著者

奥山 倫明

出版者

東京大学文学部宗教学研究室

雑誌

東京大学宗教学年報 (ISSN:02896400)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.26, pp.19-34, 2009-03-31

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Kishimoto Hideo (1903-1964, professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tokyo), one of the leading scholars of religious studies in postwar Japan, is also known for his involvement in the postwar reforms of religious institutions and the administration of religion carried out by GHQ/SCAP. One focus of these reforms was to turn Shinto shrines, hitherto considered national institutions, into private religious corporations. Kishimoto himself published several essays discussing his cooperation with GHQ staff, including William Kenneth Bunce (1907-2008) of the Civil Information and Education Section (CIE). Concerning Kishimoto’s activities in the year 1945, his own recollections chiefly detail the following four aspects of the GHQ reforms: 1) the issue of how to deal with Yasukuni Shrine; 2) the issue of how to preserve Ise Jingu; 3) the drafting by the CIE of the so-called Shinto Directive; and 4) the process to replace the 1940 Religious Organizations Law with the Religious Juridical Persons Ordinance in 1945. This essay reviews these issues by referring to several well-known documents as well as to a hand-written copy of Kishimoto Hideo’s diary from 1945, contained in the William P. Woodard Papers in the Special Collection of the University of Oregon Library.