Danka system
[1] The danka system changed drastically in 1638 when, in reaction to the Shimabara Rebellion (1637–38), the bakufu decided to stamp out the Christian religion using it as a tool.
[2] Administratively speaking, all Japanese, Shinto priests included, became an integral part of the Buddhist bureaucratic organization, which in turn referred to the Tokugawa.
Local government officials would then collect all terauke, bind them in ledgers called shūmon ninbetsu aratamechō (宗門人別改帳)[3] and submit them to higher authorities.
[3] Not only peasants, but even samurai and Shintō priests could not live or function within society without a terauke,[2] which had assumed a role similar to that of identity papers now.
[3] It also contributed to the enforcement of Buddhist orthodoxy; the danka system was used to stamp out Ikkō-shū and other schools of Buddhism deemed "deviant" in the Tokugawa era.
Purporting to be a bakufu law regulating in great detail the certification of religious affiliation process, it appeared around 1735 and had thereafter large circulation all over Japan.
[2] That the document is a fake is proven beyond doubt by the fact that it lists among the forbidden religions not only Christianity, but also the Fuju-fuse (不受不施) and Hiden (悲田) subschools of the Nichiren sect.
[4] If on the one hand Buddhism allowed a diversification of its authorized sects, on the other it punished tendencies that put into question the political status quo.
[4] As a consequence of all these factors, differences among sects allowed by the government became watered down and Buddhism became more uniform, not least because the Shogunate had a say in matters of religious orthodoxy.
[4] As far as Buddhism was concerned, the defining feature of the danka system during the Edo period was the fact that it guaranteed a steady stream of profits thanks to the mandatory funerary rites.
When the formal dissolution of the whole danka system arrived after World War II, it meant for Buddhism a great loss of income, and therefore financial insecurity.
The government's official policy of separation of Shinto and Buddhism (Shinbutsu bunri) of the time, while not directly responsible for this destruction, provided the trigger that released pent-up energy.
Considering Buddhism's close association with the Tokugawa, it cannot be a surprise that Buddhist monks were regarded as state agents and that several sectors of the Edo society began trying to find alternate ways to satisfy their spiritual needs.
