THE MODERN AGE : Shinto confronts modernity

When Japan encountered modernity, two major changes took place in the religious system known as Shinto. The first was the creation of the modern shrine system. A shrine system was first organised in the ancient period, and continued thereafter through the medieval and early modern periods even as it ceased to function. Under the modern state, however, it acquired a new form. The second major change was the emergence of a new type of religious system within Shinto; what we might call ‘sectarian Shinto’. At the end of the Edo period, there were striking and rapid movements towards the creation of Shinto ‘sects’. Prototypes of these sects were already to be seen in the Suika Shinto, the Yoshida and the Shirakawa Shinto movements. It was only with Meiji, however, that a Shinto that was unquestionably sectarian in style emerged.