WI: Emperor of Japan Converts to Christianity?

[Timaeus]

whether we want it to or not religions have a nationalistic tone about them, if the 19th century can be described as anything is that it is where true national consciousness begun, most nations today that have a hard time finding national consciousness today were because they didn't exist in the era. Trying to change the national religion of the time especially when it is a minority seems like a doomed premise

Is it impossible for a Japanese Christianity to be nationalist, especially if the Faith started growing in the 16th century instead of being stamped out by the Shinto-Buddhist establishment?

 

[BBadolato]

Is it impossible for a Japanese Christianity to be nationalist, especially if the Faith started growing in the 16th century instead of being stamped out by the Shinto-Buddhist establishment?

Yes, but only if a Christian Daimyo takes power, and does not suffer the Toyotomi-Tokugawa legitimacy crises that resulted in Japan largely isolating itself and rooting any "harmful" influences out like Christianity.

 

[Tom Colton]

Easy: The Emperor is a descendant of Jesus Christ through the Merogivians!
Close enough.

Sit down, Dan Brown.

 

[ZodiacBeast]

Maybe they institutionalize the religion much like the Catholic Church.

According to Wikipedia, Japan's modernization was the start of the idea of "State Shinto".

Fridell argues that scholars call the period 1868–1945 the "State Shinto period" because, "during these decades, Shinto elements came under a great deal of overt state influence and control as the Japanese government systematically utilized shrine worship as a major force for mobilizing imperial loyalties on behalf of modern nation-building."

In 1946, after Japan's defeat, Emperor Showa made a declaration that he was not a deity in human form/god-king/whatever, but that's way too late for Christianity to become dominant.

The only way I can see Christianity gaining an emperor's favor is for no Japanese emperor to ever claim divinity.

 

[Timaeus]

Sit down, Dan Brown.

Meh. Didn't stop the Merovingians from being stuffed into monasteries by the Carolingians when they had no actual power anymore. Won't stop the ATL Christian Shogunal dynasty of Japan from doing the same.

 

[darthfanta]

Meh. Didn't stop the Merovingians from being stuffed into monasteries by the Carolingians when they had no actual power anymore. Won't stop the ATL Christian Shogunal dynasty of Japan from doing the same.

This is most likely what I think would happen if the Shogun became Christian.He will most definitely get rid of the emperor and usurp the throne.

 

[FellowNerd]

Yes, but only if a Christian Daimyo takes power, and does not suffer the Toyotomi-Tokugawa legitimacy crises that resulted in Japan largely isolating itself and rooting any "harmful" influences out like Christianity.

How much do you want to bet in such a scenario that hyper-nationalists would appropriate the shinto religion and use it for there means like the worship of the the germanic pagans like Neo-Nazis do?

 

[Tripledot]

How much do you want to bet in such a scenario that hyper-nationalists would appropriate the shinto religion and use it for there means like the worship of the the germanic pagans like Neo-Nazis do?

Pretty sure that was OTL...

 

[BBadolato]

How much do you want to bet in such a scenario that hyper-nationalists would appropriate the shinto religion and use it for there means like the worship of the the germanic pagans like Neo-Nazis do?

There wouldn't be any hypernationalism. The hypernationalism that resulted from the Meiji was unique because of the circumstances the Tokugawa Shogunate that preceded it namely isolation and a reliance on a coalition of clans to maintain power. Let's say we have an alt shogunate that is not isolationist nor forced by circumstance to rely on a coalition of clans, from there you can't say there will be hypernationalism regardless and that will appropriate the Shinto religion.

 

[Tripledot]

There wouldn't be any hypernationalism. The hypernationalism that resulted from the Meiji was unique because of the circumstances the Tokugawa Shogunate that preceded it namely isolation and a reliance on a coalition of clans to maintain power. Let's say we have an alt shogunate that is not isolationist nor forced by circumstance to rely on a coalition of clans, from there you can't say there will be hypernationalism regardless and that will appropriate the Shinto religion.

There's also the thing that Shinto may or may not be viewed as "primitive superstition." Other East Asian nationalists do not stand behind their folk religion as symbols of nationalism, for example- it's either Confucianism, Christianity, or both, a la Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist China.