<p> Japan has many small shrines located at street corners, near farms and fields, and in the mountains. This paper discusses how small shrines in Tokyo brought about changes in the early “Meiji period (1868-1912)” that drastically reformed the Shinto shrine system from the urban history perspective. An inspection of the actual situation of these shrines, especially “unranked shrines” is possible by analyzing the administrative documents of Tokyo Prefecture during this period.</p><p> Firstly, there is a clarification of several legal characteristics of “unranked shrines” in the early Meiji period. Shrines, which were called “unranked shrines, ” were not shrine ranked in the modern shrine ranking system but were officially recognized by the government as Shinto shrines. “Unranked shrine” was the customary shrine ranking in order to distinguish these official shrines from unofficial ones. There were some differences between ranked and unranked shrines regarding money and administration.</p><p> Chapter 3 reveals the situation relating to the administration of unranked shrines in Tokyo by interpreting historical documents sent by Shinto priests to the Tokyo Prefectural Government. All unranked shrines were assigned to ranked shines and a Shinto priest of the ranked shrine perform administrative and ritual duties of unranked shrines. Many unranked shrines hired shrine keepers to carry out daily work to avoid the difficulty of administration. Unranked shrines needed to bear the expense for hiring shrine keepers, holding festivals, and repairing the shrine temple.</p><p> The first half of chapter 4 see the restoration of the process of officially regulating unranked shrines in Tokyo. Unranked shrines were regulated in stages as the ranked shrines were graded on a massive scale (four times in Tokyo). There seems to be no regularity regarding the number of unranked shrines assigned to each ranked shrine. It could be inferred that this was not decided by the shrine’s ranking or its number of Shinto priests, especially since some shrines that were graded higher ranks were not assigned any unranked shrines.</p><p> The latter half of chapter 4 defines the relation between the administrative system of unranked shrines and the Ujiko system through analyzing the logic of the formation of the administrative relationships between ranked and unranked shrines by relating them to Ujiko-iki areas. The administrative relationships between ranked and unranked shrines did not vary in stages like the associations of shrines organized according to the shrine ranking system. Furthermore, promotion and demotion of unranked shrines were managed in each Ujiko-iki area. This shows that the administrative relationships between ranked and unranked shrines were formed based on each Ujiko-iki area. The government attempted to unify the administration of all shrines based on the Ujiko system. Believers of unranked shrines were also the Ujiko of the ranked shrines that the shrine was assigned to.</p><p> Therefore, in Tokyo during the Meiji period, the administration of “unranked shrines” was constructed based on the dual logic of the modern Ujiko system and the actual belief of unranked shrines.</p>