Origin from 1868
From 1868 the new Meiji government's policy of shinbutsu bunri, separating Shinto from Buddhism to establish Shinto as the state religion, triggered a wave of popular and official violence against Buddhist institutions across Japan known as haibutsu kishaku, "abolish Buddhism, destroy Buddhist images." An estimated 40,000 temples were destroyed nationwide, some provinces losing four fifths of their temples outright, before the government moved to curb the movement's more extreme local excesses. It is the sharpest reversal in Buddhism's otherwise thirteen-century history in Japan since its arrival there in 538.
Facts
Disputed
End YearSourced to the subject's own accountThe source itself is uncertain about phasing: it documents 18,000 temples destroyed between 1872 and 1874 precisely, but states the earlier 1868-to-1872 phase's toll only as "maybe as many again", a hedge this atlas carries forward as 1874 marking the end of the well documented phase rather than a settled close to the movement as a whole. Dates
Start YearSourced to the subject's own account StatusSourced to the subject's own account Learn More
How the Meiji Restoration's Haibutsu Kishaku Suppressed Buddhism in Japan
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
From 1868 the new Meiji government pursued shinbutsu bunri, a policy separating Shinto from the Buddhism it had been intertwined with for centuries, in order to establish Shinto as Japan's own state religion. The separation did not stay administrative. It set off haibutsu kishaku, "abolish Buddhism, destroy Buddhist images," a wave of popular and official violence against Buddhist institutions that swept the country in the years that followed, reaching temples that had stood for generations.
The destruction fell on temples themselves rather than on doctrine or belief. An estimated 40,000 temples were destroyed nationwide, and some provinces lost four out of every five temples they had held, before the government moved to rein in the movement's most extreme local excesses and the campaign gradually subsided.
What haibutsu kishaku changed for Buddhism's standing in Japan was its sharpest reversal since the religion had first arrived there in 538. Thirteen centuries of established presence did not protect the tradition's buildings and images once state policy turned deliberately against the framework that had let Buddhism and Shinto coexist side by side, and the physical toll of those few short years has had no equal since anywhere in Japanese Buddhist history.
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