Freedom,Religion and the Making of the Modern State in Japan, 1868–89

This paper rethinks the article of religious freedom of the Meiji Constitution of 1889 and calls into question the liberalist paradigm employed to understand the Constitution and modern Japanese history. In this liberalist framework, the Constitution manifests the peculiar and authoritarian nature of the pre-war Japanese state. In particular, the 28^th article, which provides for the conditional freedom of religious belief, is seen as no more than a cover for social control by the state. This paper examines the histories of the ideas of religion and freedom, and the religious freedom article, and argues that the most appropriate task is not to measure how much religious freedom the Meiji Constitution failed to guarantee against a de-historicised liberalism, but rather to consider the function of the very inclusion of religious freedom in the Constitution. I argue that the inclusion of religious freedom as a generic type of liberty in the Meiji Constitution was instrumental in the creation of the private modern individual as a subject-citizen. It is through this private individual citizen that the modern state as a public, secular authority was created.     

明治末期的神社整理与国家神道

战前日本政府推行的国家神道对近代日本的国家进程产生了不可估量的影响,同时它也是束缚战前日本国民的精神桎梏。明治末期由政府所进行的神社整理,是地方改良运动的重要一环,同时也被称为神社史上的"第二次维新",它对国家神道深入到社会的最末端起了重要作用。研究这一问题对于我们深入理解战前日本的国家神道具有重要意义。     

关于日本神社原初功能的考察

神社是日本神道的重要组成部分,在神道信仰中扮演着重要角色。本文通过与同样是祭祖场地的中国"社"的对比和对日本早期神社地面结构物和活动状况、神社附加功能的发展、神社的蛇信仰等方面入手,推测神社最初的部分功能可能和中国的"社"等一样,做祈祷生殖繁盛的道场之用。换言之,神社的原初功能有不少,但其中之一可能与生殖崇拜有关。