Empire of Japan

====Transposition in social order and cultural destruction====
{{Main|Japanese new religions#Before World War II|Christianity in Japan#Opening of Japan|History of the Catholic Church in Japan#Rediscovery and return}}
{{see also|Burakumin|Turanism}}

In the 1860s, Japan began to experience great social turmoil and rapid modernization. The feudal caste system in Japan formally ended in 1869 with the [[Meiji restoration]]. In 1871, the newly formed [[Meiji Era|Meiji]] government issued a decree called ''Senmin Haishirei'' ([[:ja:賤民廃止令|賤民廃止令]] ''Edict Abolishing Ignoble Classes'') giving [[burakumin]] equal legal status. It is currently better known as the ''Kaihōrei'' ([[:ja:解放令|解放令]] ''Emancipation Edict''). However, the elimination of their economic monopolies over certain occupations actually led to a decline in their general living standards, while social discrimination simply continued. For example, the ban on the consumption of meat from livestock was lifted in 1871, and many former ''burakumin'' moved on to work in [[slaughterhouse|abattoirs]] and as [[butcher]]s. However, slow-changing social attitudes, especially in the countryside, meant that abattoirs and workers were met with hostility from local residents. Continued ostracism as well as the decline in living standards led to former ''burakumin'' communities turning into slum areas.

In the [[Blood tax riots]], the Japanese Meiji government brutally put down revolts by Japanese samurai angry over the legal revocation of the traditional [[Untouchability|untouchable]] status of burakumin.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

The social tension continued to grow during the [[Meiji period]], affecting religious practices and institutions. Conversion from traditional faith was no longer legally forbidden, officials lifted the 250-year ban on Christianity, and missionaries of established Christian churches reentered Japan. The traditional [[syncreticism]] between Shinto and [[Buddhism]] ended. Losing the protection of the Japanese government which Buddhism had enjoyed for centuries, Buddhist monks faced radical difficulties in sustaining their institutions, but their activities also became less restrained by governmental policies and restrictions. As social conflicts emerged in this last decade of the Edo period, some new religious movements appeared, which were directly influenced by [[shamanism]] and [[Shinto]].

Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, but to little effect. Beginning in 1587 with imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ban on Jesuit missionaries, Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity. Under Hideyoshi and the succeeding Tokugawa shogunate, Catholic Christianity was repressed and adherents were persecuted. After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1620, it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground, becoming {{nihongo|hidden Christians|隠れキリシタン|kakure kirishitan}}, while others lost their lives. After Japan was opened to foreign powers in 1853, many Christian clergymen were sent from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches, though proselytism was still banned. Only after the Meiji Restoration, was Christianity re-established in Japan. Freedom of religion was introduced in 1871, giving all Christian communities the right to legal existence and preaching.

[[Eastern Orthodoxy]] was brought to Japan in the 19th century by St. Nicholas (baptized as Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin),<ref name="snow">''Equal-to-the-Apostles St. Nicholas of Japan, Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist web-site, Washington D.C.''</ref> who was sent in 1861 by the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] to [[Hakodate]], Hokkaidō as priest to a chapel of the Russian Consulate.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.orthodoxjapan.jp/daishukyou.html |title=日本の正教会の歴史と現代 "History of Japanese Orthodox Church and Now" |access-date=August 25, 2007 |date=February 1, 2007 |publisher=The Orthodox Church in Japan |language=ja}}</ref> St. Nicholas of Japan made his own translation of the [[New Testament]] and some other religious books ([[Triodion|Lenten Triodion]], [[Pentecostarion]], [[Liturgy|Feast Services]], [[Book of Psalms]], [[Irmologion]]) into [[Japanese language|Japanese]].<ref>''Orthodox translation of Gospel into Japanese, Pravostok Orthodox Portal, October 2006''</ref> Nicholas has since been canonized as a saint by the [[Patriarchate of Moscow]] in 1970, and is now recognized as St. Nicholas, [[Equal-to-the-Apostles]] to Japan. His commemoration day is February 16. [[Andronic Nikolsky]], appointed the first Bishop of Kyoto and later martyred as the archbishop of [[Perm, Russia|Perm]] during the [[Russian Revolution]], was also canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a Saint and Martyr in the year 2000.

[[File:Nagasaki Oura C1378.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan (Nagasaki)|Ōura Church]], [[Nagasaki]]]]
[[Divie Bethune McCartee]] was the first ordained [[Presbyterian]] minister [[Mission (Christian)|mission]]ary to visit Japan, in 1861–1862. His gospel [[Tract (literature)|tract]] translated into Japanese was among the first Protestant literature in Japan. In 1865, McCartee moved back to [[Ningbo]], China, but others have followed in his footsteps. There was a burst of growth of Christianity in the late 19th century when Japan re-opened its doors to the West. Protestant church growth slowed dramatically in the early 20th century under the influence of the military government during the [[Shōwa period]].

Under the Meiji Restoration, the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of {{transliteration|ja|sakoku}} in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to 'modernise' the appearance of upper class Japanese men. With the Dampatsurei Edict of 1871 issued by Emperor Meiji during the early Meiji Era, men of the samurai classes were forced to cut their hair short, effectively abandoning the chonmage ({{transliteration|ja|chonmage}}) hairstyle.<ref name="kanban">{{cite book |last=Scott Pate |first=Alan |title=Kanban: Traditional Shop Signs of Japan |date=9 May 2017 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a4ofDgAAQBAJ&dq=Dampatsurei+Edict&pg=PA149 |location=New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press |quote=In 1871 the Dampatsurei edict forced all samurai to cut off their topknots, a traditional source of identity and pride. |isbn=978-0691176475}}</ref>{{rp|149}}

During the early 20th century, the government was suspicious towards a number of unauthorized religious movements and periodically made attempts to suppress them. Government suppression was especially severe from the 1930s until the early 1940s, when the growth of [[Japanese nationalism]] and [[State Shinto]] were closely linked. Under the Meiji regime ''[[lèse majesté]]'' prohibited insults against the Emperor and his Imperial House, and also against some major Shinto shrines which were believed to be tied strongly to the Emperor. The government strengthened its control over religious institutions that were considered to undermine State Shinto or nationalism.

The majority of [[Japanese castle]]s were [[Japanese castle#Meiji Restoration|smashed and destroyed]] in the late 19th century in the Meiji restoration by the Japanese people and government in order to modernize and westernize Japan and break from their past feudal era of the Daimyo and Shoguns. It was only due to the [[1964 Summer Olympics]] in Japan that cheap concrete replicas of those castles were built for tourists.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tengulife.com/2017/05/the-rise-of-concrete-castle.html |title=The Rise of the Concrete Castle |last= |first= |date=May 2, 2017 |website=TenguLife: The curious guide to Japan}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://blog.gaijinpot.com/a-race-across-japan-to-see-its-last-original-castles/ |title=A Race Across Japan to See its Last Original Castles |last=Foo |first=Audrey |date=Jan 17, 2019 |website=GaijinPot}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2296.html |title=Japanese castles History of Castles |date=September 4, 2021 |website=Japan Guide}}</ref> The vast majority of castles in Japan today are new replicas made out of concrete.<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |date= |url=https://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/kansai/himeji/attractions/himeji-jo/a/poi-sig/1097570/356690 |title=Himeji-jō |website=Lonely Planet}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |date=Apr 6, 2020 |title=Japan's Modern Castles Episode One: Himeji Castle (姫路城) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddVbPRgO_50 |publisher=Japan's Modern Castles}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://pursuitist.com/japanese-concrete-castle/ |title=Japanese Concrete Castle |last=Carter |first=Alex |date=May 22, 2010}}</ref> In 1959 a concrete keep was built for Nagoya castle.<ref>{{cite news |last=Baseel |first=Casey |date=March 27, 2017 |title=Nagoya Castle's concrete keep to be demolished and replaced with traditional wooden structure |url=https://japantoday.com/category/national/nagoya-castles-concrete-keep-to-be-demolished-and-replaced-with-traditional-wooden-structure |work=RocketNews24}}</ref>

During the Meiji restoration's [[Shinbutsu bunri]], tens of thousands of Japanese Buddhist religious idols and temples were smashed and destroyed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://jref.com/articles/shinbutsu-bunri-the-separation-of-shinto-and-buddhism.468/ |title=Shinbutsu bunri – the separation of Shinto and Buddhism |last= |first= |date=11 July 2019 |website=Japan Reference}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Park |first1=T. L. |date= |title=Process of architectural wooden preservation in Japan |url=https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/STR13/STR13041FU1.pdf |journal=Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture |volume=XIII |issue= |pages=491–502}}</ref> Many statues still lie in ruins. Replica temples were rebuilt with concrete. Japan then closed and shut done tens of thousands of traditional old Shinto shrines in the [[Shrine Consolidation Policy]] and the Meiji government built the new modern [[List of the Fifteen Shrines of the Kenmu Restoration|15 shrines]] of the [[Kenmu restoration]] as a political move to link the Meiji restoration to the Kenmu restoration for their new State Shinto cult.

Japanese had to look at old paintings in order to find out what the [[Horyuji temple]] used to look like when they rebuilt it. The rebuilding was originally planned for the Shōwa era.<ref>{{cite news |last=Burgess |first=John |date=December 26, 1985 |title=After 51 Years, a Temple Is Restored |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/12/26/after-51-years-a-temple-is-restored/39e9345f-d796-40be-b639-587fba1d8319/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |location= |access-date=}}</ref>

The Japanese used mostly concrete in 1934 to rebuild the [[Togetsukyo Bridge]], unlike the original destroyed wooden version of the bridge from 836.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://alljapantours.com/japan/travel/where-to-go/best-places-to-see-in-kyoto-japan/ |title=20 PLACES YOU MUST SEE IN KYOTO |last=Hannah |first=Dayna |date=June 12, 2018 |website=Japan Travel Blog}}</ref>