Kokutai
This Meiji Constitution was paired with an official governing philosophy known as the kokutai. The kokutai was nationalist and used nationalism as justification for public policy, but not to the extremes of the 1930s or even the early days of the Restoration. The kokutai considered the state as a hierarchically ordered family with more senior members making decisions by consultation with consensus, a Confucian tradition.
Emperor as Supreme
The head was the emperor as temporal and religious leader. Shinto shrines were stripped of their Buddhist connections and linked to a national organization aimed at loyalty to the throne. So, even if the people had qualified and conditional rights in the Constitution, sovereignty remained with the emperor alone. Natural rights for citizens were not secured under the Meiji Constitution.
Shinto & Buddhism
Nara is an ancient capital of Japan. On a large flat plain are Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. In the 1930s, these places of worship were formally separated between Shinto, folk religion of Japan, and Buddhism brought to Japan from China in the first millennium for nationalist purposes.
Emperor Shomu, a devout Buddhist, funded the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) and its Grand Hall (Daibutsuden). Stories have it that a major Shinto shrine supported the effort for the welfare of the people. For hundreds of years, Buddhism and Shinto traditions were mixed and formed a way of life. Sei Shoganon writes about this life in her account of the court completed in 1002 during the Heian Period (794-1185).