The purpose of this paper is to explore the political intention of the Tokugawa Shogunate which formulates laws and regulations of Buddhism in the Edo period so as to make Buddhism become the important administrative agency of the government. Konchiin Sūden, a monk of the Linji school（金地院崇傳, 1569-1633）, was initially responsible for the religious affairs of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He assisted the shogunate in drafting the "The Law to Buddhist Temples Enacted" which includes the main and branches temple system, rewards for learning etiquette as well as the appointment of monks. In "The Law to Buddhist Temples Enacted", the Honmatsu Seido and the Jidan Seido have the greatest influence on the management of Buddhist groups and the general public. These systems even affect today's Japanese society until now. To govern the Buddhist Order, the Tokugawa Shogunate established the Honmatsu Seido which clearly stipulated the relationship between main temple and their branches at the beginning of the Shogunate and placed the branch temples under the supervision of the main temple. Using relationship between the temple and the dātṛ, Tokugawa Shogunate made the Jidan Seido a household registration management system. Buddhist monasteries were incorporated into the shogunate system and monks were responsible for the household registration management of various believers. People, regardless of their actual beliefs, must belong to a Buddhist monastery and become their dāna and dātṛ so that the interaction of the temple and the believers produced the steady of Jidan Seido, a parishioner system. Although the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the people and stabilized the government by implementing religious policies; on the other hand, Buddhism also had the willingness to actively assume this responsibility so as to obtain the guarantee in control of secular power.
