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‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion: case studies

of multi-variant practice from Kyushu and Okinawa
James Huntley Grayson
Published online: 23 Aug 2006.

To cite this article: James Huntley Grayson (2005) ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion: case studies of multi-variant
practice from Kyushu and Okinawa, Japan Forum, 17:3, 347-367, DOI: 10.1080/09555800500283885

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 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular
religion: case studies of multi-variant
practice from Kyushu and Okinawa
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J A M E S H U N T L E Y G R AY S O N

Abstract: The concept of multi-variant practices and beliefs as being character-

istic of the shrines associated with Japanese popular religion is explored through
an examination of four shrines in Kyushu and Okinawa. None of these shrines,
even those which are formally associated with the Association of Shinto Shrines,
evinces the characteristics of ‘Shinto’ practice which the Association claims is
typical of Shinto. How are we to account for these differences? Insight is pro-
vided through an examination of the original function and subsequent history
of these four ‘non-mainstream’ shrines. Comparison of the history and practice
of these shrines with similar shrines in Korea illustrates the importance of re-
searching both locally and comparatively to draw out the unique features of each
shrine. Before scholars can accept broad generalizations about popular Japanese
religious practice, or about ‘Shinto’, anthropological research – in addition to his-
torical and textual research – should be carried out on the practices and traditions
of individual, local shrines. Examination of empirical data drawn from numerous
case studies will enable scholars to have a clearer idea of actual religious prac-
tice in Japan, regional variations, and similarities and differences with practices
in neighbouring nations.

Keywords: Shinto, popular religion, Mikato Shrine, Hiki Shrine, Tamayama

Shrine, Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine

Introduction
In the spring of 1999, I received a grant from the Japan Foundation Endow-
ment Committee to conduct field research in Japan on certain shrines in Shimane
Prefecture which, from their formal names, appeared to be dedicated to Korean
spirits. I also had the opportunity to examine a range of different shrines in three
other regions of Japan. As an anthropological researcher of Korean religions, this
field work confirmed an impression which I had had for several years, namely,
Japan Forum 17(3) 2005: 347–367 ISSN: 0955–5803 print/1469–932X online
Copyright

C 2005 BAJS DOI: 10.1080/09555800500283885
 348 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

that Shinto was a socio-political construction and not the coherent and distinct
tradition which has often been presented in standard works on world religions.
From my field work, it seemed apparent that during the nineteenth century a high
degree of rationalization of local traditions had taken place to create a uniform tra-
dition which had not actually been there before. In my previous article (Grayson
2002), I was able to show that, contrary to the received image of Susa-no-o in
the Kojiki, Nihon shoki and scholarly work in general, historic and current myths
told about this figure in Shimane depict him not as an unruly, violent character
but as a benevolent culture bearer, the bringer of civilization (the knowledge of
metallurgy and afforestation techniques) to western Japan. Subsequent examina-
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tion of shrines in Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa Prefectures convinced me

that there was a significant disjuncture between the presentation of the unifor-
mity of Shinto practice and actual local practice. It further convinced me of the
methodological importance of researching local traditions before drawing broad
generalizations about the state of national practices. The conclusions drawn from
my research were broadly in line with current research about Japanese shrines.
In their introduction to a collection of essays Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami
(2000), the editors John Breen and Mark Teeuwen demonstrate on the one hand
how Shinto superficially appears to be and to have been a homogeneous entity
both in contemporary Japan and throughout Japanese history. To illustrate this
first point, they refer to the ubiquity of Shinto shrines, the striking character of
the costumes of the Shinto priests, the existence of a large organization, the Jinja
Honchō (Association of Shinto Shrines), which regulates and co-ordinates the
majority of Japanese shrines, the commonality and ubiquity of individual reli-
gious practices, and the wide-spread presence of local, national and calendrical
ceremonies. They cite all of these features as indications of an apparent ‘coherent
and distinct religious tradition’ (Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 1–2).
However, in spite of all of these signs of unity and uniformity, they also point
out that there are anomalies. Referring to the apparently seamless connection
between the symbols of imperial and local rituals, the editors of the volume com-
ment that, in spite of superficial appearances, there is little awareness on the part
of the majority of Japanese about the nature of the rites that are focused on the
imperial house. Breen and Teeuwen state that there is an anomaly ‘between a
self-consciously “Shinto” establishment and the national, not to say nationalis-
tic, agenda professed by the majority of its members on the one hand, and local
shrines and the practices and beliefs of ordinary Japanese who venerate there, on
the other’ (Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 3). In other words, there is not the coherent
and distinct religious tradition which seems apparent upon first examination.
Breen and Teeuwen also cite another anomaly, namely, that between the statis-
tics quoted for adherence to ‘Shinto’ and the actual sense of belonging to such
a religious entity on the part of individual Japanese. Research has shown consis-
tently that, in spite of the fact that many Japanese participate in a large number of
‘Shinto’ rituals and festivals, ‘they have no awareness that their practice constitutes
 James Huntley Grayson 349

something called “Shinto”, or that they themselves are “Shintoist.” They certainly
do not, themselves, profess affiliation to the Shinto religion’. They go on to argue,
however, that ‘Shinto’ as a religious construction is not a recent creation, but can
be shown to have long historic roots (Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 1–3).
Nonetheless, there still remains in both foreign and Japanese popular conception
a homogeneous religious practice called ‘Shintō’ which the Jinja Honchō in a
pamphlet styled simply Shinto, written to explain the essence of Shinto to non-
Japanese, describes in the following way:
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Shinto is a general term for the activities of the Japanese people to worship all
the deities of heaven and earth, and its origin is as old as the history of the
Japanese. It was towards the end of the 6th century when the Japanese were
conscious of these activities and called them ‘Way of [the] Kami (the deity or
the deities)’. It coincides [with] the time when the 31st Emperor Yomei prayed
before an image of Buddha [for] the first time as an emperor for [the] recovery
of his illness. Thus accepting Buddhism, a foreign religion, the Japanese realized
[the] existence of a tradition of their own faith.
(Ueda n.d.: 2)

This statement may be taken to be the official view on the subject by the prin-
cipal organization which co-ordinates the activities of the vast majority of Shinto
shrines in Japan. In this document, the Shrine Association makes three claims
about Shinto. First, the Association claims that those religious activities which
it classifies as ‘Shinto’ have existed since time immemorial, that is since the be-
ginning of the Japanese nation. Second, the Association claims that Shinto is a
set of religious acts focused on the propitiation of the deities of the heavens and
the national land. Third, the Association claims that Shinto became a formalized
entity, that is a set of distinct and different religious practices, when the Emperor
Yomei (traditional dates, r. 585–7) is said to have prayed to the Buddha for the
first time in his role as sovereign. This third claim implies a close relationship
between the sovereign and Shinto, and that Shinto had existed as a homogeneous
entity up until that time. These three claims taken together imply that Shinto was
a monolithic set of practices throughout the nation from time immemorial and
that it was the introduction of Buddhism which created a situation of religious
diversity. However, the field research which I conducted on shrines in Kyushu
and Okinawa indicated to me that the conceptions of local people and their ritual
practices do not conform to the official view espoused by the Shrine Association
to which their shrines belong. In this essay, I will reflect on observations drawn
from my field work and compare them with observations of shrines in Korea in
order to clarify both our conceptions about popular Japanese religious practices
and the methodological approaches which we utilize in order to achieve this epis-
temological goal.
 350 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

The Mikato and Hiki Shrines, Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu1

In the central, mountainous area of western Miyazaki Prefecture there are two
adjoining townships which are linked together through a common legendary cycle
focused on an annual rite dedicated to the founders of their villages. Nangō-son
( ), the furthest west of the two villages is the centre of the ritual complex
and contains a number of sites associated with the legendary cycle. The central
shrine for the area, the Mikato Shrine ( ), is located in the village of
the same name. To the south and east of Nangō-son is the township of Kijō-chō
( ) which possesses the second principal shrine of the area, the Hiki Shrine
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( )in the village of Kobudokoro ( ). In the twelfth month of the year

the Shiwasu matsuri ( ) is held which commemorates the foundation of the
villages’ societies by recreating the initial journey made to the villages by their
respective village founders. This village foundation ritual is significant because
the founders of the villages are two Koreans, who are both royal and refugees. A
summary of the narrative of the legend is given below.

The Nangō-son myth

Teika-ō ( , King Teika) and his son Hukuchi-ō ( , King Hukuchi),
descendants of the royal house of Paekche, were living at the Japanese court.
Because of intrigue at the court, the two noblemen had to flee, eventually making
their way to the Nangō-son area for refuge. The father landed in Kyushu at Hyūga,
while the son came ashore at Kamegahama. When Teika-ō arrived in Nangō-son,
the leaders of the seven clans in the existing village accepted him as their chief.
Likewise, when Hukuchi-ō arrived in Kijō-chō he was accepted by the villagers
as their village chief. At some point after this, warriors who had been sent out by
the court discovered the places where the Paekche nobles were hiding and there
was a great battle outside Nangō-son in which Teika-ō was killed. He was buried
at the battle site. Since that time, annual rites have been offered to Teika-ō at his
grave site.

Ritual sites in Nangō-son

There are three ritual sites associated with this foundation myth, the Mikato Shrine
itself, the Tsukano-haro or grave site of Teika-ō, and the Otoshi Shrine which is
dedicated to Teika-ō’s wife. Of these three, the most important is the Mikato
Shrine which is described below.
The first thing which strikes the visitor to this remote village is its visible pros-
perity. Wide, well-kept streets are lined with large, well-maintained homes and
buildings. To the right of the Mikato Shrine is a full-scale replica of the Shōsōin
treasure house in Nara. Some twenty years ago, a large number of bronze mir-
rors and other artefacts had been excavated from the site, and it was decided in
 James Huntley Grayson 351

1986 to develop the village as a tourist destination to bring in income and to pre-
vent too many of the younger generation from leaving to go to urban areas such
as Miyazaki. To support the tourist industry a large village hall, a replica of the
Shōsōin in Nara – called the Nishi Shōsōin (Western Shōsōin) – and a spa complex
were constructed. The shrine became a key element of the movement and its raison
d’être. Consequently, the village’s relationship to Korea became a key aspect of the
movement and its advertisement. Posters advertising the village show a woman
dressed in Hanbok2 near a Korean-style pavilion atop a misty mountain and asks
the question, ‘Is this Korea’? The response is, ‘No, it’s Nangō-son’! History, the
exotic and natural resources are used to give an attractive ambience to what is a
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very remote village. According to local government officials, the movement has
been relatively successful in keeping and drawing back younger villagers, and has
attracted a large number of Korean tourists and other nationalities.
The large shrine itself is accessible via a series of steps lined with torii leading up
from a lower plaza. The honden, or shrine proper, was encased some forty years
ago in an outer wooden structure to protect the small building from the elements.
Unremarkable in layout, the Mikato Shrine has three features of particular interest
– a special miniature shrine on the lower level for the handicapped who cannot
make it up to the shrine precinct itself, a monument next to it commemorating
villagers who died in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 and, to the right of the
honden, a stele marking the alleged grave site of the seven clan elders who submitted
to Teika-ō when he came to Nangō-son. These three features neatly encapsulate
the way in which the use of the shrine has changed over time. The special shrine
for the handicapped reflects the effect of the tourist industry; the war memorial
reflects the focus on a centralized Shinto practice promoting nationalism and
patriotism; and the shrine itself along with the stele next to it reflect its original
use for the veneration of Teika-ō and the clan elders as the founders and tutelary
spirits of the village.
Although the original function of this shrine was similar to that of many village
shrines in Korea where the village or local clan founder is venerated, what makes
this shrine ‘Korean’ is the recognition of the spirit who is worshipped here, a
prince of the royal house of Paekche. Even though information about the shrine
in printed materials state that both Teika-ō and Izanagi, the male primal ancestor
of the Japanese archipelago, are worshipped here, local people indicated that to
them it is only the Paekche prince whom they venerate (Nihon chimei daijiten 1967,
1: 344). Indeed, some families claim that not only is Teika-ō the tutelary spirit
of the village, but also that he is the ancestor of their family. The addition of
Izanagi to the pantheon in the shrine took place during the early Meiji period,
and at the same time the status of both the shrine and the prince was lowered in
order to make them conform to approved central Shinto practices. This strong
sense of the ‘Korean-ness’ of the shrine is indicated by anecdotal remarks from
local people that, during the Second World War, soldiers from Nangō-son were
ridiculed for worshipping a ‘Korean’ spirit. In turn, in contemporary times this
 352 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

‘Korean’ connection has become a source of pride and was used to develop the
area’s economy.

The Hiki Shrine in Kijō-chō

South and east of Nangō-son is the township of Kijō-chō with its Hiki Shrine
dedicated to Hukushi-ō, the son of Teika-ō. This large shrine is located within
a grove of trees on flat ground and is accessible through a long avenue leading
up to the shrine. Larger than the Mikato Shrine, there is little to distinguish it
from any other Shinto shrine. In spite of the fact that it is dedicated to Hukushi-ō,
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the shrine lacks any of the ancillary items which distinguish the Mikato Shrine
such as the stele commemorating the original clan ancestors. However, as with the
Mikato Shrine, the Hiki Shrine is said to be dedicated principally to two spirits,
the Paekche prince and Susa-no-o (Nihon chimei daijiten 1967, 1: 147).3 Thus,
this shrine, like the Mikato Shrine, is essentially a village tutelary shrine which
had its character and status re-assigned during the early Meiji period to fit the
ideas of a centralized concept of Shinto, in this case by the addition of another
spirit, Susa-no-o. These alterations changed the nature of the shrine from being
a local shrine celebrating a local rite into a nationally approved type of ‘Shinto’
shrine.
Traditionally, the two communities of Nangō-son and Kijō-chō have partic-
ipated in the Shiwasu matsuri, but, aside from that ritual connection, the two
areas have had little active contact with each other. Kijō-chō has not developed
its tourist industry by using the myth and perceived continental connections as
has Nangō-son. Compared with its more northerly neighbour, Kijō-chō remains
a more rustic place in spite of its closer proximity to Miyazaki.4

Comments on shrines in Miyazaki Prefecture

The case of the Nangō-son and Kijō-chō shrines raises a fundamental question.
What makes a Shinto shrine ‘Shinto’? If, as the Jinja Honchō implies in its pam-
phlet it is the worship of the gods of the Japanese land and sky, how can shrines
dedicated to two princes of a continental royal family be in any sense ‘Shinto’?
Clearly these royal spirits have no connection with the Japanese imperial cult nor
are they indigenous spirits of the land. They are unmistakably foreign. In terms
of their original function, the cult practised at these shrines is both tutelary and
ancestral, that is, local. The location of the two shrines dedicated to these two
foreign princes is close to key ritual areas associated with the very foundation of
the Japanese state and its imperial house. The Miyazaki jinja in Miyazaki City
is dedicated to the mythical first emperor Jimmu; the place where Teika-ō came
ashore is very close to the spot where Jimmu is said to have set sail with his
forces to conquer the main Japanese island; to the north and east of Nangō-son
is a cave at Takahichō which is associated with the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Ō-
 James Huntley Grayson 353

mikami, primal ancestress of the imperial house. Thus, these ‘Korean’ shrines
are located in the very heart of the territory of Japanese imperial or ‘Shinto’
mythology.

Tamayama Shrine in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu5

Just west of the city of Kagoshima, near the south-western coast of Kyushu, is
the township of Higashi Ichikichō, one of the centres of the Japanese craft pottery
industry. Again, as in Nangō-son and Kijō-chō, the well-kept streets of the village
give a strong air of prosperity. The villagers are descendants of Korean potters
who were brought to Kyūshu in 1598 in the aftermath of the Japanese invasion
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of Korea under Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98). This village is also the ances-
tral home of the family of Marquis Tōgō Heihachirō (1848–1934), the Japanese
admiral who defeated Russia’s Baltic Fleet in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–
5. The local government has made much of the craft pottery industry and the
hot springs in the village, producing lavish brochures and guide maps to the
various kilns and hot-spring bath houses. Recently, the Korean connection has
figured strongly in the consciousness of the area and its tourist industry. The lo-
cal government has employed a young Korean citizen to provide translation and
tourist information services to visitors from the Republic of Korea. In October
and November 1998, the area hosted a festival to commemorate the 400th year
of the settlement of the village by the Korean potters. Beginning with the rit-
ual lighting of a lamp in Namwŏn, South Chŏlla Province in Korea from where
the potters originated, the flame was carried to Japan by a ship of the Korean
Merchant Marine Academy. Clearly planned to symbolize a new era in Korean-
Japanese relations, the festival extended over several weeks and included presen-
tations of music and dance, was linked to the annual pottery festival, and con-
cluded with the ceremonial unveiling of a Korean (Silla period)-style stone pagoda
with both the Korean and Japanese prime ministers in attendance. Even more
than Nangō-son and Kijō-chō, this is an area which makes much of its Korean
connections.

The Tamayama Shrine

Located up above the village on a hill slope is the village shrine, the Tamayama jinja
( ). Following a long, snaking pathway, the precinct of the shrine is gained
by passing through four different torii. The final stretch is deeply wooded, giving
onto a narrow, level area containing the basin for ritual ablutions, the temizuya,
the haiden, the honden, a small pond and a stele commemorating the rebuilding
of the shrine. The honden is unusual in that, although it follows the standard
architectural form of a shrine building raised off the ground, it is impossible to
see through the pillars supporting the structure because the underneath side has
been blocked off with wooden panels. This is because the shrine has been built
over a sacred rock, the view of which is shielded from profane eyes.
 354
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‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

Plate 1 Tamayama Shrine, Ichikichō, Kagoshima Prefecture: panels located beneath the veranda of the honden block the view of the sacred
rock located within the shrine (photo: author).
 James Huntley Grayson 355

The legend of the shrine and its history

My informant, Ms Araki Sumi, said that some time after the first Korean settlers
had come to the area (in 1598), they noticed a beam of light falling on a large rock
on the upper slopes of the hill above the village. Then, hearing sounds coming
from the same place, the villagers went to investigate what was happening. They
saw that the sounds were coming from the large rock which was shaking or moving
about on the ground. The villagers said to themselves that Tan’gun ( ), the
founder of the Korean nation, had come down to earth on that rock and was still
looking after them in their exile in Japan. Consequently, the villagers began to
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worship Tan’gun at that spot, and later built a shrine dedicated to him.
The current shrine building is designed to prevent anyone from actually seeing
the sacred rock. However, Ms Araki stated that she had actually seen it dur-
ing the course of a ceremony. She said that there are two sets of doors through
which access is gained into the inner sanctum of the shrine. The rock emerges
into the inner room through a hole which has been cut into the floor. On the
wall of the inner sanctum is hung a picture of a tiger, with his tail raised up.
The tiger is the messenger of Tan’gun in his guise as San-sin ( ), the ruler
of all the mountains of Korea. In Korean shrines dedicated to the Mountain
God (Tan’gun), he is depicted in paintings as a bearded old man, seated on a
tiger.
The first shrine building is believed to have been built in 1603. This structure
was much smaller than the current shrine and was oriented towards the East China
Sea, in the direction of the Korean peninsula. In 1917, the building was rebuilt
and re-oriented so that it faced the village. This was done because the villagers
had said that they wanted Tan’gun to face towards them. The status of the shrine
has been demoted over the years. Some 250 years ago, the Shimazu family, lords
of Satsuma domain, erected a torii in which the shrine is referred to as a jingū
( ), the highest level of shrine at the time. However, a torii erected in 1942
refers to it only as a jinja. This demotion of their shrine was said to have greatly
distressed the villagers. The shrine had to be rebuilt in the mid-1980s in the wake
of a devastating typhoon.
Although the dedication of the Tamayama Shrine to Tan’gun is quite clear,
Ms Araki reported that at some point during the early Meiji period, government
officials placed two statues to Susa-no-o and Ninigi-no mikoto6 at the base of
the rock. The villagers were then told that the spirits enshrined were these two
spirits and not Tan’gun. However, Ms Araki stated emphatically that, although
the villagers had conformed outwardly, they all had said in their hearts that the
spirit enshrined there was Tan’gun. Ms Araki commented that the villagers had
contempt for this attempt to distort or pervert their local shrine practices. Rejec-
tion of the ‘Shintoization’ or ‘Japanization’ of their shrine was also indicated by
Ms Araki’s attitude towards the temizuya at the entrance to the shrine precinct,
which she referred to derogatorily as being in a Japanese style.7
 356 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

Before entering the wooded path leading up to the shrine precinct, there is a
small area marked off with a concrete railing and a small concrete torii which
is oriented away from the shrine itself in the direction of the Kirishima Shrine
on Mt Takachihomine. Constructed in 1941, this spot was created so that the
worshippers to the shrine could worship Ninigi-no mikoto who is enshrined
at the Kirishima Shrine. This is also the same general location of the cave in
which Amaterasu Ō-mikami hid herself to escape from her brother Susa-no-o.
The view is now totally obscured by a grove of trees which has grown up in the
interval.
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Comments on the Tamayama Shrine

In what sense can this shrine be called a Shinto shrine? Although the spirit en-
shrined here is a local tutelary spirit, the protector of the village, he is the very
founder of the Korean nation, the grandson of the Ruler of Heaven, the son of the
Ruler’s son and a transformed bear-woman. Tan’gun is intimately connected with
the origins of the Korean people and the Korean state. The settlers who came here
saw that this great spirit had not abandoned them in their exile but had remained
with them to protect them. Later government attempts to unify religious practice
did not alter the villagers’ attitudes towards the enshrined spirit. Putting new stat-
ues in the shrine, indoctrinating them about the spirits enshrined there, demoting
the shrine’s status, and erecting a subsidiary precinct to orient worshippers in the
direction of a major shrine dedicated to one of the newly enshrined Shinto spirits
did not change the attitudes of the villagers; on the contrary, it only enhanced their
sense of the uniqueness of their practices, their sense of being different. More-
over, their sense of disdain for ‘Japanization’ extends even towards the current
external features of the shrine itself. These attitudes have persisted in spite of the
fact that the villagers are culturally Japanese. None of them speaks Korean, and
they all have Japanese-style names. They, however, perceive themselves as having
a different tradition, an identity which is reflected in the rites conducted at the
Tamayama Shrine.

Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine, Okinawa Prefecture8

The village of Sashiki-chō ( ) is located along the lower shore of Baden
Harbour in the south east of Okinawa Island. Somewhat further on, and around
past the headland on which the village of Chinen-son ( ) is set, is the most
sacred ritual place on Okinawa, the Seefa utaki ( ). Passing through the
village of Sashiki-chō, one’s eye is immediately arrested by an enormous concrete
torii by the roadside through which a long, winding unpaved road leads up to a
small car park. On the south side of the car park is a steep stairway proceeding yet
higher up to an impressive ‘Shinto’ shrine. This shrine is the Tsukishiro-no-miya
( ), dedicated to King Shō Hashi ( , r.1421–1439), the first king of a
 James Huntley Grayson 357

united Kingdom of the Ryūkyūs and founder of the First Shō Dynasty (1421–69).
On the site of Shō Hashi’s home or castle, an Okinawan shrine to his memory had
been erected. In the early 1930s, the Japanese government replaced this shrine
with the impressive structure now on the site.
From the car park a set of steps leads up to a level area in front of which is a
large concrete torii. To the left-hand side is a temizuya, a basin for ritual ablutions.
Through the torii and up at the head of the next long set of steps is the haiden.
However, the shrine complex has a curiously abandoned feeling. On examination,
the temizuya is seen to be filled with rubbish as if it were a litter bin.
In the bush to the right-hand side of the path is a largish rude stone altar
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surrounded on three sides by stones. Going up the stairway and entering the
haiden, there is a view through to the honden. The precinct around the honden,
roped off by a low set of chains, is full of weeds and grass and does not appear
to be tended regularly. There is a well-worn path through the precinct leading to
a rude altar which has been set up in the bushes to the left-hand side of the rear
of the honden. This altar is made of nine concrete breeze blocks arranged in three
rows, three blocks deep. On the altar are some libations of water and liquor in
clear plastic cups. The honden, although apparently having a new door placed in
it, appears to be unused. Immediately in front of the door is a carved stone altar
with offerings on it. Off to the left- and right-hand sides of the shrine’s veranda are
two smaller altars made of concrete breeze blocks. A broom, to sweep the area,
lies to the left of the left-hand altar. On the ground, to the left-hand side of the
front of the honden is a small, triangular-shaped stone which has an inscription on
it declaring that the spirit worshipped here is (in Okinawan) ‘Yū nu nūshi, Kuni
nu nūshi’ ( , Ruler of the World, Ruler of the Nation).

Comments on the Tsukishiro-no-miya

After the annexation of the Kingdom of the Ryūkyūs by Japan in 1879, the king-
dom was made a prefecture of Japan, and the Japanese government pursued a pol-
icy of assimilation including the harmonization of religious practices in Okinawa
Prefecture with Shinto. As part of this policy, the prefectural Bureau of Shrines
attempted to amalgamate local cultic practices by incorporating the Ryūkyūan
deities into the Shinto pantheon. In 1909, the government tried to establish a cen-
tral shrine for ‘Okinawan Shinto’ at Nami-no-ue by the harbour in Naha. There
was a notable lack of local interest in this project, which did not come to fruition
until 1923. At this shrine, the first Ryūkyūan king, King Shuten (purported dates
r. 1181–237), and his alleged Japanese father Minamoto Tametomo were ven-
erated along with kings Shō En (r. 1470–6), Shō Nei (1589–1621) and Shō Tai
(r. 1848–79) of the Second Shō dynasty (1469–1879). Shō En was the founder
of the dynasty. Shō Nei surrendered to the Shimazu clan, lords of Satsuma, and
entered into a quasi-vassal relationship with them. Shō Tai was the last King of the
Ryūkyūs and was sent into exile by the Japanese when they annexed the islands.
 358 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion
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Plate 2 Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine, Okinawa: the honden as seen from the haiden. Note the three
small altars in front of the shrine door, the rock on the ground to the left side of the shrine with an
engraved inscription and the general atmosphere of neglect (photo: author).

The connection with King Shuten and Tametomo was particularly important to
the ‘Shintoization’ project because Tametomo was a seventh-generation member
of the Minamoto clan through the lineage of the Emperor Seiwa (r. 858–76).
Using this link, it could be alleged that the Okinawan royal family was in fact a
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James Huntley Grayson

Plate 3 Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine, Okinawa: rude, ‘Okinawan’ shrine located to the left rear of the honden (photo: author).

359
 360 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

branch of the Japanese imperial house, thus justifying the ‘Shintoization’ of re-
ligious practices and, more broadly, the Japanese annexation of Okinawa. After
1931, as an extension of this policy, Shinto shrines were erected in front of local
shrines throughout the Ryūkyūs (Kerr 1958: 451–2; Summers 1994: 70, 78–82).
The shrine at the Tsukishiro-no-miya site is an excellent example of the use
which was made of local shrines to conform to the centralistic policies of State
Shinto. Here, a local shrine was linked into the broader practices of Shinto for
the purposes of assimilating Okinawans into the general Japanese population of the
empire. Moreover, this shrine, because of its links with the Ryūkyūan royal myth,
could be made to fit in neatly with the Japanese imperial myth, thus providing a
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mytho-ideological basis for the annexation of the kingdom.9

However, the subtle rejection by the Okinawans of this project is quite plain.
The length of time which it took actually to construct the central shrine is one
historical indication of this fact. What has happened at the Tsukishiro-no-miya
is even more striking. The ‘Shinto’ parts of this shrine (the formal structures)
in effect have been completely abandoned. What could be more telling than the
use of the temizuya as a litter bin. Even more striking, however, is the way in
which local practice has reclaimed the site. At the time of my visit, there were five
separate altars, three of which were in front of the honden itself, as if reclaiming
that building. There is also a dedicatory stone to a spirit which is venerated locally.

Shrines in Korea and Japan: three points of comparison

Having examined four case studies of ‘Shinto’ shrines in different regions of Japan,
we may pose a broad question about Japanese popular religious practice: ‘What is
Shinto’? For the Jinja Honchō it is the religious practices of the Japanese from time
immemorial. Likewise, any examination of textbooks on world religions would in-
dicate that something called ‘Shinto’ is recognized as being a ‘religion’ on the order
of Christianity or Buddhism, as if it were a similarly organized entity with coherent
doctrines and uniform practices. The shrines which we have examined in these
case studies do not fit easily into the four-fold categorization of Shinto which the
Shrine Association would have us believe exists – imperial Shinto, shrine Shinto,
sect Shinto and folk Shinto. The shrines on Kyushu which we have examined
belong to the Shrine Association, yet the spirits venerated there are not Japanese.
Before the end of the Second World War, residents of the village of Nangō-son and
Kijō-chō were ridiculed for worshipping Korean spirits – that is, a non-Japanese
spirit was seen to be a non-Shinto spirit. In the Meiji period, the Tamayama
Shrine, because it venerated a non-native spirit, was re-organized so that proper
‘Japanese’ spirits were enshrined there. Although the local people rejected this
intervention in their local practices, it is clear that officials of the reforming Meiji
government saw that their shrine was not a proper Shinto shrine. The shrine at
the Tsukishiro-no-miya site was never a Shinto shrine in any sense because it was
a shrine in another national tradition, yet it was ‘Shintoized’, a process which
 James Huntley Grayson 361

has been visibly rejected in modern times. Local people in their own way have
reclaimed this shrine for themselves.
The history of these four shrines over the past century and a half has been a
struggle to accommodate to a process of standardization driven by the nationalistic
needs of the Meiji regime as it strove to create a ‘modern’ state. These shrines
clearly were seen not to be ‘Shinto’, and had to be made Shinto. Yet for the local
people, these shrines never lost their initial character as local shrines dedicated to
locally important figures.
In its pamphlet Shinto, the Shrine Association makes the point that at the core
of the ‘Shinto’ tradition are the practices of imperial Shinto and shrine Shinto.
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Although recognizing variation in specific practice among the 80,000 or so shrines

registered with it, the Shrine Association asserts that a life lived in reverence to
the kami is characterized by three features – gratitude for blessings, helpfulness to
others and a ‘harmonious acknowledgement of the will of the emperor’ (Ueda n.d.:
9–10). A statement such as this represents an attempt to create a unified entity out
of some very disparate elements. The actual unity of shrine practices and beliefs is
arguably less uniform than the practice and theology of loosely organized Christian
bodies such as the Congregational churches where local practice and theology
are supposed to predominate. More importantly, as Breen and Teeuwen have
suggested, it is highly unlikely that the average participant in local shrine rituals
has any sense of consciously promoting the imperial system, or of being part of
some greater religious entity, as suggested by the Shrine Association’s pamphlet.
A comparison at this point with the religious scene in Korea would be in-
structive. The first striking thing about Korean folk religion in comparison with
Shinto is that it has no name. It is commonly called ‘shamanism’, but it is erro-
neous to refer to Korean folk religious practices by this term, because not only do
the activities of the shaman not incorporate all of the folk religious practices of
Korea, but also they do not even constitute the predominant form of folk religious
practice. Specialized terms created by scholars are not any more satisfying than
‘shamanism’. Korean folk religion is known variously as musok ( ), musok-
kyo ( ), min’gan sinang ( ) and other terms, but all are descriptive
terms and none is completely satisfactory. This should not be surprising. A diag-
nostic characteristic of a folk religion is that it is nameless because it represents
the accumulation of local practice over a long period of time. Beliefs, values and
practices which may be similar from place to place in a region or within a nation
may be taken to be similarities within a broad cultural tradition. These similari-
ties by themselves, however, do not constitute a formal, institutionalized religious
organization.10
The reason why Korean folk religion, or elements of it, was not moulded by
the élite into a formalized nativistic religious tradition was that, following the
official adoption of Buddhism and Confucianism in the early sixth century, the
Korean élite saw themselves as creating and maintaining a thoroughly continental
civilization which was similar in character, practice and standards to China. Folk
 362 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

traditions, particularly the shamanistic elements which were seen to be supersti-

tious, were suppressed. For example, the first king to adopt Buddhism in Silla
took as his reign name ‘Pŏphŭng’ ( , r.513–539), which translates the San-
skrit term Cakravartı¯ rāja, ‘The King Who Turns the Wheel of the Law’. Such
a reign style indicated the thorough acceptance of ‘continental’ (Chinese) civi-
lization including Buddhism. All subsequent Korean élites took the same view
towards nativistic traditions and looked on native religious traditions in particu-
lar as being ŭmsa ( , immoral rites).11 Japanese élites clearly took a different
view. The encounter with Buddhism and continental civilization in ancient Japan
led to the creation of a parallel, nativistic religious tradition, promoted by ‘his-
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tories’ such as the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, which confirmed the distinctiveness
of Japanese religious and political traditions. It is too lengthy a story to discuss
here, but suffice it to say that this different approach to the encounter with con-
tinental civilization created a concept of nativism which could be used at appro-
priate times to support the imperial institution, national distinctiveness and the
state. Thus, it is no surprise that ‘State Shinto’ emerged (re-emerged?) at the
end of the nineteenth century during Japan’s encounter with European industrial
civilization.
The second observation to make in comparing Shinto and Korean folk religion is
the character of shrines and shrine practice. Korean popular religion consists very
broadly of two main strands – local shrine practices and the activities of individual
shamans. The majority of non-shamanic ritual practice in Korea centres on village
or clan shrines. That is, folk religious practice is focused on the veneration and
propitiation of spirits who are the founders of a particular clan or village, or both.
The spirits venerated in these shrines are tutelary spirits who are worshipped for
local reasons. The shrines in Miyazaki and Kagoshima Prefectures thus are very
similar in origin and local practice to these Korean shrines. Not that the Japanese
shrines are ‘Korean’, but rather that both sets of shrines have a similar origin
and function within the local society. In the case of the shrines in both Miyazaki
and Kagoshima, similarities in the architecture of shrine buildings and in ritual
practice – where not attributable to deliberate government re-shaping – may be
attributed simply to local, regional or national culture. Korean shrines represent a
wide range of local practice displaying certain broad cultural similarities. One may
speculate that the religious scene in the Japanese archipelago may have had this
same diversity of practice and lack of uniformity before the process of Shintoization
began in ancient Japan.
One of the chief features of Shintoization in the Meiji period was the need
to impose a uniformity of practice on all shrines in Japan. We have noted, for
example, how government officials attempted to alter the spirits worshipped at
the Tamayama Shrine so that it became a proper ‘Shinto’ shrine, how a lo-
cal shrine was made to conform to a centrally determined pattern. There are
shrines in Korea, however, which are clearly not ‘Korean’, such as the Tong-myo
( ) and the Waryong-myo ( ) in Seoul. The Tong-myo was erected on a
 James Huntley Grayson 363

grand scale in 1602 at the command of the Ming Emperor Shên-tsung ( , r.

1567–1619) in commemoration of the lives of Chinese soldiers who died in the
defence of Korea following the invasion by the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi
in the 1590s. The architectural style of the building, the interior layout of the
shrine and the deity Kuan Yü ( , God of War) who is worshipped here are
all Chinese. It is also quite clear that there has been no attempt by the gov-
ernment to ‘Koreanize’ this shrine, nor has any stigma attached to people who
venerated there. In fact, if anything, one might say that the shrine had a cer-
tain prestige because it symbolized the continental cultural unity of China and
Korea. Three other similar shrines – Nam-myo ( , 1599), Pung-myo ( ,
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1883) and Sŏ-myo ( , 1902) – were erected in Seoul, and similar shrines
dedicated to Kuan Yü were erected in other parts of the country (Chŭngbo
Sae kuksa sajŏn 1983: 137, 286, 382, 547, 618; Clark and Grayson 1986:
100, 277).
On the slopes of Nam-san mountain in the southern part of old Seoul is the
Waryong-myo. Built at an uncertain date in the Chosŏn period (1392–1910), it is
dedicated to an associate of Kuan Yü. It also is a Chinese-style shrine, originally
practising a cult of a martial spirit. Unlike the shrines dedicated to Kuan Yü which
have a quasi-governmental status, this shrine is a private foundation. There are
four principal sub-shrines here, one of which is dedicated to Tan’gun, founder
of the Korean nation (Clark and Grayson 1986: 142–4). Thus, the Waryong-
myo incorporates Chinese cults as well as a Korean cult and represents a natural
development in local shrine practice through the addition of other spirits to be
venerated there. These ‘Chinese’ shrines in Korea indicate that in the absence of a
state-supported nativistic religion, and, in spite of centuries of official denigration
of the native traditions, foreign cults such as the ones mentioned above have
flourished in Korea. This is different from the experience of non-standard shrines
in Japan.
A third point of comparison between Shinto and Korean religious experience
is the process of imposing Shinto on nations where it is not an indigenous tra-
dition. We have seen how it was the official policy of the central government
in the Meiji period to harmonise Ryūkyūan and Japanese religious traditions
by linking State Shinto and various local cultic practices in the Ryūkyūs. A
prime example was the attempt to link the royal Shō family and the Japanese
imperial house at the Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine. The contempt with which
the Shinto parts are treated today is a strong indication of the rejection of
this attempt to obliterate local practice and local meaning. Even more instruc-
tive for the understanding of the assertion of local practice is the ‘reclamation’
of the shrine through the erection of five shrines conforming to local cultic
practice.
There is a parallel here with Korea as well. By the end of the colonial occupation
in 1945, there were 1,133 State Shinto shrines in Korea, including the principal
shrine for the nation, the Chōsen jingū. Created for the purpose of imposing
 364 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

uniformity throughout Japan’s imperial possession and to instil and maintain a

sense of patriotism within the local populace, such shrines were always seen as a
prime symbol of imperial domination. For example, following Japan’s capitulation
to Allied forces on 15 August, 1945, the shrine in the northern city of P’yŏngyang
was destroyed that night (Vos 1977: 223–4). The author Richard H. Kim, in his
autobiographical novel Lost Names, provides a vivid account of how hated these
shrines were, and the frenetic way in which the shrine in his village was destroyed
(Kim 1988 [1970]: 160–70). There is a further parallel between Okinawa and
Korea. The Chōsen jingū was built on the mid-slopes of Nam-san facing towards
the central royal palace in the northern part of the old city, the Kyŏngbok-kung.
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The building has been so thoroughly obliterated that there are no traces of it left.
However, on the site of the shrine a memorial and museum have been erected to
An Chunggŭn (1879–1910), the nationalist who assassinated the former Resident-
General in Korea, Ito Hirobumi (1838–1909). In this way, Korean nationalism
reclaimed space which had been claimed by Japanese nationalism in a Shinto
guise.
The rejection of ‘Shintoization’ in Okinawa and Korea in a curious way demon-
strates a central point made by the Shrine Association in its pamphlet that Shinto
is the worship and veneration by the Japanese of the spirits of the Japanese land.
‘Shinto’ is a local religion, a religion local to Japan and not capable of genuine
export or transmission to another nation. A created, nativitistic tradition such
as ‘Shinto’ thus becomes closely associated with the ideology of the political es-
tablishment, as the Shrine Association’s pamphlet makes quite clear, and when
imposed in an occupied country is perceived to be a symbol of oppression and the
loss of nationhood.

Conclusion
What can we conclude from these field-work observations about popular Japanese
religious practice, and what implications do these conclusions have for our re-
search methodology about the beliefs and practices associated with shrines in
Japan? Breen and Teeuwen state that they:
propose a [concept of the] multiplicity of “Ways of the Kami”, each grown out
of different historical and social circumstances, and each with its own ritual and
theological agenda. Such an approach promises not only to open our eyes to
aspects of kami cults and Shinto traditions that have previously been ignored,
but also to throw new light on the rituals, beliefs and ideas of such cults and
traditions that have been studied only through the lens of the . . . notion that
they, ultimately, formed part of a single ‘Way of the Kami’.
(Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 8)
The view propounded by Breen and Teeuwen above takes into account the fact
that ultimately all religious traditions start locally, and that, in order to study the
 James Huntley Grayson 365

indigenous religious traditions of Japan, one has to move beyond the artificial
construct of a single, unvarying, overarching tradition. The case studies which I
have presented of research conducted in Kyushu are not ‘Japanese’ or ‘Shinto’ in
the definition given by the Shrine Association to which they belong. They are local
shrines, and must be examined from that point of view – at least initially. In no
other way could we understand the curious role which these shrines have played in
the sense of local ‘belongingness’, of local identity. As Breen and Teeuwen pointed
out earlier, people who offer veneration at these shrines do not have a sense of
belonging to some greater tradition, such as Shinto. These shrines are Japanese
because they are part of the fabric of religious life in the Japanese archipelago.
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They are ‘Shinto’ only in the sense that they were made to belong to a larger
entity in the past, and currently belong to an association which propounds a
doctrine of national religious uniformity. Indeed, local people have rejected this
‘Shinto’ identity when it was imposed on them. This is most clearly seen in the
cases of Okinawa and Korea where the attempt to impose an alien system was
rejected in clear but different ways. Shinto as a tradition ‘local’ to Japan could
not be transmitted or imposed on another nation because of its associations with
Japan’s empire and political establishment.
Consideration of the situation of shrine worship in Korea emphasizes the im-
portance of researching beyond the local level, and also comparatively. The lack
of an artificially created, state-sponsored nativistic tradition and a modern na-
tional shrine association means that shrines in Korea must be studied locally and
comparatively to discover the regional and national patterns in practice and be-
lief. The fact that foreign cultic traditions could be left relatively unaltered – not
‘Koreanized’ – offers an interesting comparison with the ‘Shintoization’ of the
Meiji era. Consequently, it would seem to me that the approach of understanding
local traditions without utilizing the ‘baggage’ of a unifying national tradition is a
conceptually and methodologically excellent way forward to conduct research on
shrines in Japan. However, one important aspect of a later stage in such research,
unnecessary in Korea, must be the consideration of how the concept of ‘Shinto’
has influenced the practice of shrine worship in local communities. We may want
to research locally, and comparatively, but we cannot ignore the influence of the
concept of ‘Shinto’ over the centuries. ‘Shinto’ may not be a homogeneous reli-
gious tradition, but it is an interesting case example of the relationship between
religious practice and the state.
University of Sheffield

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Graham Healey and Nicholas Tranter of the Centre for Japanese Studies of the
School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield for help in translating and interpreting
Japanese terms, as well as Ms Hokama Komako, a post-graduate research student in the same
department for help with Okinawan terms. Any errors are my responsibility.
 366 ‘Shinto’ and Japanese popular religion

Notes
1. Unless otherwise stated, all information in this section on the shrines in Miyazaki-ken is drawn
from my field notes taken on 7 April 1999. I was assisted by Professor Ch’oe Int’aek, a Korean
national and anthropologist who was teaching at that time at Miyazaki Metropolitan University
in Miyazaki City, who both translated for me and provided me with supplementary information.
Professor Ch’oe has made a special study of these shrines.
2. The general term for traditional Korean clothing. Women’s clothes, consisting of a separate
bodice and skirt, are called chima chŏgori.
3. I have shown elsewhere that, at least in the case of south-western Japan, Susa-no-o must be
considered to be a culture bearer who came from Korea. See Grayson (2002).
4. South of Miyazaki City is the town of Tano ( ) which also has a foundation myth involving
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a Paekche prince. The town tried unsuccessfully to utilize this connection for its tourist and
commercial development.
5. All information in this section, unless otherwise noted, is based upon my field notes taken
on 8 April 1999. My informant was a woman aged over 60, Ms Araki Sumi, a descendant of
the original settlers of the village and a member of a committee responsible for the upkeep of
the Tamayama shrine. Translation was provided by Ms Ch’ae Sugyŏng, a young citizen of the
Republic of Korea employed by the township government to provide translation and tourist
assistance to visitors from the ROK.
6. These two spirits, major figures in the Shinto pantheon, are respectively the brother of the Sun
Goddess Amaterasu Ō-mikami and her grandson who was the direct ancestor of the imperial
family.
7. This is curious because village shrines in Korea do not have basins for ritual ablutions, a fact
which Ms Araki may not have known.
8. All information in this section, unless otherwise referenced, is taken from my field notes of
1 April 1999.
9. A similar argument was made at the time when Japan annexed Korea into its empire in 1910.
The Director of Foreign Affairs for the Government-General of Chōsen, at a meeting of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, on 4 March 1911, argued that Koreans and Japanese were
the same race of people and that the annexation was nothing more than the rejoining of these
two long-separated branches of a common stock (Komatsu 1912: 1–12).
10. There is an umbrella organization of shamans in the Republic of Korea called the Korean Feder-
ation of Associations for Victory over Communism and Respect for Beliefs (Tae Han sŭnggong
kyŏngsin yŏnhap-hoe ). The title reflects the highly anti-communist ethos
of late twentieth-century southern Korea. The organization was founded in 1970 and now claims
a membership of 40,000 in 215 branches. Although the training of young shamans is part of the
work of the Federation, it is a much looser group than the Shrine Association in Japan. For the
work of this group, see Guillemoz (1998: 73–89). Also, this group does not encompass shrines
(other than those associated with a particular shaman) and there is no equivalent organization
for all of the shrines in Korea, although there are local village associations, and clan associations
which maintain clan shrines.
11. Ch’oe Malli ( , fl. 1414–44), a counsellor of state at the time of the creation of the Korean
alphabet, petitioned King Sejong in 1444 against its adoption because its use would remove
Korea from the realm of civilization. ‘Only such peoples as the Mongolians, Tanguts, Jürchen,
Japanese, and Tibetans have their own writings. But this is a matter which involves the barbarians
and is unworthy of our concern’ (see Lee 1993, 1: 519–20). The Korean alphabet is now a prime
symbol of Korean nationalism. For a discussion of the attitudes of Confucian officials towards
Buddhism and local traditions, see Deuchler (1992: 175–6).
 James Huntley Grayson 367

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James Huntley Grayson is Professor of Modern Korean Studies in the School of East Asian
Studies at the University of Sheffield. An anthropologist, his main research interests are in ancient
and modern Korean religion, particularly folk religion and Christianity, and Korean oral folklore.
His research uses comparative examples from Japan and China.