Resurrecting the Sacred Land of Japan The State of Shinto in the Twenty-First Century

This article explores a subject overlooked in both Japanese and non-Japanese scholarship, namely the state of Shinto in twenty-first century Japan. It addresses Shinto from the perspective of the Shinto establishment, and adopts a material approach, focusing on the material objects known as jingu taima or Ise amulets. The approach is justified by the Shinto establishment's ongoing campaign to disseminate Ise amulets to ten million Japanese homes. This article asks why the Shinto establishment devotes its energies to the amulet campaign and what the campaign discloses about twenty-first century Shinto. It examines the Ise amulets as material objects, explores their manufacture and distribution, and reports on growing resentment amongst shrine priests towards the campaign. It is argued here that, for the Shinto establishment, the Ise amulet campaign is a vital strategy in its declared aim of resurrecting in the postwar the sacred land of Japan.