The effort to solve these problems has culminated in the complete separation of the control of the Shinto shrines from the oversight of ordinary religious matters. Under the dirce tion of this policy Shinto ceremonies have taken on the character of important affairs of state systematized under national law, in the ritual of which even civil officials may participate. Shinto priests have been given court rank and treated as government officials with appointment and superintendence regulated by the State the support of Shinto institutions has been made an affair of State concern and has been secured wholly or in part out of government revenues; great shrines have been construct ed at government expense; and the shrines themselves have been interpreted and utilized as non-religious agencies for the strengthening of national morality. How does it come about that such a position has been adopted by the Japanese government, and what is its justification in actual historical fact? The attempt to answer these questions constitutes the subject matter of the following discussion.