The was an government organization of the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

established on September 22, 1871 which lasted until April 21, 1872, replacing the

Department of Divinities The , also known as the Department of Shinto Affairs, Department of Rites, Department of Worship, as well as Council of Divinities, was a Japanese Imperial bureaucracy established in the 8th century, as part of the reforms. It was first establish ...

, which had been in charge of

rituals A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

and

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

of the Shinto gods since the Ritsuryo system. The move from a Department to a Ministry was intended as a downgrade in its importance. The ministry sought to help the

Proclamation of the Great Doctrine The was issued in the name of Emperor Meiji on January 3, 1870 (February 3).�歴代の詔勅�� p.66 河野省三内閣印刷局、1940年（国立国会図書館） It declared Shinto (the "way of the gods") as the guiding principle of the stat ...

. It was quickly changed into the Ministry of Religion.

References

{{State Shinto 1872 disestablishments Government agencies established in 1871 State Shinto

Divinities Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single ...

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Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...