Sacred Space in the Modern City Brill’s Japanese Studies Library Edited by Joshua Mostow (Managing Editor) Caroline Rose Kate Wildman Nakai VOLUME 43 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bjsl Sacred Space in the Modern City The Fractured Pasts of Meiji Shrine, 1912–1958 By Yoshiko Imaizumi LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Cover illustration: A crowd descends upon Omotesandō for the celebration of the completion of the Meiji shrine, 1920 (Reprinted from Meiji Jingū oshashinchō, ed. Teikoku gunjin kyōikukai, 1920, unpaginated). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Imaizumi, Yoshiko. Sacred space in the modern city : the fractured pasts of Meiji shrine, 1912–1958 / By Yoshiko Imaizumi. pages cm. — (Brill’s Japanese studies library ; volume 43) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-24819-9 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-25418-3 (e-book) 1. Meiji Jingu (Tokyo, Japan) 2. Architecture and society—Japan—Tokyo. 3. Nationalism and architecture—Japan—Tokyo. 4. Nationalism—Religious aspects—Shinto. 5. Tokyo (Japan)—Buildings, structures, etc. I. Title. BL2225.T62M455 2013 299.5’61350952135—dc23 2013016355 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 0925-6512 ISBN 978-90-04-24819-9 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25418-3 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. 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CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ vii List of Figures and Tables ............................................................................ ix Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1 The Creation of Meiji Shrine 1912–1920 ............................................ 15 1.1 Concepts: Shrine and Emperor ................................................. 16 1.2 Movements: Negotiated Construction .................................... 23 1.3 Events: Spatial Practices on 3rd November .......................... 39 2 A Mnemonic Space: The Construction of the Memorial Art Gallery 1912–1936 .................................................................... 61 2.1 The Practice of History and Memory ...................................... 62 2.2 The Discursive Construction of the ‘History of Meiji’ ....... 68 2.3 Exhibiting History and the Sublimation of Memory in the Gallery ................................................................................................. 78 2.4 A Case Study: Commemorative Operations and a Painting on Iomante ...................................................................................... 103 3 Shrine Approaches: To the 1923 Earthquake and beyond .......... 121 3.1 The Space and Practice of Dwelling ........................................ 122 3.2 Internal/External: Spanning the City Border ........................ 128 3.3 Space and Class Creation: Seismic Shocks of 1923 .............. 145 4 Imagined Discipline: The 1940 Meiji Shrine Sports Meet ........... 163 4.1 The Body-Community Relation and its Development ...... 164 4.2 National Unity through Callisthenics ..................................... 172 4.3 Local Realities: United in Their Diversity .............................. 182 5 The Re-Creation of Meiji Shrine 1945–1958 ..................................... 197 5.1 The Dawn of the Post-War ......................................................... 200 5.2 Meiji Shrine during the Occupation ....................................... 214 5.3 Difference and Repetition: Shrine Reconstruction ............. 232 vi contents Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 257 Glossary .............................................................................................................. 267 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 271 Index ................................................................................................................... 325 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must express gratitude for the help I have received in completing this book. Firstly, I should like to express my heartfelt thanks to the late president of Kokugakuin University, Dr. Abe Yoshiya, who sadly passed away on 1st December 2003. Dr. Abe encouraged me to conduct my PhD research at the School of Oriental and African Studies and, without his support, this book would not have been started. I am extremely grateful to my professors, lecturers and advisors, Dr. Brian Bocking, Dr. Stephen Dodd, Dr. Angus Lockyer and Dr. John Breen. Their advice and expertise have been hugely valuable to me in my stud- ies at SOAS, and will continue to be so in my future endeavours. I would like to extend a special thanks to my personal supervisor, Dr. John Breen. Without his guidance and dedication, this book would never have been finished. In addition, I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Hirakawa Sukehiro, emeritus professor of Tokyo University, Professor Shimazono Susumu, Department of Religious Studies at Tokyo University, and Dr. Ogawa Masahito, Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Centre. The sugges- tions and insights of these scholars, made to me in both formal and infor- mal settings, were invaluable in enabling me to refine the arguments in my research. I would also like to express my appreciation to Neil Raven and Simon Breen, both of whom helped polish my English writing. Without their friendship and commitment, this book would have been far less readable. Nevertheless, if mistakes remain, they are mine and mine alone. Finally, my studies at SOAS would not have been possible without the assistance of Meiji shrine. I would like to record my deepest grati- tude to the staff at the shrine, in particular Emeritus Chief Priest Toyama Katsushi, Chief Priest Nakajima Seitarō, and the staff of the Meiji Shrine Research Institute. They have provided endless support, advice, and guid- ance throughout my studies, and I am forever grateful. LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures 1 The inner precinct today ...................................................................... 2 2 The spatial structure of Meiji shrine, 1926 ...................................... 11 3 Youth groups engaged in shrine construction work .................... 26 4 The Honden at the time of completion ........................................... 33 5 Plan for Meiji shrine forest .................................................................. 36 6 Sumō wrestling and horse racing (keiba) in the outer precinct, 2nd–3rd November 1920 ....................................................................... 49 7 Festival to celebrate the completion of Meiji shrine in Hibiya Park, 1st–3rd November, 1920 ............................................................. 50 8 A crowded Omotesandō, 1920 ............................................................ 53 9 Flying postcards, around 3rd November 1920 ................................ 59 10 Postcard depicting the pre-war outer precinct and the Memorial Art Gallery ............................................................................. 62 11 Paintings of the imperial funeral ....................................................... 86 12 Paintings of the imperial visit to a silver mine ............................. 88 13 The Memorial Art Gallery in the outer precinct. Earlier plan made in 1916 and the final plan in 1918 ........................................... 92 14 Exhibition rooms: The Galerie des Batailles in the Palace of Versailles; the Galerie des Rubens in the Louvre Museum; the Japanese Painting Room of the Memorial Art Gallery ........ 95 15 Memorial statues depicted in a picture scroll ............................... 98 16 A preview of the gallery ........................................................................ 99 17 Mitsuoka Shin’ichi’s sketch .................................................................. 107 18 Variations of the Hokkaido tour related pictures ......................... 109 19 Harajuku and Omotesandō today, thronging with young people ......................................................................................................... 122 20 Yoyogi, and the inner precinct beyond the Tokyo City border of 1921 ......................................................................................................... 125 21 Omotesandō in 1920 ............................................................................... 131 22 Map showing Urasandō and the planned and final routes for road I-3-3 ..................................................................................................