Destroying Shrines to Create Japan: Early 20th-Century Shintō Shrine Consolidation as Performative State Capacity

Abstract

How do expanding states coerce individuals beyond their capacity for enforcement? Scholars have long considered the instrumental dimension of state capacity, but discussion of performative state behavior has thus far been limited to assuaging, rather than controlling, populations. I present the case of Shintō shrine consolidation in early 20th-century Japan as an example of performative state capacity. I argue that bureaucrats forced the shutdown of small, culturally important shrines to demonstrate coercive power the state substantively lacked. Using a novel dataset of 874 prefecture-year observations constructed from archival sources, I find a strong, negative relationship between military conscription and the presence of small shrines, supporting my qualitative finding that consolidation intimidated rural communities into complying with state objectives. I also find a strong, positive relationship between an increase in larger shrines and conscription, suggesting a limitation to performed coercive power. This research complicates existing views of state capacity while emphasizing the limitations of coercion in a performative political environment.