1868 was fuelled by a renewal of Confucian ethics and imperial patriotism among Japan's ruling class. Among these reformers, Buddhism was seen as a corrupting influence that had undermined what they envisioned as Japan's original purity and greatness. They wanted to place a renewed emphasis on worship as an indigenous form of ritual, an attitude that was also fuelled by anxieties about Western expansionism and fear that Christianity would take hold in Japan. In 1868, all shrine priests were placed under the authority of the new Jingikan, or Council of Kami Affairs. A project of forcibly separating worship from Buddhism was implemented, with Buddhist monks, deities, buildings, and rituals banned from shrines. Much Buddhist material was destroyed. In 1871, a new hierarchy of shrines was introduced, with imperial and national shrines at the top. Hereditary priesthoods were abolished and a new state-sanctioned system for appointing priests was introduced. In 1872, the Jingikan was replaced with the Kyobusho, or Ministry of Edification. This coordinated a campaign whereby ("national evangelists") were sent through the country to promote Japan's "Great Teaching," which included respect for the and obedience to the emperor. This campaign was discontinued in 1884. In 1906, thousands of village shrines were merged so that most small communities had only a single shrine, where rites in honor of the emperor could be held. Shinto effectively became the state cult, one promoted with growing zeal in the build-up to the Second World War. In 1882, the Meiji government designated 13 religious movements that were neither Buddhist nor Christian to be forms of "Sect Shinto". The number and name of the sects given this formal designation varied; often they merged ideas with Shinto from Buddhism, Christian, Confucian, Daoist, and Western esoteric traditions. In the Meiji period, many local traditions died out and were replaced by nationally standardised practices encouraged from Tokyo. Post-war During the U.S. occupation, a new Japanese constitution was drawn up. This enshrined freedom of religion and separated religion from the state, a measure designed to eradicate State Shinto. The emperor declared that he was not a ; Shinto rituals performed by the imperial family became their own private affair. This disestablishment ended government subsidies to shrines and gave them renewed freedom to organise their own affairs. In 1946 many shrines formed a voluntary organisation, the Association of Shinto Shrines (). In 1956 the association issued a creedal statement, the ("general