After the failure of Shintoism instructed by the Shinto Missionary division set up inside of the department of Jingikan (officers of the institution for dedicating to religious ceremony) and the edification based on the ideas of Confucianism, Buddhism, the largest religious group of the days, and particularly its Jodo Shinshu Sect (the True Pure Land Sect of Buddhism) requested the government to jointly propagate three religions in Japan, including Shintoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.
神祇官内に設置された宣教使の神道と儒教を基本とした国民教導が失敗したことを受け、当時最大の宗教勢力であった仏教、特に浄土真宗の要請によって神・儒・仏の合同布教体制が敷かれた。