The Concept of Religion in Meiji Popular Discourse: An Analysis of the Newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. Issue 1 (1st June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Takao, Makoto Harris
• Is Part Of: Contributions to the history of concepts. Volume 16:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 40
• Page End: 62
• Publication Date: 2021-06-01
• Subjects: anti-Christian -- conceptual history -- constitution -- Japan -- Meiji -- newspapers -- popular discourse -- religion; Concepts -- History -- Periodicals; Political science -- History -- Periodicals; Political science -- Research -- Brazil -- Periodicals; Intellectual life -- History -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- History -- Periodicals; 190.5
• DOI: 10.3167/choc.2021.160103
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1807-9326

Abstract

Abstract: This article challenges claims that the Japanese neologism shūkyō (as a translation for "religionȍ) lacked an established nature prior to the twentieth century and had little to do with experiences of the urban masses. It accordingly problematizes the term as a largely legal concept, highlighting historical newspapers as underutilized sources that offer insight into Meiji popular discourse and attendant conceptualizations of "religion." This article endorses a shift in both our chronological understanding of shūkyō 's conceptual history as well as its sociocultural mobility. By expanding the milieu understood as being familiar with debates on a range of "religious" issues, this article thereby offers a counter-narrative in which regular use of shūkyō begins to clearly emerge from the mid-1880s, exponentially increasing with the following decades.