At the end of the Edo Period, imperialism became more absolute as nationalism was advocated in the Hirata Japanese classics and in Mitogaku, a school of Japanese historical and Shinto studies that arose in the Mito domain, and imperialism also developed into a movement to abolish Buddhism.
幕末には、平田国学や水戸学などナショナリズムとして絶対化され、仏教を排斥する廃仏毀釈としても現れる。