Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1996 23/3-4 The World of Spirit Pacification Issues of State and Religion

This essay examines the role of “spirit pacification ” (chinkon) in Japanese history, focusing on developments in the medieval period. It begins with a historical sketch of the cults of vengeful spirits (goryo), examines how the exoteric-esoteric system (kenmitsu taisei) managed these cults, and con cludes with comments on the relevance of this topic with regard to Shinto in contemporary Japan and the “Yasukuni Problem. ” Recent years have seen the rapid buildup of a political movement to grant state support once aeain to Yasukuni Shrine, which since Japan’s defeat in World War II has survived as a publically supported “legal religious entity• ” It has been reported that a “National Day of Mourning for the War Dead ” might be enacted in the near future as the first step toward realizing this objective. The movement toward state support for Yasukuni Shrine did not originate in the recent past, of course, for it was already a part of the early efforts to restore State Shinto shortly after the World War I