● Chapter 2 – Relating Kotodama and Shinto

Historical Lineage of Hakke Shinto

Hakke Shinto, also known as “Shirakawa Shinto,” is a tradition that can trace its legacy back more than 10,000 years, and has its origins as far back in history as the Japanese language itself. Hakke Shinto as an official sect of Shinto is also intimately intertwined to the relationship between politics and religion in Japan throughout the Imperial Age. The teachings of this sect of Shinto is distinct from other sects of modern Shinto in that it was preserved, developed, and disseminated under strict privacy amongst the aristocracy of Japan for more than 1000 years.


Since perhaps 600c.e. there has been an official priest that has served to preside over certain Shinto ceremonies that are conducted exclusively for members of the Imperial Family and for the Emperor of Japan. Specifically, the official was to preside over ceremonies conducted in the Imperial Family’s inner shrine. His duties included performing the rituals of the sacred mirror, and also overseeing the rites dedicated in the Hasshin-den (a room where the eight gods who protect the Emperor are enshrined). It was through the creation of this office that the exclusive relationship between the Imperial Family and the practice of the rites and rituals of the Hakke Shinto sect was established.


Through the Asuka and Nara periods (600 - 800 c.e.) members of high-ranking families such as Inbe, Ohnakatomi, and Tachibana had been delegated and trained to preside over the Hakke Shinto ceremonies for the Imperial Family. However, the delegation of this post was changed from the year Manju 2 (1025 c.e.) when Prince Nobusune, a grandson of the Manju Emporer, was given a new name, “Hanayama Genji,” and was trained for this position. Through this estrangement of their own bloodline, the Imperial Family member was trained in Hakke Shinto and was later assigned to the duties of the Imperial shrine. From this time on, the assignation of this special post has been passed exclusively through the descendants of the lineage of Prince Nobosune, who later changed their family name to Shirakawa Hakuo. The fact that the honorific “O” was permitted to be attached to this family name without the mandatory vassalage usually entailed with such an honor demonstrates the cultural respect affiliated to the traditions of the Shirakawa (Hakke) Shinto. This automatic reverence for the practices and tradititions embodied by the Shirakawa Hakuo Family was also symbolic that the pre-ordained natural order (of the universe) was considered to be of higher merit than the regard given to those people in charge of the administrations of political matters.


Sometime later, the sons of the Shirakawa Hakuo family split into three related family lines that each took turns at presiding over the Imperial rites every several years. Eventually though, only one of the Hakuo lineages remained. According to Nanasawa, the inheritance of the knowledge of the highest ranks of Hakke Shinto is passed in this way:

The Shirakawa Hakuo family continuously held the administrative authority (Jingi-haku) at the Jingi-kan (The Department of Shinto Affairs) from the 10th to the 15th century. Eventually the Shinto bureaucracy could not be presided over by the Shirakawa Hakuo family alone, and from the ranks of the swelling Shinto clergy, Kanemoto Yoshida (1435-1511) appeared and presented a challenge to the Shirakawa authority. Yoshida had risen through the Jingi-kan to become an Imperial Chamberlain (侍従 jijū). He considered that the religious rites of Shinto and Buddhism were becoming entangled and he sought to construe a method by which to discern the Shinto aspect of kami (Spirit Gods) from the Buddhist theory of God. With his knowledge of esoteric Buddhism, Taoism, and Omyo-do he founded his own school of Shinto teaching that is now known as Yoshida Shinto. Throughout his career Yoshida had great influence in the Jingi-kan and held positions such as Senior Assistant Director of Divinities (神祇大輔 jingi taifu) and Vice Director of the Board of Censors (弾正台弼 danjōdai hitsu). Eventually his authority was to extend to the ranking and promotions of all Shinto priests and Shrines, except for those related directly to the Imperial household (Shirakawa Shinto). After that, the exclusive traditions and special status reserved by the Shirakawa family, immune from the influence of Yoshida Shinto at the Jingi-kan, grew to become publicly represented as a type of political rivalry between the groups.

During this period of time, the Shirakawa Shinto actively developed relationships with other Shinto schools such as Tsuchimikado Shinto and Suika Shinto amongst others. By the 1750s, Masamitsuo, the 23rd Head of the Shirakawa Hakuo family, had established the title of “Gakuto” (Head Instructor) of Hakke Shinto and the group began teaching to the general public during the middle of the Edo period (circa 1650).

According to Nanasawa:



While there are not many remaining documents pertaining to official practices of Hakke Shinto, most of what that has survived relate to outlines of religious ceremonial rites rather than any particular philosophy. For the next several decades (1750 -1815) the ceremonial practices of Hakke Shinto were handed down to some Shinto shrines, of which many became special interest causes of some of the royalist groups during the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century. By 1816, Sukenobuo, the 26th Head of Shirakawa Hakuo had laid out specific requirements and regulations for student enrollment and established a standard curriculum to be taught at the Hakke Shinto school. During the Age of Turmoil leading up to the end of the Edo Period, Hakke Shinto had developed a unique educational institution and even had a well-known scholar of Japanese Studies, Atsutane Hirata, as Head Instructor. Throughout this period, many practitioners of Hakke Shinto collaborated with the efforts of the Mito School. These influential political philosophers propagated the loss of confidence in Shogunate rule, and were also influential leaders during the revolutionary changes during the Meiji Restoration (the period of time when Japan emerged as a modern nation after centuries of feudal isolationism). Through this process of collaboration and selective dissemination, the influence of Hakke Shinto was sewn into the political and social structure of the national character of Japan as it emerged into the modern age.