In 1870, with the Sh[=o]gun of Yedo deposed, the dual system abolished, feudalism in its last gasp and Shint[=o] in full political power, with the ancient council of the gods (Jin Gi Kuan) once more established, and purified Shint[=o] again the religion of state, thousands of Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o] temples were at once purged of all their Buddhist ornaments, furniture, ritual, and everything that might remind the Japanese of foreign elements.  Then began, logically and actually, the persecution of those Christians, who through all the centuries of repression and prohibition had continued their existence, and kept their faith however mixed and clouded.  Theoretically, ancient belief was re-established, yet it was both physically and morally impossible to return wholly to the baldness and austere simplicity of those early ages, in which art and literature were unknown.  For a while it seemed as though the miracle would be performed, of turning back the dial of the ages and of plunging Japan into the fountain of her own youth.  Propaganda was instituted, and the attempts made to convert all the Japanese to Shint[=o] tenets and practice were for a while more lively than edifying; but the scheme was on the whole a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the first exultation of victory.  Confronted by modern problems of society and government, the Mikado’s ministers found themselves unable, if indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, as in the ancient ages.  For a little while, in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan, or Council of the Gods of Heaven and Earth, held equal authority with the Dai J[=o] Kuan, or Great Council of the Government.  Pretty soon the first step downward was taken, and from a supreme council it was made one of the ten departments of the government.  In less than a year followed another retrograde movement and the department was called a board.  Finally, in 1877, the board became a bureau.  Now, it is hard to tell what rank the Shint[=o] cultus occupies in the government, except as a system of guardianship over the imperial tombs, a mode of official etiquette, and as one of the acknowledged religions of the country.

Nevertheless, as an element in that amalgam of religions which forms the creed of most Japanese, Shint[=o] is a living force, and shares with Buddhism the arena against advancing Christianity, still supplying much of the spring and motive to patriotism.

The Shint[=o] lecturers with unblushing plagiarism rifled the storehouses of Chinese ethics.  They enforced their lessons from the Confucian classics.  Indeed, most of their homiletical and illustrative material is still derived directly therefrom.  Their three main official theses and commandments were: 

    1.  Thou shalt honor the Gods and love thy country.

    2.  Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and
    the duty of man.

    3.  Thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the
    will of his Court.