Sacred Space in the Modern City ─ The Fractured Pasts of Meiji Shrine, 1912-1958

A senior researcher at the Meiji Shrine Research Institute, Imaizumi illuminates the production of the shrine as a contested space, from when construction began on the shrine to memorialize Emperor Meiji, to when the shrine facilities were completed in their present form. The meanings of Shinto, religion, and shrine all changed during that period, she says, and the only unchanging element was the actual physical location of the shrine in Tokyo. She challenges the received logic that holds a shrine to be a Shinto institution and Shinto in turn to be a religion. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Yoshiko Imaizumi, Ph.D. (2007), SOAS University of London, is a senior research fellow at Meiji Shrine Research Institute. Recent publications in Japanese include: Meiji Jingu: Sengo fukko no kiseki (Kajima shuppankai, 2008); Meiji Jingu: ‘Dento’ o tsukutta dai purojekuto (Shinchosha, 2013).