Spiritual Field Exploitation (心田開発) and the Rural Promotion Movement : A Study of the Shrine Policy of the Japanese Government-General of Korea (Special Issue Dedicated to Professor Jun TOYAMA)

1936 was a noteworthy year for the shrine policy of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, because a series of statutes intended to reorganize the shrine system were enacted or amended in that year. The author believes that this reorganization, which effectively created a legally-based shrine hierarchy in colonial Koea, was carried out in order to increase the number of shrines and thereby better mobilize Korean people to carry out the Government-General's policies. This paper presents a new approach to both the reasons for and the objectives of the shrine system's reorganization. Specifically, it analyzes the socalled policy of "Spiritual Field Exploitation" (心田開発), which was intended to revamp the Korean people's spiritual life in line with the rural promotion movement being promoted by the Government-General during the early 1930s. The reason for the author's stress on this point is that the decision to reorganize the shrine system was taken in the process of developing the policy of "spiritual field exploitation".8KJ00004873447論文Articledepartmental bulletin pape