23 and they enjoyed a status akin to state religion. However, the new government aimed for a major shift to Shinto-centered religious pol-icy. Underlying this change was the major issue of establishing impe-rial authority on a nationwide scale. During the Edo period the emperor was referred to as “a person above the clouds” and many people were completely unaware of the word “emperor” or even of his existence. This issue, which was es-sential to the basis of the new government, was overseen by the De-partment of Divinities, but it was so completely incompetent that the prominent government figure SAIGŌ Takamori was referred to as “the lunchtime nap bureaucrat.” This meant that the Department of Divinities was soon abolished and briefly replaced by the Ministry of Divinities, which was then restructured to become the bureaucrat-led Ministry of Religious Education. On the one hand, shrines were progressively incorporated into the State Shinto system, and in the end the emperor was positioned as a god. State Shinto provided a structure for buttressing this state of affairs. On the other hand, the status of Buddhism, which had essen-tially acted as a state religion in the Edo period, was eroding away at every step. In the Middle Ages, Japanese religion was an admixture of local deity-worshipping practices (today collectively referred to as Shinto) and Buddhism. Buddhist names and statues were commonly found inside shrines, so the new government promulgated an order requiring the separation of deity-worshipping practices (i.e. Shinto) and Buddhism. The government stripped Buddhist elements from shrines and carried out initiatives such as forcing monks to return to secular life. However, this order was very broadly interpreted and
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