Together with the nationalistic ideology of Shintoism, the shrines over the country had been legally and politically comprised in the system of National Shinto since the Meiji Restoration in 1868. With the principle of "the separation of the state and religion" adopted in the revised Constitution after World War II, the shrine should have been wholly deprived of legal significance. However, more or less relevance to the existing legal system is found concerning social function of shrines in contemporary Japan.
First, the caces where the above constitutional principle is actually or alledgedly violated have taken place too often and seriously to be neglected as exceptional.
Second, neither the legal formulation nor socio-cultural basis of the shrine system under the Meiji regime have received due attention for systematic research from scholars of social sciences. Still significant are histolical and sociological studies of such issues as hierarchical administrative system of the shrines,
ujiko (the parishioners) system of each community shrine, system of the representative
ujiko and shrine records, shrine merger policy for national integration, connection of shrines with local government, administration of the forests owned by shrines, and authorities in charge of shrine administration.
Finally, further studies of Japanese society will disclose the socio-cultural basis of the legal significance of the shrine as have appeared through the years before and after the War. Such studies may be chiefly focussed upon social structure of the village community and
miyaza (shrine guilds in a community) as well as social organization of
ujiko for shrine rituals and festivals.
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