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Rh closing year of the nineteenth century, another step downward was taken by making a complete official demarcation between Shintō shrines and Buddhist temples. Hereafter Buddhist and Christian matters come under the charge of the Bureau of Religions; while Shintō affairs are entirely secularized and set apart under a Bureau of Shrines. This is the final step in the official disestablishment of Shintō. It is one of the greatest triumphs of civilization and Christianity in Japan, for it has evidently been made necessary by the spread of the gospel; and this move is fraught with deep significance, with great promise and encouragement.

Even before this official action had been taken, the necessity for completely secularizing Shintō had been fully recognized within its own circles. In 1899 the officials of the Great Shrine at Ise, in which are preserved the mirror, the sword, and the jewel, the three sacred treasures of Shintō, took the proper legal steps to become a secular organization. They asserted that Shintō is "merely a mechanism for keeping generations in touch with generations, and preserving the continuity of the nation's veneration for its ancestors." Shintō could never hope "to stand as a religion," but it might stand "as the embodiment of a national sentiment." According to the editor of the "Japan Mail," the leaders of Shintō have "shown great astuteness" in taking that step; and others have even suggested that they have very shrewdly laid a most dangerous trap for Christians