This presentation examines the emerging prevalence of deified peasants in Tokugawa Japan (1603–1867), particularly among those who died as a result of organizing protests against corrupt governance by the feudal samurai regime. Prof. Miura argues that the emergence of deified peasants, commemorated through local “martyr shrines,” represented a widespread religious current in Tokugawa society and a new mode of deification previously unobserved.
The talk will first focus on the case of Sakura Sōgorō, possibly the most renowned Tokugawa peasant martyr, and analyze lesser-known localized examples from different regions of the Japanese archipelago. Through these case studies, the presentation illuminates the intersection between protest movements and religious practices and explores the ways in which this convergence complicates the received narrative of “progress” and “civilization” in modern Japan and beyond.
Takashi Miura's research focuses on Japanese religions in the early modern and modern periods. He is the author of Agents of World Renewal: The Rise of Yonaoshi Gods in Japan (2019, University of Hawai'i Press). He is currently working on his second book, in which he analyzes the history of deified peasants in the early modern period and its impact on subsequent religious practices in Japan.
