Shake (social class)

The Shake (社家) was a Japanese social class and the name for families that dominated Shinto shrines through hereditary government offices and priestly positions.

Officially abolished in 1871, with 14 shake families granted hereditary nobility (Kazoku), most shrines were however unaffected, and at many shrines hereditary succession of former shake families continues to this day.

[1] Since ancient times, the shake families worshipped their ancestral god of the clan.

[2] For this reason, most shake families serving ancient shrines were originally Kuni-no-miyatsuko clans.

The shake as an official social class was abolished from the political ideology that a shrine should not belong to one family as part of the Daijō-kan decree in 1871.