Inasmuch as the Meiji Restoration had sought…

Inasmuch as the Meiji Restoration had sought to return the emperor to a preeminent position, efforts are made to establish a Shinto-oriented state much like the state of a thousand years earlier.

An Office of Shinto Worship is established, ranking even above the Council of State in importance.

The kokutai ideas of the Mito school are embraced, and the divine ancestry of the imperial house emphasized.

The government supports Shinto teachers, a small but important move.

Although the Office of Shinto Worship is demoted in 1872, by 1877 the Home Ministry will control all Shinto shrines and certain Shinto sects will be given state recognition.

Shinto is at last released from Buddhist administration and its properties restored.

Although Buddhism suffers from state sponsorship  of Shinto, it has its own resurgence.

Christianity is also legalized and Confucianism remains an important ethical doctrine.

Increasingly, however, Japanese thinkers identify with Western ideology and methods.