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Journal of Religion in Japan 7 (2018) 1–26 brill.com/jrj Heian Jingū Monument or Shintō Shrine? Ellen Van Goethem Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan [email protected] Abstract The founding of Heian Jingū 平安神宮 in 1895 is usually explained in very simple terms: it was established to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the move to the Heian capital and was, therefore, dedicated to the city’s founder, Kanmu Tennō 桓武天皇. A closer look at the shrine’s founding story, however, reveals a much more complex account that illustrates the fits and starts of State Shintō in the third decade of the Meiji period. By disentangling the standard narrative of Heian Jingū’s founding, this article touches not only on doctrinal issues such as the deification of past emperors, but also on material aspects such as early attempts at reconstructing long-lost structures and the Meiji government’s creation of a set of plans that regulated the appearance of newly erected shrines. Doing so will help explain how the design of this major impe- rial shrine could deviate so significantly from the stipulated template and be so replete with Chinese influences at a time when the relationship between the two countries was one of outright hostility. Keywords commemoration – shrine architecture – Chinese-style architecture – reconstruction – deification – State Shintō 1 Introduction When Heian Jingū 平安神宮 was consecrated in Kyoto in 1895, the city was struggling to find a new purpose. Even though its role had already been mostly symbolic for several centuries, Kyoto had officially served as the capital since its founding in 794. However, with the departure of the new Meiji 明治 Emperor © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/22118349-00701005Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 05:10:32PM via free access 2 van goethem (1852–1912, r. 1867–1912) and most of his retinue to Tokyo in 1868, the city had lost what was left of its age-old prestige. The population dwindled from about 350,000 in the late Edo period (1600–1868) to less than 240,000 by 1873, with many of Kyoto’s most affluent citizens moving away to Tokyo (Seiin Chishika 1877, vol. 1: 10). This unprecedented emigration dealt a severe blow to the city’s economy and threatened the livelihoods of its remaining crafts- men, entrepreneurs, and merchants. In the 1890s, these businessmen started to petition the local government to plan festivities to commemorate the found- ing of Kyoto eleven centuries earlier in the hopes that these events—and the resulting tourism—would reinvigorate the city’s fortunes. In that sense, the establishment of Heian Jingū was indeed a “business proposition” (Hardacre 2017: 413), especially because its inauguration took place two weeks before the opening of the Fourth National Industrial Exhibition (Naikoku Kangyō Haku- rankai 内国勧業博覧会) and the shrine was located adjacent to the exhibition grounds. Heian Jingū was thus intended as a testimony to Kyoto’s bygone days as the nation’s capital and was classified as a major imperial shrine (kanpei taisha 官幣大社), the highest category in the Meiji government’s hierarchic classifi- cation of Shintō shrines (shakaku seido 社格制度) of 1871.1 Yet in spite of its grandeur, Heian Jingū’s own founding narrative is surprisingly simple: The year 1895 happened to be the 1100th year since the Heian Capital came into existence. Marking this commemorative year, the citizens of Kyoto decided to praise the virtues of Emperor Kanmu and deify him as the ancestral god of Kyoto. To this end, they restored the style of Chodo-in [sic], the main edifice of the Heian Capital, …2 In other words, Heian Jingū was established to commemorate the move to Heiankyō 平安京 in 794 and was, therefore, dedicated to the city’s founder, Kanmu Tennō 桓武天皇 (737–806, r. 781–806).3 Moreover, the shrine’s design was modeled after part of Kanmu’s eighth-century government office com- pound or Chōdōin 朝堂院, which accounts for the rather unusual blend of 1 Only Ise Jingū 伊勢神宮 ranked higher because this complex was considered to surpass all other shrines and was, therefore, not included in the hierarchy. 2 Quoted from the “平安神宮 Heian Jingu Shrine” pamphlet available at Heian Jingū.The pam- phlet may also be downloaded from http://www.heianjingu.or.jp/print/heianjingu.pdf (last accessed 26 September 2018). 3 At the time of its establishment only Kanmu was venerated at Heian Jingū. In 1940, Kōmei Journal of ReligionDownloaded in Japan from Brill.com09/27/2021 7 (2018) 1–26 05:10:32PM via free access heian jingū 3 Japanese- and Chinese-style architecture, with the latter being the most visible, at this important shrine. If we reflect on the contents of founding stories such as this more deeply, however, several questions come to mind. Why was the commemoration held in 1895 rather than in 1894? Why was a replica of Chinese-style vernacular buildings imbued with references to the guardian deities of the four directions (shijin 四神)4 deemed suitable for one of the country’s highest-ranking shrines when two decades earlier the Meiji government had issued clear instructions on what newly erected shrines (so-called sōken jinja 創建神社) should look like? How was it even possible to reproduce these long-lost structures? Beyond being the founder of the capital, what qualified Kanmu for elevation to the sta- tus of deity (kami 神) and becoming the subject of public veneration? In what follows I will explore each of these questions in further detail and in so doing address a number of ideological and material aspects related to Shintō shrines and shrine worship in the mid-Meiji period. 2 The Commemoration of the Founding of Kyoto and the Fourth National Industrial Exhibition As noted, the establishment of Heian Jingū was in commemoration of the founding of the Heian capital over a millennium earlier. This assertion imme- diately leads us to the rather nitpicky issue of the date of the shrine’s establish- ment, which, strictly speaking, took place 1101 years after Heian was founded, and not 1100 as is claimed. The one-year discrepancy is sometimes explained away by stating that even though Kanmu Tennō moved to the Heian capi- tal in the fall of 794 (Nihon kiryaku 日本紀略, entry dated Enryaku 延暦 13 Tennō 孝明天皇 (1846–1867, r. 1847–1867), the last sovereign to rule from Kyoto, was also deified and enshrined there. See below for further details. 4 References to the four deities—i.e., theVermilion Bird (suzaku 朱雀), theWhiteTiger (byakko 白虎), the Black Turtle-Snake (genbu 玄武), and the Azure Dragon (seiryū 青竜)—may be found in many Shintō shrines, but their presence at Heian Jingū is particularly strong. For example, they appear on the lanterns suspended from the roof ridges, crown the two ablu- tion basins in the courtyard, and were used to distinguish the four volumes of records on the shrine’s establishment kept by the Cooperative for the Commemoration of the 1100th Anniversary of the Transfer of the Capital to Heian (Heian Sento Senhyakunen Kinensai Kyōsankai 平安遷都千百年紀念祭協賛會) (Wakamatsu 1896). The four deities and related practices were introduced to the Japanese archipelago as early as the Kofun period (3rd–6th c.) and could thus be considered as having been fully assimilated by the nineteenth century when they were most likely seen as symbols of imperial authority. Journal of Religion in Japan 7 (2018) 1–26 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 05:10:32PM via free access 4 van goethem (794).10.22), his first NewYear’s audience (chōga 朝賀) in the new audience hall (Daigokuden 大極殿) would have been on the first day of the first lunar month of Enryaku 14 (795) (e.g., Kasuga 2013: 61). It is well known from contemporane- ous written records, however, that the 795 New Year’s audience was cancelled because construction on the Daigokuden was ongoing (Nihon kiryaku, entry dated Enryaku 14.1.1) and it was not until 796 that Kanmu held his first New Year’s audience in the new capital.5 Other sources justify the discrepancy as resulting from the fact that the com- memorative events, and thus the shrine’s inauguration, were made to coincide with another major event taking place in the nation’s old capital in 1895: the hosting of the Fourth National Industrial Exhibition, a four-month-long expo- sition where modern technology, new industrial developments, fine art, prod- ucts, and resources of different regions were presented to the public. Up until that time the National Industrial Exhibitions had taken place in Tokyo’s Ueno Park, but after three exhibitions there (in 1877, 1881, and 1890), other areas in the country had started to vie for the privilege and financial gain of hosting the next exhibition. Although there was vigorous competition with Osaka and Kōbe (Kudō 2009: 17), the commission was officially given to Kyoto in August 1892. Based on visitor numbers of the previous editions, expectations were that once again more than one million people, including a few hundred foreigners, would attend the event. For a city struggling to find a new purpose now that it no longer served as the nation’s political and ceremonial center, this potential boost to the economy and its confirmation as a worthy sight-seeing destination were more than welcome. In contrast to the current prevailing narrative that both the exhibition and the commemorative events were planned for 1895 from the outset, a closer look at available Meiji-period records reveals that they were, in fact, originally to be 5 In all fairness, references to a supposed 795 New Year’s ceremony only start to appear in later sources.

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