Shinto

===Meiji era and the Empire of Japan===
{{Main|State Shinto}}
[[File:Chosen Jingu.JPG|thumb|The [[Chōsen Jingū]] in [[Seoul]], Korea, established during the Japanese occupation of the peninsula]]
Breen and Teeuwen characterise the period between 1868 and 1915, during the Meiji era, as being the "formative years" of modern Shinto.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=7}} It is in this period that various scholars have argued that Shinto was essentially "invented".{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=7}}
Fridell argues that scholars call the period from 1868 to 1945 the "State Shinto period" because, "during these decades, Shinto elements came under a great deal of overt state influence and control as the Japanese government systematically utilized shrine worship as a major force for mobilizing imperial loyalties on behalf of modern nation-building."<ref>Wilbur M. Fridell, "A Fresh Look at State Shintō", ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion'' 44.3 (1976), 547–561 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1462824 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107011800/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1462824 |date=7 November 2018 }}; quote p. 548</ref> However, the government had already been treating shrines as an extension of government before Meiji; see for example the [[Tenpō Reforms]]. Moreover, according to the scholar [[Jason Josephson Storm|Jason Ānanda Josephson]], It is inaccurate to describe shrines as constituting a "state religion" or a "theocracy" during this period since they had neither organization, nor doctrine, and were uninterested in conversion.<ref>Josephson, Jason Ānanda (2012). ''The Invention of Religion in Japan''. University of Chicago Press. p. 133. {{ISBN|0226412342}}.</ref>

The [[Meiji Restoration]] of 1868 was fuelled by a renewal of Confucian ethics and imperial patriotism among Japan's ruling class.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=8}} Among these reformers, Buddhism was seen as a corrupting influence that had undermined what they envisioned as Japan's original purity and greatness.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=8}} They wanted to place a renewed emphasis on {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} worship as an indigenous form of ritual, an attitude that was also fuelled by anxieties about Western expansionism and fear that Christianity would take hold in Japan.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=8}}

In 1868, all shrine priests were placed under the authority of the new [[Jingikan]], or Council of Kami Affairs.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|pp=7-8}} A project of forcibly separating {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} worship from Buddhism was implemented, with Buddhist monks, deities, buildings, and rituals banned from {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} shrines.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=8}} Much Buddhist material was destroyed.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=8}} In 1871, a new hierarchy of shrines was introduced, with imperial and national shrines at the top.{{sfnm|1a1=Breen|1a2=Teeuwen|1y=2010|1p=9|2a1=Azegami|2y=2012|2p=71}} Hereditary priesthoods were abolished and a new state-sanctioned system for appointing priests was introduced.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=9}}
In 1872, the Jingikan was replaced with the [[Kyobusho]], or Ministry of Edification.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=10}} This coordinated [[Great Promulgation Campaign|a campaign]] whereby {{lang|ja-Latn|kyodoshoku}} ("national evangelists") were sent through the country to promote Japan's "Great Teaching", which included respect for the {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} and obedience to the emperor.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=10}} This campaign was discontinued in 1884.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=10}} In 1906, thousands of village shrines were merged so that most small communities had only a single shrine, where rites in honor of the emperor could be held.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=11}} Shinto effectively became the state cult, one promoted with growing zeal in the build-up to the Second World War.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=11}}

In 1882, the Meiji government designated 13 religious movements that were neither Buddhist nor Christian to be forms of "[[Sect Shinto]]".{{sfn|Offner|1979|p=215}} The number and name of the sects given this formal designation varied;{{sfn|Bocking|1997|p=112}} often they merged ideas with Shinto from Buddhism, Christian, Confucian, Daoist, and [[Western esotericism|Western esoteric]] traditions.{{sfn|Littleton|2002|pp=100-101}} In the Meiji period, many local traditions died out and were replaced by nationally standardised practices encouraged from Tokyo.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=12}}