Imperial Rome and Imperial Japan Similarities?

You probably hear it all the time that the United States and Ancient Rome are alike, people have written books on it, and blah blah. I want to point out how many similarities are there between the Roman Empire and Japan (running from the Shogunate to the World War Two Japan)?

One thing that I have been looking at recently is the status of the 'Gods of the Sacred Spaces' or the Local Gods. For the Romans it is the Lares and for Shintoism it is the Kami. These gods are much more personal to the people rather then the big names usually associated with the Pantheons. Given that they looked after the family, the household, towns, forests, etc. Both erected special shrines to 'house' the gods and had similar styles of tribute.

I also want to point out the Emperor's divine status in both. As both for Rome and Japan the divinity of the ruling figurehead has grown and changed over time. In Japan it reached its peak with the late established State Shintoism.

What other aspects many be similar?
 

Esopo

Banned
You probably hear it all the time that the United States and Ancient Rome are alike, people have written books on it, and blah blah. I want to point out how many similarities are there between the Roman Empire and Japan (running from the Shogunate to the World War Two Japan)?

One thing that I have been looking at recently is the status of the 'Gods of the Sacred Spaces' or the Local Gods. For the Romans it is the Lares and for Shintoism it is the Kami. These gods are much more personal to the people rather then the big names usually associated with the Pantheons. Given that they looked after the family, the household, towns, forests, etc. Both erected special shrines to 'house' the gods and had similar styles of tribute.

I also want to point out the Emperor's divine status in both. As both for Rome and Japan the divinity of the ruling figurehead has grown and changed over time. In Japan it reached its peak with the late established State Shintoism.

What other aspects many be similar?

The "divine" status of the emperor in rome was nowhere similar to the one in japan. It was a political ceremony with political reasons and goals, and wasnt taken seriously by anyone outside its political meaning.
 
The "divine" status of the emperor in rome was nowhere similar to the one in japan. It was a political ceremony with political reasons and goals, and wasnt taken seriously by anyone outside its political meaning.

Sure it was political, but it was taken up with a passion by even the skeptical Romans, particularly due to the linking of the popular House Hold Cults as I mentioned. The Greeks especially took it up with a passion, Hero and Ruler Worship being no strange thing to them. Particularly it was Julius and Augustus that was most popularly and wide spread worshiped. The nature of Imperial Worship certainly changed overtime, with the arrival of Christianity giving it a new style, which Constantine took and ran with. Especially considering Beatification.
 
I'd argue the Romans had very little concept of just how "Divine" the Emperor was. If the aristocrats or the army hated the Emperor or his actions, they had no qualms about knocking him off and I believe that a lack of divine status was one of the main problems in the 3rd century crisis. The sort of "divine" status I would argue came much later and is more appropriate for Medieval Kings and Queens and maybe Byzantine Emperors. I am however, unfamiliar with Japanese attitudes towards regicide, but I am under the assumption that killing the Emperor was not really the done thing?
 
The divine status of the Emperor would probably have a more positive result in Ancient Rome if they could continue to trace their lineage back to Venus
 
i'd say Imperial Japan looks somewhat more like late-republic Rome (post Sulla) than Imperial Rome ... both were effectively oligarchies (Plutocratic and Aristocratic respectively), with neglectable powers laying in the common population, and with imperialistic tendencies in terms of getting more land under their rule (at this point in time Italia and Rome was still two distinct things) ... The Japanese Emperor was (and had been since ~1200) little more than a hand puppet for the ruler (usually the one able to get the strongest military anywhere in the country fastest, and/or the one being liege to the soldiers acting as the Emperors Honor Guard (*cough*Gaolers*Cough*), hence very much a religious/ceremonial ruler
 
Top