State Shintō was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as a divine being.
Empire of Japan's 50 sen banknote, featuring Yasukuni Shrine
This 1878 engraving by Toyohara Chikanobu (1838–1912) visually presents the central tenet of State Shinto (1871–1946). This Shinto variant asserted and promoted belief in the divinity of the Emperor, which arose from a genealogical family tree extending back to the first emperor and to the most important deities of Japanese mythology.
Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur, at their first meeting, at the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo, 27 September 1945
A torii gate at Yasukuni shrine
The Empire of Japan, also referred to as the Japanese Empire, Imperial Japan, or simply Japan, was the Japanese nation-state that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the reformed Constitution of Japan in 1947. From 29 August 1910 to 2 September 1945, the Empire of Japan included the naichi and the gaichi. It also ruled colonies such as Kwantung, South Seas, Mantetsu, and its concessions. In the closing stages of World War II, with Japan defeated alongside the rest of the Axis, on 2 September 1945 the formalized Japanese Instrument of Surrender was issued in compliance with the Potsdam Declaration of the victorious Allies; and Japanese territory was immediately reduced to the Japanese archipelago as it is today.
The Empire of Japan (1910-1945)
The Naval Battle of Hakodate, May 1869; in the foreground, Kasuga and Kōtetsu of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Emperor Meiji, the 122nd emperor of Japan
Prominent members of the Iwakura mission. Left to right: Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Masuka, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi, Ōkubo Toshimichi