Description
- Abstract:
- I present for the first time the complete history of the Maruyama religious movement, from its founding in 1870 as an outgrowth of Mount Fuji faith communities in response to the rapid changes of the Meiji Restoration, through its development building on new concepts of nationhood and popular values of rural Japanese, into its expansion into the United States in the 1930s as a transnational expression of Shinto. Over the course of this longue durée history, which takes us to Tokyo, Kanagawa, Fuji, Seattle and Sacramento, I unearth debates over the meaning of Japan and Shinto in the modern era beginning as early as the 1870s and show how Maruyama members’ self-conception as lay practitioners of a restored Fuji faith grounded in ascetic practice eventually became tied to endorsement of Japan’s colonial projects and overseas wars. I cover topics including the conceptualization of Sect Shinto as a means to manufacture a portable loyalty to Japan for a globalized world, financial issues at the core of Sect Shinto, the regulation and endorsement of healing powers, and the role of bureaucratic authority in modifying doctrine and moderating religious sentiment. While the basic beliefs of the Maruyama movement and their connections to popular religiosity have been outlined by past scholars, my work is the first to excavate the group’s complicated history of entanglement with Shinto and establish its critical role in providing material resources to private Shinto groups during this period of rapid change in the Japanese social and religious landscape.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2026
Citation
Morrow, Avery,
"Maruyama Incidents: Shinto Authority and Fuji Faith in Imperial Japan"
(2026).
Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:ufhc8kty/
Relations
Collection:
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Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Religious Studies department....