Hokkaidō Shrine

Hokkaidō Shrine

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 deposed the Shōgun and returned the Emperor to absolute power over Japan. It included a redefinition of Shintō, emphasizing the divine origins of the Imperial line. If the Emperor is descended from the creator gods, that means greater authority. He's a god, do as he says.

The Allies during and immediately after World War II referred to this as "State Shintō". That term wasn't used in Japan, but it was a reasonable attempt at describing how divine authority was claimed for the Emperor.

Emperor Hirohito, now known (within Japan) as the Shōwa Emperor, delivered what was called the "Humanity Declaration" on New Year's Day 1946. The Allies intended for this to be a denial of Imperial divinity.

The declaration was in an extremely formal and archaic form of Japanese, which the Japanese people themselves struggled to understand. But the Sino-Japanese War had begun in 1937, now it was already 1946, and the declaration was close enough to satisfy the Allies and allow Japan's new constitution to be written.

Hirohito's successor, Akihito, had repeatedly said while Crown Prince that he had no interest in the old belief in the Emperor's divinity. It seems to me that some aspects of State Shintō persisted until Hirohito's death in 1989 plus a few years of the explicitly anti-divinity Akihito being "the people's Emperor". A small remnant of State Shintō remains at the Hokkaidō Shrine.

To Maruyama Park

Odori Park is the east-west axis of Sapporo. Maruyama Park or Maruyama Kōen is at its west end, at the foot of the mountains along the west edge of the city. I had a ¥830 day pass for the subway, so I took that to the Maruyama Kōen station. It's a short walk from the subway to the park entrance.

You pass through multiple large torii as you approach the shrine.

Shintō and Buddhism use the same cleansing water rite, but with different specific names. In Shintō the purification rite is temizu, the water reservoir is chōzubachi, and the shelter is chōzuya or temizuya. Versus the reservoir being tsukubai and the shelter chozu-yakata at a Buddhist temple.

To prepare yourself properly:

1. Pick up the dipper with your right hand, filling it from where water is pouring in or dipping water out of the reservoir.
2. Pour the water over the fingers of your left hand, being careful to make sure that the water falls into the gutter around the reservoir.
3. Transfer the dipper to your left hand, get more water if you need it, and pour water over the fingers of your right hand.
4. Transfer the dipper back to your right hand, again getting more water as needed, and pour water into your cupped left hand.
5. Take water out of your cupped left hand into your mouth, swish it around, then spit it into the gutter around the reservoir.
6. Raise the dipper up so that the remaining water runs down over the handle and your right hand, falling into the gutter, and return the dipper to the fountain.

Now we can approach the main entrance. Here comes a Shintō priest.

Large hemp bundles and shide or white paper zig-zags mark this as an especially Shintō facility.

The haiden or main worship hall is directly ahead through the main gate. Behind it will be the honden, the most sacred structure, strictly for the kami or enshrined deity or spirit.

The long beams continuing up at angles from the end of the roof gables are chigi, and the horizontal cylinders along the roof ridgelines are katsuogi. These are very Shintō-specific architectural elements dating back at least to the pre-Buddhist Kofun period of 250–538 CE. They were originally restricted to be used only on structures owned by the nobility, later narrowed further to Imperial buildings. Since the mid-19th century, these features are only used on Shintō shrines.

Who's In The Box?

According to Shintō, a shrine structure enshrines or houses one or more kami, deities or spirits that simply do not align with western concepts of gods. The kami resides in the honden, the most sacred and inaccessible part of the shrine.

This shrine was established within a year of the Meiji Restoration. The island of Hokkaidō had been occupied by the indigenous Ainu people, and only partly colonized by Shōgunate Japan. The Meiji government laid claim to the entire island and began harsh programs aimed at erasing Ainu culture.

The Emperor's government selected three kami to be the "Pioneer Kami," a significant early development in State Shintō. They were Ōkunitama, Ōkuninushi, and Sukunahikona, deities of producing things from the land, of making and developing the land, and of healing and reclaiming the land, respectively.

In 1869 the Emperor Meiji ordered a ceremony to enshrine those three deities as the Pioneer Kami. The Kaitakushi, the same government commission that was establishing what would eventually be Sapporo Beer, then used a shintai, a portable shrine akin to a muon trap in which one can confine and transport kami, to transport the Pioneer Kami north to Hokkaidō where the town of Sapporo was being founded. A temporary shrine structure was built and the Pioneer Kami installed in 1870. In 1871, this shrine was built and the kami transferred into it. It was known then as the Sapporo Shrine.

Emperor Meiji ruled 1867–1912. His son Emperor Taishō ruled 1912–1926, but he had profound neurological problems and performed no official duties beginning in 1919. Crown Prince Hirohito took power as Prince Regent in 1921, and was Emperor 1926–1989.

In 1964 Emperor Meiji was upgraded in divine status. Hirohito, who would have another 25 years on the throne, oversaw the deification of his grandfather. He was already enshrined at the Meiji Jingu, the Meiji Shrine, between Shinjuku and Shibuya in Tōkyō. In 1964 Meiji was upgraded to being one of the Pioneer Kami. By that time his policies had almost entirely wiped out the Ainu people and their culture.

A portion of his spirit was decanted into a shintai and transported north to Sapporo. Is this like pinching a graftable bud off a plant? Or is a kami like a yeast colony? I don't know.

This shrine was renamed the Hokkaidō Shrine and upgraded to the first rank of government-supported shrines, now with four deities including Emperor Meiji.

Hirohito's successor Akihito had repeatedly said during his long time as Crown Prince that he had no interest in the concept of Imperial divinity. He was on the throne 1989–2019, abdicating then to return to his academic career as an icthyologist. Akihito's son and successor, Naruhito, is similarly uninterested in divinity. So, while Hirohito declared his grandfather to be a deity, it doesn't look like anyone is going to do that for Hirohito. Meiji should be the last deified Emperor.

There were several visitors, and it was largely what you would expect in a park in a large city. People enjoying the nice weather, looking at the trees and the buildings, taking pictures. For most people in Japan, Shintō isn't a religion, it's a national activity. Like how Americans set off fireworks on July 4th, it's an activity they do but it isn't a religion as that word is usually understood. Shake the rope to sound the rattle, clap twice, make a wish, bow, and that's about it.

But there are Shintō priests, and I saw some people, all of them probably born before the end of the 1960s, who seemed to be quite moved by the experience. Or at least they felt that they should be moved and behaved in a corresponding way. State Shintō lingers.

Ancillary Shrines

Japan used prison labor to accelerate colonization of Hokkaidō. Coal and sulphur mining relied on prisoners, Ainu people forced into slavery, indentured workers, Korean workers, and women and children. Many of the miners died.

Korei-jinja is a Shintō shrine dedicated to the spirits of deceased mine workers. It was founded in 1943, and moved here to the Hokkaidō Shrine complex in 1949. It has a secondary emphasis on traffic safety.

Kaitaku-jinja enshrines the spirits of 37 prominent colonization-era settlers. It was founded in 1931, about 70 years into Japan's colonization of Hokkaidō. Many charms and amulets and talismans are available for people wishing for good luck and success.

Kaitaku-jinja has been recently rebuilt. That's quite common with Shintō shrines, with some design elements literally prehistoric while the physical structure remains ephemeral.

Next❯ By Train to Yamagata