22 In June of 1877 Higashi Honganji in Kyoto ordered Enryō to “rush to the capital.” The classical expression “go to the capital” usually referred to Kyoto, but in this case it was an order to come to the head temple. This meant he would have to quit school in Nagaoka and do as he was told. In the background, however, we have the sequence of events related to the nationwide issues of the Meiji period. There is a saying, “Does history make the man, or does the man make history?” This order would lift Enryō onto the stage of history, but let’s briefly go back in time and explore the issues Japan faced. In January 1868 the new government declared a “restoration of imperial governance”—that is to say, a system under which the em-peror would be the ruler. This was followed by the institution of the Department of Divinities and the Grand Council of State, establish-ing a system of unity between church and state. The Department of Divinities oversaw the religious ceremonies for the imperial court, and the Grand Council of State was responsible for governing the country. Japanese terms related to government that also contain the character for “bureaucracy (官),” such as “bureaucrat” and “official gazette” are said to have derived from these terms naming early-modern government bodies. The Department of Divinities was staffed by people connected with the National Learning classical Japanese studies movement and shrine-based Shinto. In the Edo period, Buddhist temples oversaw citizens’ family registers under the parishioner registration system II. The University of Tokyo Era Rush to the Capital!
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