By the middle of the Kamakura era there appeared a group of people who insisted in the Shinpon butsujaku theory that Buddhas were in turn the embodiment of Shinto gods and that Shinto gods were the masters that Buddhas followed.
鎌倉時代中期になると、逆に仏が神の権化で、神が主で仏が従うと考える神本仏迹説も現れた。