Shinto shrine

Mount Nantai, worshiped at Futarasan Shrine, has the shape of the phallic stone rods found in pre-agricultural Jōmon sites.

Ancestors are kami to be worshipped. Yayoi period village councils sought the advice of ancestors and other kami, and developed instruments, yorishiro (依り代), to evoke them. Yoshishiro means "approach substitute"[18] and were conceived to attract the kami to allow them physical space, thus making kami accessible to human beings.[18]

Village council sessions were held in quiet spots in the mountains or in forests near great trees or other natural objects that served as yorishiro.[18] These sacred places and their yorishiro gradually evolved into today's shrines, whose origins can be still seen in the Japanese words for "mountain" and "forest", which can also mean "shrine".[18] Many shrines have on their grounds one of the original great yorishiro: a big tree, surrounded by a sacred rope called shimenawa (標縄・注連縄・七五三縄).[18][note 5]

The first buildings at places dedicated to worship were hut-like structures built to house some yorishiro.[18] A trace of this origin can be found in the term hokura (神庫), "deity storehouse", which evolved into hokora (written with the same characters 神庫) and is considered to be one of the first words for shrine.[18][note 6]

True shrines arose with the beginning of agriculture, when the need arose to attract kami to ensure good harvests.[19] These were, however, just temporary structures built for a particular purpose, a tradition of which traces can be found in some rituals.[19]

Hints of the first shrines can still be found.[18] Ōmiwa Shrine in Nara, for example, contains no sacred images or objects because it is believed to serve the mountain on which it stands—images or objects are therefore unnecessary.[18][20] For the same reason, it has a worship hall, a haiden (拝殿), but no place to house the kami, called shinden (神殿).[18] Archeology confirms that, during the Yayoi period, the most common shintai (神体) (a yorishiro actually housing the enshrined kami) in the earliest shrines were nearby mountain peaks that supplied stream water to the plains where people lived.[21] Besides the already mentioned Ōmiwa Shrine, another important example is Mount Nantai, a phallus-shaped mountain in Nikko which constitutes Futarasan Shrine's shintai.[21] The name Nantai (男体) means "man's body".[21] The mountain provides water to the rice paddies below and has the shape of the phallic stone rods found in pre-agricultural Jōmon sites.[21]

The first known Shinto shrine was built in roughly 478.[22]

In 905 CE, Emperor Daigo ordered a compilation of Shinto rites and rules. Previous attempts at codification are known to have taken place, but, neither the Konin nor the Jogan Gishiki[23] survive. Initially under the direction of Fujiwara no Tokihira, the project stalled at his death in April 909. Fujiwara no Tadahira, his brother, took charge and in 912[24] and in 927 the Engi-shiki (延喜式, literally: "Procedures of the Engi Era") was promulgated in fifty volumes. This, the first formal codification of Shinto rites and Norito (liturgies and prayers) to survive, became the basis for all subsequent Shinto liturgical practice and efforts.[25] In addition to the first ten volumes of this fifty volume work (which concerned worship and the Department of Worship), sections in subsequent volumes addressing the Ministry of Ceremonies (治部省) and the Ministry of the Imperial Household (宮内省) also regulated Shinto worship and contained liturgical rites and regulation.[26] Felicia Gressitt Brock published a two-volume annotated English language translation of the first ten volumes with an introduction entitled Engi-shiki; procedures of the Engi Era in 1970.

An example of jingū-ji: Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū-ji in an old drawing. In the foreground the shrine-temple's Buddhist structures (not extant), among them a pagoda, a belltower and a niōmon. The shrine (extant) is above.

Until the Meiji period (1868–1912), shrines as they exist today were rare. With very few exceptions like Ise Grand Shrine and Izumo Taisha, they were just a part of a temple-shrine complex controlled by Buddhist clergy.[27] These complexes were called jingū-ji (神宮寺, literally: "shrine temple"), places of worship composed of a Buddhist temple and of a shrine dedicated to a local kami.[28] The complexes were born when a temple was erected next to a shrine to help its kami with its karmic problems. At the time, kami were thought to be also subjected to karma, and therefore in need of a salvation only Buddhism could provide. Having first appeared during the Nara period (710–794), the jingū-ji remained common for over a millennium until, with few exceptions, they were destroyed in compliance with the new policies of the Meiji administration in 1868.

The Shinto shrine went through a massive change when the Meiji administration promulgated a new policy of separation of kami and foreign Buddhas (shinbutsu bunri) with the Kami and Buddhas Separation Order (神仏判然令, Shinbutsu Hanzenrei). This event 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 Buddhist temples, the confiscation of their land, the forced return to lay life of monks, and the destruction of books, statues and other Buddhist property.[29]

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 where even the same buildings were used as both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.

After the law, the two would be forcibly separated. This was done in several stages. At first an order issued by the Jingijimuka in April 1868 ordered the defrocking of shasō and bettō (shrine monks performing Buddhist rites at Shinto shrines).[30] A few days later, the 'Daijōkan' banned the application of Buddhist terminology such as gongen to Japanese kami and the veneration of Buddhist statues in shrines.[31] The third stage consisted of the prohibition against applying the Buddhist term Daibosatsu (Great Bodhisattva) to the syncretic kami Hachiman at the Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū and Usa Hachiman-gū shrines.[31] In the fourth and final stage, all the defrocked bettō and shasō were told to become "shrine priests" (kannushi) and return to their shrines.[31] In addition, monks of the Nichiren sect were told not to refer to some deities as kami.[31]

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. To this day, almost all Buddhist temples in Japan have a small shrine (chinjusha) dedicated to its Shinto tutelary kami, and vice versa Buddhist figures (e.g. goddess Kannon) are revered in Shinto shrines.[32]

Often the opening of a new shrine will require the ritual division of a kami and the transferring of one of the two resulting spirits to the new location, where it will animate the shintai. This process is called kanjō, and the divided spirits bunrei (分霊, literally: "divided spirit"), go-bunrei (御分霊), or wakemitama (分霊).[38] This process of propagation, described by the priests, in spite of this name, not as a division but as akin to the lighting of a candle from another already lit, leaves the original kami intact in its original place and therefore does not alter any of its properties.[38] The resulting spirit has all the qualities of the original and is therefore "alive" and permanent.[38] The process is used often—for example during Shinto festivals (matsuri) to animate temporary shrines called mikoshi.[39]

The transfer does not necessarily take place from a shrine to another: the divided spirit's new location can be a privately owned object or an individual's house.[40] The kanjō process was of fundamental importance in the creation of all of Japan's shrine networks (Inari shrines, Hachiman shrines, etc.).

Ise Grand Shrine has been the most important shrine in Japan.

The Ise Grand Shrine in Mie prefecture is, with Izumo-taisha, the most representative and historically significant shrine in Japan.[45] The kami the two enshrine play fundamental roles in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, two texts of great importance to Shinto.[45] Because its kami, Amaterasu, is an ancestor of the Emperor, Ise Grand Shrine is the Imperial Household's family shrine. Ise Grand Shrine is, however, dedicated specifically to the emperor and in the past, even his mother, wife and grandmother needed his permission to worship there.[46] Its traditional and mythological foundation date goes back to 4 BCE, but historians believe it was founded around the 3rd to 5th century CE.

Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture is so old that no document about its origin survives, and the year of foundation is unknown. The shrine is the center of a series of sagas and myths.[45] The kami it enshrines, Ōkuninushi, created Japan before it was populated by Amaterasu's offspring, the Emperor's ancestors.[45] Because of its physical remoteness, in historical times Izumo has been eclipsed in fame by other sites, but there is still a widespread belief that in October all Japanese gods meet there.[45] For this reason, the month of October is also known as the "Month Without Gods" (神無月, Kannazuki, one of its names in the old lunar calendar), while at Izumo Taisha alone it is referred to as the Month With Gods (神在月・神有月, Kamiarizuki).[47]

Senbon torii leading to the Fushimi Inari-taisha

Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head shrine of the largest shrine network in Japan, which has more than 32,000 members (about a third of the total). Inari Okami worship started here in the 8th century and has continued ever since, expanding to the rest of the country. Located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, the shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines. Another very large example is the Yūtoku Inari Shrine in Kashima City, Saga Prefecture.

Ōita Prefecture's Usa Shrine (called in Japanese Usa Jingū or Usa Hachiman-gū) is, together with Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū, the head of the Hachiman shrine network.[48] Hachiman worship started here at least as far back as the Nara period (710–794). In the year 860, the kami was divided and brought to Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū in Kyoto, which became the focus of Hachiman worship in the capital.[49] Located on top of Mount Otokoyama, Usa Hachiman-gū is dedicated to Emperor Ōjin, his mother Empress Jingū, and female kami Hime no Okami.[50]

Itsukushima Shrine is, together with Munakata Taisha, at the head of the Munakata shrine network. Remembered for its torii raising from the waters, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The shrine is dedicated to the three daughters of Susano-o no Mikoto, kami of seas and storms and brother of the great sun kami.

Kasuga Taisha is a Shinto shrine in the city of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, Japan. Established in 768 AD and rebuilt several times over the centuries, it is the shrine of the Fujiwara family. The interior is noted for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lanterns that lead up the shrine. The architectural style Kasuga-zukuri takes its name from Kasuga Taisha's honden.

The Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo

The Kumano Sanzan shrine complex, head of the Kumano shrine network, includes Kumano Hayatama Taisha (Wakayama Prefecture, Shingu), Kumano Hongu Taisha (Wakayama Prefecture, Tanabe), and Kumano Nachi Taisha (Wakayama Prefecture, Nachikatsuura).[51] The shrines lie between 20 and 40 km one from the other.[51] They are connected by the pilgrimage route known as "Kumano Sankeimichi" (熊野参詣道). The great Kumano Sanzan complex also includes two Buddhist temples, Seiganto-ji and Fudarakusan-ji.[note 10][51]

The religious significance of the Kumano region goes back to prehistoric times and predates all modern religions in Japan.[51] The area was, and still is, considered a place of physical healing.

Yasukuni shrine, in Tokyo, is dedicated to the soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan.

San Marino Jinja in Serravalle, San Marino, is the first Shinto shrine in Europe.

There are estimated to be around 80,000 shrines in Japan.[52] The majority of Shinto shrines are associated with a shrine network.[8] This number includes only shrines with resident priests; if smaller shrines (such as roadside or household shrines) are included, the number would be twice the amount. These are highly concentrated;[53] over one-third are associated with Inari (over 30,000 shrines), and the top six networks comprise over 90% of all shrines, though there are at least 20 networks with over 200 shrines.

The next ten largest networks contain between 2,000 branches down to about 200 branches, and include the networks headed by Matsunoo-taisha, Kibune Shrine, and Taga-taisha, among others.

The number of branch shrines gives an approximate indication of their religious significance, and neither Ise Grand Shrine nor Izumo-taisha can claim the first place.[43] By far the most numerous are shrines dedicated to Inari, tutelary kami of agriculture popular all over Japan, which alone constitute almost a third of the total.[44] Inari protects fishing, commerce, and productivity in general. Many modern Japanese corporations have shrines dedicated to Inari on their premises. Inari shrines are usually very small and easy to maintain, but can be very large, as in the case of Fushimi Inari Taisha, the head shrine of the network. The kami is enshrined in some Buddhist temples.[43]

The entrance to an Inari shrine is usually marked by one or more vermilion torii and two white foxes. This red color has come to be identified with Inari because of the prevalence of its use among Inari shrines and their torii.[54] The kitsune statues are at times mistakenly believed to be a form assumed by Inari, and they typically come in pairs, representing a male and a female, although sex is usually not obvious.[55] These fox statues hold a symbolic item in their mouths or beneath a front paw – most often a jewel and a key, but a sheaf of rice, a scroll, or a fox cub are common. Almost all Inari shrines, no matter how small, will feature at least a pair of these statues, usually flanking, on the altar, or in front of the main sanctuary.[55]

Hachiman in Buddhist robes due to shinbutsu-shūgō

A syncretic entity worshiped as both a kami and a Buddhist daibosatsu, Hachiman is intimately associated with both learning and warriors.[44] In the sixth or seventh century, Emperor Ōjin and his mother Empress Jingū came to be identified together with Hachiman.[56] First enshrined at Usa Hachiman-gū in Ōita Prefecture, Hachiman was deeply revered during the Heian period. According to the Kojiki, it was Ōjin who invited Korean and Chinese scholars to Japan, and for this reason he is the patron of writing and learning.

Because as Emperor Ōjin he was an ancestor of the Minamoto clan, Hachiman became the tutelary kami (氏神, ujigami) of the Minamoto samurai clan[44] of Kawachi (Osaka). After Minamoto no Yoritomo became shōgun and established the Kamakura shogunate, Hachiman's popularity grew, and he became by extension the protector of the warrior class the shōgun had brought to power. For this reason, the shintai of a Hachiman shrine is usually a stirrup or a bow.[56]

During the Japanese medieval period, Hachiman worship spread throughout Japan among samurai and the peasantry. There are 25,000 shrines in Japan dedicated to him, the second most numerous after those of the Inari network.[44] Usa Hachiman-gū is the network's head shrine together with Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū. However, Hakozaki Shrine and Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū are historically no less significant shrines and are more popular.

Headed by Kyūshū's Munakata Taisha and Itsukushima Shrine, shrines in this network enshrine the Three Female Kami of Munakata (宗像三女神, Munakata Sanjoshin), namely Chikishima Hime-no-Kami, Tagitsu Hime-no-Kami, and Tagori Hime-no-Kami.[57] The same three kami are enshrined elsewhere in the network, sometimes under a different name. However, while Munakata Taisha enshrines all three in separate islands belonging to its complex, branch shrines generally do not, which kami they enshrine depends on the history of the shrine and the myths tied to it.[57]

The Tenjin shrine network enshrines 9th-century scholar Sugawara no Michizane. Sugawara had originally been enshrined to placate his spirit, not to be worshiped.[58] Michizane had been unjustly exiled in his life, and it was necessary to somehow placate his rage, believed to be the cause of a plague and other disasters. Kitano Tenman-gū was the first of the shrines dedicated to him. Because in life he was a scholar, he became the kami of learning, and during the Edo period schools often opened a branch shrine for him.[44] Another important shrine dedicated to him is Dazaifu Tenman-gū.

While the ritsuryō legal system was in use, visits by commoners to Ise were forbidden.[44] With its weakening during the Heian period, commoners started being allowed in the shrine. The growth of the Shinmei shrine network was due to two concomitant causes. During the late Heian period, goddess Amaterasu, worshiped initially only at Ise Grand Shrine, started to be re-enshrined in branch shrines in Ise's own possessions through the typical kanjō mechanism. The first evidence of a Shinmei shrine elsewhere is given by the Azuma Kagami, a Kamakura period text which refers to Amanawa Shinmei-gū's appearance in Kamakura.[44] Amaterasu spread to other parts of the country because of the so-called tobi shinmei (飛び神明, literally: "flying Shinmei") phenomenon, the belief that Amaterasu flew to other locations and settled there.[44]

Kumano shrines enshrine the three Kumano mountains: Hongū, Shingū, and Nachi (the Kumano Gongen (熊野権現)).[59] The point of origin of the Kumano cult is the Kumano Sanzan shrine complex, which includes Kumano Hayatama Taisha (熊野速玉大社) (Wakayama Prefecture, Shingu), Kumano Hongu Taisha (Wakayama Prefecture, Tanabe), and Kumano Nachi Taisha (Wakayama Prefecture, Nachikatsuura).[51] There are more than 3,000 Kumano shrines in Japan.

The following are the two most common shrine styles in Japan.

Ujigami Shrine in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture

The flowing style (流造, nagare-zukuri) or flowing gabled style (流破風造, nagare hafu-zukuri) is a style characterized by a very asymmetrical gabled roof (kirizuma-yane (切妻屋根) in Japanese) projecting outwards on the non-gabled side, above the main entrance, to form a portico.[64] This is the feature which gives the style its name, the most common among shrines all over the country. Sometimes the basic layout consisting of an elevated core (母屋, moya) partially surrounded by a veranda called hisashi (all under the same roof) is modified by the addition of a room in front of the entrance.[64] The honden varies in roof ridge length from 1 to 11 ken, but is never 6 or 8 ken.[65] The most common sizes are 1 and 3 ken. The oldest shrine in Japan, Uji's Ujigami Shrine, has a honden of this type. Its external dimensions are 5×3 ken, but internally it is composed of three sanctuaries (内殿, naiden) measuring 1 ken each.[65]

The honden at Uda Mikumari Shrine Kami-gū is made of 3 joined Kasuga-zukuri buildings

Kasuga-zukuri (春日造) as a style takes its name from Kasuga Taisha's honden. It is characterized by the extreme smallness of the building, just 1×1 ken in size. In Kasuga Taisha's case, this translates in 1.9 m × 2.6 m.[66] The roof is gabled with a single entrance at the gabled end, decorated with chigi and katsuogi, covered with cypress bark and curved upwards at the eaves. Supporting structures are painted vermillion, while the plank walls are white.[66]

After the Nagare-zukuri, this is the most common style, with most instances in the Kansai region around Nara.[64]

The following four styles predate the arrival in Japan of Buddhism:

Unique in that the honden is missing, it is believed shrines of this type are reminiscent of what shrines were like in prehistorical times. The first shrines had no honden because the shintai, or object of worship, was the mountain on which they stood. An extant example is Nara's Ōmiwa Shrine, which still has no honden.[64] An area near the haiden (hall of worship), sacred and taboo, replaces it for worship. Another prominent example of this style is Futarasan Shrine near Nikkō, whose shintai is Mount Nantai.

A shrine at Ise

Shinmei-zukuri (神明造) is an ancient style typical of, and most common at, Ise Grand Shrine, the holiest of Shinto shrines.[64] It is most common in Mie prefecture.[67] Characterized by an extreme simplicity, its basic features can be seen in Japanese architecture from the Kofun period (250–538 CE) onwards and it is considered the pinnacle of Japanese traditional architecture. Built in planed, unfinished wood, the honden is either 3×2 ken or 1×1 ken in size, has a raised floor, a gabled roof with an entry on one of the non-gabled sides, no upward curve at the eaves, and decorative logs called chigi and katsuogi protruding from the roof's ridge.[67] The oldest extant example is Nishina Shinmei Shrine.[63]

Sumiyoshi-zukuri (住吉造) takes its name from Sumiyoshi Taisha's honden in Ōsaka. The building is 4 ken wide and 2 ken deep and has an entrance under the gable.[63] Its interior is divided in two sections, one at the front (外陣, gejin) and one at the back (内陣, naijin) with a single entrance at the front.[68] Construction is simple, but the pillars are painted in vermilion and the walls in white.

The style is supposed to have its origin in old palace architecture.[68] Another example of this style is Sumiyoshi Jinja, part of the Sumiyoshi Sanjin complex in Fukuoka Prefecture.[68] In both cases, as in many others, there is no veranda.

Kamosu Jinja's honden

Taisha-zukuri or Ōyashiro-zukuri (大社造) is the oldest shrine style, takes its name from Izumo Taisha and, like Ise Grand Shrine's, has chigi and katsuogi, plus archaic features like gable-end pillars and a single central pillar (shin no mihashira).[64] Because its floor is raised on stilts, it is believed to have its origin in raised-floor granaries similar to those found in Toro, Shizuoka prefecture.[69]

The honden normally has a 2×2 ken footprint (12.46 × 12.46 m in Izumo Taisha's case), with an entrance on the gabled end. The stairs to the honden are covered by a cypress bark roof. The oldest extant example of the style is Kamosu Jinja's honden in Shimane Prefecture, built in the 16th century.

Many other architectural styles exist, most of them rare.

The most common meishō is the location where the shrine stands, as for example in the case of Ise Jingū, the most sacred of shrines, which is located in the city of Ise, Mie prefecture.[70]

Very often the meishō will be the name of the kami enshrined. An Inari Shrine for example is a shrine dedicated to kami Inari. Analogously, a Kumano Shrine is a shrine that enshrines the three Kumano mountains. A Hachiman Shrine enshrines kami Hachiman. Tokyo's Meiji Shrine enshrines the Meiji Emperor. The name can also have other origins, often unknown or unclear.

The second part of the name defines the status of the shrine.

• Jinja (神社) is the most general name for shrine.[9] Any place that owns a honden (本殿) is a jinja.[2] These two characters used to be read either "kamu-tsu-yashiro" or "mori", both meaning "kami grove".[10] Both readings can be found for example in the Man'yōshū.[10]
• Yashiro (社) is a generic term for shinto shrine like jinja.[2][10]
• A mori (杜) is a place where a kami is present.[2] It can therefore be a shrine and, in fact, the characters 神社, 社 and 杜 can all be read "mori" ("grove").[10] This reading reflects the fact the first shrines were simply sacred groves or Chinju no Mori where kami were present.[10]
• The suffix -sha or -ja (社), as in Shinmei-sha or Tenjin-ja, indicates a minor shrine that has received through the kanjō process a kami from a more important one.[9]
• Hokora/hokura (神庫) is an extremely small shrine of the kind one finds for example along country roads.[12]
• Jingū (神宮) is a shrine of particularly high status that has a deep relationship with the Imperial household or enshrines an Emperor, as for example in the case of the Ise Jingū and the Meiji Jingū.[9] The name Jingū alone, however, can refer only to the Ise Jingū, whose official name is just "Jingū".[9]
• Miya (宮) indicates a shrine enshrining a special kami or a member of the Imperial household like the Empress, but there are many examples in which it is used simply as a tradition.[2] During the period of state regulation, many -miya names were changed to jinja.
• -gū (宮) indicates a shrine enshrining an imperial prince, but there are many examples in which it is used simply as a tradition.[9]
• A taisha (大社)(the characters are also read ōyashiro) is literally a "great shrine" that was classified as such under the old system of shrine ranking, the shakaku (社格), abolished in 1946.[2][14] Many shrines carrying that shōgō adopted it only after the war.[9]
• During the Japanese Middle Ages, shrines started being called with the name gongen, a term of Buddhist origin.[17] For example, in Eastern Japan there are still many Hakusan shrines where the shrine itself is called gongen.[17] Because it represents the application of Buddhist terminology to Shinto kami, its use was legally abolished by the Meiji government with the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order (神仏判然令, Shin-butsu Hanzenrei), and shrines began to be called jinja.[17]

These names are not equivalent in terms of prestige: a taisha is more prestigious than a -gū, which in turn is more important than a jinja.

A kannushi

A kannushi (神主, "kami master") or shinshoku (神職, "kami employee") is a priest responsible for the maintenance of a shrine, as well as for leading worship of a given kami.[60] These two terms were not always synonyms. Originally, a kannushi was a holy man who could work miracles and who, thanks to purification rites, could work as an intermediary between kami and man, but later the term evolved to being synonymous with shinshoku, a man who works at a shrine and holds religious ceremonies there.[2][71] Women can also become kannushi, and it is common for widows to succeed their husbands.[72]

A miko (巫女) is a shrine maiden who has trained for and taken up several duties at a shrine including assistance of shrine functions such as the sale of sacred goods (including amulets known as omamori, paper talisman known as ofuda, wood tablets known as ema and among other items), daily tidying of the premises, and performing the sacred kagura dances on certain occasions.