Nation Protecting Shrines

• Main Author: Karli Shimizu
• Other Authors: Ugoretz, Kaitlyn
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2024
• Subjects: Religious Group; Japanese Religions; Shintō; Religious Place; Secularism; Shrine; Shrines; China; Mausoleum; Mortuary shrine; Ritual centre; Taiwan; Language; Japonic; Japanesic; Japan; Korea; Sakhalin
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12574515

Nation-protecting shrines, or gokoku jinja, were established in 1939 as regional branches of Yasukuni Jinja. After the Boshin War (1868-9), a new form of national veneration of the war dead began, drawing especially upon Shinto and Confucian traditions. These temporary spirit-summoning (shokon) sites spread and were eventually transformed into permanent shrines for venerating the collective eirei, or "glorious dead", of those who had given their life for the emperor and nation. Although nation-protecting shrines were legally Shinto shrines (jinja), they were distinguished from regular Shinto shrines by their veneration of the collective recent dead, their parallel but separate ranking system, and their joint management by the military and home office. The veneration of the war dead at Yasukuni Jinja and the gokoku shrines was one of the most visible manners in which the imperial state mobilized its subjects to war. During the American occupation of Japan, gokoku shrines were allowed to exist as private religious organizations but were required to strip the term "nation-protecting" from their titles. After the occupation, shrines could restore the term to their title, but the new religious framework for governing Shinto shrines largely erased the distinctions between gokoku shrines and regular Shinto shrines. For several years postwar, the war dead continued to be enshrined and in some cases new gokoku shrines were built as local war memorials (ex: Munakata Gokoku Jinja). Today, gokoku shrines have taken various approaches towards their role in contemporary society. Some shrines started enshrining those who died in the line of duty postwar, such as police officers and self-defense force members, while others have remained dedicated only to prewar eirei.