Review of: Karli Shimizu, <em> Shinto Shrines: Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire</em>

Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire is the first English-language monograph on the Shinto shrines established outside of Japan between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.In the introduction (chapter 1), Shimizu outlines her aim to "explore how Shinto shrines were both secularized and religionized, as well as how this process affected their position within society."By considering the ideology of imperialism and colonialism and their "secular" dimension as the socio-cultural backdrop against which overseas Shinto shrines where established, the author seeks to "demonstrate that secularism can be just as oppressive as a state religion" (27).Shimizu joins a growing group of religion scholars who question the use of the category of religion in the Japanese context.As Shimizu argues, "The modern concepts of religion and the secular are not self-evident categories, but are rooted in a specific genealogy that can be traced back to early modern Europe and the development of the nation-state" (26).Hence, Shimizu considers the equally contested category of secularism or secularity as another concept in need of scrutiny and further research, "Doing this allows us to examine shrines' role in promoting the state's attempt at embedding a new, modern consensus of reality-a Japanese secularity" (27).Note that Shimizu does not ignore the equally religious elements of the overseas shrines.On the contrary, by focusing on secularity Shimizu skillfully allows for an analytical comparison between the religious and secular elements of Japanese nation-building, invigorating her study