temple, while simultaneously most people were actively engaged in numerous other faith-related activities, from membership in pilgrimage groups to making donations to roaming troupes of pseudo-religious street performers. The multifarious purveyors of faith-related services competed for custom, and the authorities were obliged to arbitrate in a never-ending stream of lawsuits and conflicts. Temple affiliation was rendered compulsory because faith needed to be policed, so as to ensure that “pernicious creeds” (notably foreign Christianity) would not corrupt the populace. Yet warrior administrators consistently refused to become a party in disputes about doctrinal matters, preferring to grant people a free choice in matters of faith and limit temples’ hold over their parishioners.

Keywords

BuddhismShintofaithChristianityIkkōtemple certificationdankaShugendōoshipilgrimageFujufuseTōshōgū
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge History of Japan , pp. 443 - 477
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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