Regulations concerning the rites performed at shrines, first developed in the early Meiji period as part of the process of centralising control of shrines and standardising shrine practices across the nation, in order to synchronise local rites with the ritual calendar of the imperial household. The regulations were revised after the war and reissued by the Jinja Honcho for its member shrines in 1948.
A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Brian Bocking.