Sacred Space in the Modern City

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 Jingū: Sengo fukkō no kiseki (Kajima shuppankai, 2008); Meiji Jingū: ‘Dentō’ o tsukutta dai purojekuto (Shinchōsha, 2013).

'this is the first integrated history of Meiji shrine; previous studies only focused on a single aspect of the site (e.g., architecture or forestry) and did not take the postwar years into consideration. Sacred Space in the Modern City is thus an important contribution to the field. It is not only of interest to historians of religion, however: the book also addresses topics such as the history of city planning, the role of art in the construction of national memory, and the significance of sports and physical exercise to modern nationalism. Drawing on primary and secondary sources in both Japanese and English, the work is surprisingly multifaceted in its approach, using Meiji shrine as a focal point for the study of placemaking, memory construction, and nation-building in early twentieth-century Japan.(...) This is an important book, theoretically sophisticated and with a wealth of new insights and historical details that are presented in English for the first time. It draws on an impressive array of primary and secondary sources and is rich and multifaceted, addressing a number of different themes that all pertain to Meiji shrine in some way but that have wider implications as well.'Aike P. Rots, University of Oslo, Monumenta Nipponica, 71:2 (2016)