Shuha Shinto (Sectarian Shinto) can be classified into two categories: the Sect Shinto and New Sect Shinto. The Sect Shinto is the groups of the Shinto believers that started individual religious activities before 1868 and after 1882 when Shinto Shrines were secluded from other religious institutions as the place for rites and festivals conducted by the State (the beginning of so-called State Shinto); they are Kurozumikyo, Shinto Shuseiha, Izumo Oyashirokyo, Fusokyo, Jikkokyo, Shinshukyo, Shinto Taiseikyo, Ontakekyo, Shintotaikyo, Misogikyo, Shinrikyo, Konkokyo, and Tenrikyo(*) according to the date of establishment. Each group has a founder and its own doctrines. Although they worship traditional deities of heaven and earth, following traditional forms of rites and festivals of Shinto, they often have the central figure of divinity to revere. In the case of the New Sect Shinto, they have a notable tendency to make a compromise among Buddhism, Confucianism, and folk faiths such as Yin Yang school. There are some groups which even show characteristics of monotheism as the extreme case.

(*)Tenrikyo withdrew its membership from the Federation of Sectarian Shinto in 1970 and announced that they are not Shinto.