After the Meiji Restoration, Japanese government protected Shinto and treated it not as a special religion but as State Shinto. The government closely related Shinto with the holy emperor, and they used Shinto as a tool for their state governance. State Shinto was clearly distinguished from private sects of the Shinto religion. It was a model of ideological state governance to form State Shinto and to promulgate the Imperial Rescript on Education. Meiji statism attempted to restore national sovereignty and pursued imperialism and colonialism through the Sino- and Russo-Japanese Wars. However, its militaristic trend developed to ultra-nationalism. Kita Ikki advocated the exclusion of the zaibatsu, senior statesmen and political parties and the establishment of government for direct connection with the emperor and the people.