Jinja-kyoku

   Shrine Office, or Bureau of Shrine Affairs. Established in 1900 in the Naimusho (Home Ministry), the Jinja Kyoku provided for the central administration of shrines and priests throughout the country. A Bureau of Religions (Shukyo-Kyoku) in the Ministry of Education was established at the same time to oversee 'religions'. By this time the official view that Shinto was not a shukyo, a religion, was well developed. The two new bureaux replaced the shajikyoku which had covered both Shinto and Buddhism since the abolition of the Ministry of Religion (Kyobusho) in 1877. Although as a sub-department of the Home Ministry (Naimusho) the Jinjakyoku fell far short of the Shinto priesthood's early Meiji ideal of a restored Ritsuryo-style Jingi-kan it did symbolise at a high level the separation of Shinto as a civic duty from other 'religions' in Japan. Its activities were expanded in 1940 through the establishment of the Jingi-in. Some claim that the establishment of the jinja-kyoku, rather than earlier Meiji developments, marked the beginning of 'state shinto' (kokka shinto).