Kogokkan University is based in Ise, Mie Prefecture, known as the Holy City to adherents of Shinto - Japan’s historic national religion - and is home to its main shrine. It is a private institution and one of only two Japanese universities providing training for the Shinto priesthood.
Founded in 1882 it was, as Jingu Kogakkan, a state institution from 1903 and became a university from 1940, with a mission to "grasp the Imperial Nation’s values", before being closed by Imperial Edict in 1946. It restarted with departments of history and Japanese literature in 1962 and offered graduate courses from 1962 and doctorates after 1966.
It describes itself as "uniquely positioned to foster Japanese traditions in a natural environment". In 2017 it had just under 3,000 students divided between departments of literature, education and contemporary Japanese society.
Of these 333 were taking the Shinto undergraduate courses designed as a basis for priesthood. The department of Shinto describes itself as offering access to a uniquely Japanese sensitivity and aesthetic sense that has been passed down through the generations.
There is also a Shinto Institute established in 1978, a Memorial Museum of Shinto and Japanese Culture set up in 1989 and postgraduate studies have been offered since the 1990s.
The university press, established in 1967, is noted in particular for a 25 volume series on the shrines which are central to Shinto observance.
The most recent Association of Japanese Universities accreditation in 2016 noted strengths in mission and purpose and a responsiveness to feedback reflected the creation of a Shinto English option following student requests.
