The subject of this volume is the historical development of shinto and national thought in premodern and modern Japan. After examining the first instances of shinto-confucian syncretism in the early Edo period, the author investigates the function of shinto as a religious system to legitimize political power and explores how during the late Edo period this culminates in the concept of a specific Japanese national polity(kokutai).
Though the main caesurae in the process of modern Japanese history (e.g. Meiji restoration and the end of the Pacific War in 1945) play a dominant role in this context, the author points out that the main historical, religious and ideological continuities are of much greater importance; The ideas and concepts elaborated by shinto thinkers during the Edo period became reality in modern Japan.
- ISBN10 9004103163
- ISBN13 9789004103160
- Publish Date 20 May 1998
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country NL
- Imprint Brill
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 426
- Language German
- URL brill.com/product_id1032