ABSTRACT
The year 1600 is one of the most significant markers in our perception of Japanese history. It signifies the beginning of a new political order, an age of more than 250 years of peace and stability. Compared with the century that preceded it, commonly known as the period of Warring States (sengoku jidai), the difference in political order could hardly be greater. Naturally, we would expect the change in political circumstances to have had an impact also on intellectual and religious history. This anticipation notwithstanding, it is far more difficult to determine the success of religious beliefs or philosophical ideas than the victory of a political group. Thus, opinions vary when it comes to the question what the predominant innovations in early modern intellectual history actually consisted of. After the “discovery” of Tokugawa Neo-Confucianism by scholars such as Maruyama Masao, the Shinto of that time has gradually become a focus of research. We are now beginning to acknowledge that besides the philosophy of Zhu Xi, indigenous beliefs in the kami were a source of fascination for intellectuals of the early modern period. However, we are still somehow groping in the dark when it comes to the religious ideas of the Shinto and Buddhist priesthood at the beginning of the Edo period — let alone the general populace. This is particularly true in the case of early modern developments of Shinto, with honji suijaku and its ritual expressions in the background.
