The term shinbutsu bunri (神仏分離?) in Japanese indicates the forbidding by law of the amalgamation of kami (native Shinto deities) and buddhas (buddhist deities) made during the Meiji Restoration. It also indicates the effort made by the Japanese government to create a clear division between native Shinto (kami) beliefs and Buddhism on one side, and Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines (jinja) on the other. Until the end of Edo period, local kami beliefs and Buddhism were intimately connected in what was called shinbutsu shūgō (神仏習合), up to the point that even the same buildings were used as both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.
The tendency to oppose Buddhism can be seen already during the early modern era as a nationalistic reaction to its spreading but the term usually indicates the anti-Buddhist movement that, from the middle of the Edo period onwards, accompanied Confucianism, the study of ancient Japanese literature and culture (kokugaku), and Shinto nationalism, all movements with reasons to oppose Buddhism. In a narrower sense, shinbutsu bunri is the policy of separation of Shinto and Buddhism pursued by the new Meiji government with the Kami and Buddhas Separation Order (神仏判然令, Shinbutsu Hanzenrei?). This last event is of particular historical importance, partly because it triggered the haibutsu kishaku, a violent anti-Buddhist movement which in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate and during the Meiji Restoration caused the forcible closure of thousands of temples, the confiscation of their land, the forced return to lay life of monks, and the destruction of books, statues and other Buddhist property. Even Buddhist bronze bells were melted to make cannons. After a short period in which it enjoyed popular favor, the process of separation of Buddhas and kami however stalled and is still only partially completed: even today any major Buddhist temple has a small shrine dedicated to its Shinto tutelary kami, and vice-versa Buddhist figures (e.g. goddess Kannon) are revered in Shinto shrines. If the policy failed in its short-term aims and was ultimately abandoned, it was successful in the long term in creating a new religious status quo in which Shinto and Buddhism were perceived as different, independent and equal in standing.
Read more about Shinbutsu Bunri: Shinbutsu Bunri in The Early Modern Age, Meiji Era's Shinbutsu Bunri and Its Causes, The Separation, Consequences of The Separation Policy