Kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers" that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the spirits of venerated dead people. Many kami are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans. Traditionally, great leaders like the Emperor could be or became kami.
In Shinto and Buddhism in Japan, an ofuda is a talisman made out of various materials such as paper, wood, cloth or metal. Ofuda are commonly found in both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples and are considered to be imbued with the power of the deities or Buddhist figures revered therein. Such amulets are also called gofu (護符).
A Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, the deities of the Shinto religion.
In Shinto shrine architecture, the honden, also called shinden (神殿), or sometimes shōden (昇殿) as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined kami, usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a statue. The building is normally in the rear of the shrine and closed to the general public. In front of it usually stands the haiden, or oratory. The haiden is often connected to the honden by a heiden, or hall of offerings.
Tada Shrine (多田神社) is a Shinto shrine in the Tadadokoro neighborhood of the city of Kawanishi in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is also called ‘Tada-Daigongen-Sha’ or ‘Kansai Nikko’, literally, ‘Nikko of Western Japan’. This shrine is the shrine of the Seiwa Genji clan from which Minamoto no Yoritomo and many subsequent Shogun and daimyō clans claimed descent. This shrine is one of Three Genji Shrines, with Rokusonnō Shrine in Kyoto and Tsuboi Hachimangū in Osaka. The shrine was designated a National Historic Site in 1951.
Dōsojin is a generic name for a type of Shinto kami popularly worshipped in Kantō and neighboring areas in Japan where, as tutelary deities of borders and paths, they are believed to protect travellers, pilgrims, villages, and individuals in "transitional stages" from epidemics and evil spirits. Also called Sae no kami or Sai no kami (障の神・塞の神), Dōrokujin (道陸神) or Shakujin. Dōsojin are often represented as a human couple, carved male or female genitals, large stones or statues, or even tall poles along a road.
Toyouke-Ōmikami is the goddess of agriculture and industry in the Shinto religion. Originally enshrined in the Tanba region of Japan, she was called to reside at Gekū, Ise Shrine, about 1,500 years ago at the age of Emperor Yūryaku to offer sacred food to Amaterasu Ōmikami, the Sun Goddess.
Kamidana are miniature household altars provided to enshrine a Shinto kami. They are most commonly found in Japan, the home of kami worship.
Kanjō (勧請) in Shinto terminology indicates a propagation process through which a kami, previously divided through a process called bunrei, is invited to another location and there re-enshrined.
Landlord deities (地主神) are a type of tutelary deity worshipped in the East Asian cultural sphere. Di is the first character.
A gongen (権現), literally "incarnation", was believed to be the manifestation of a buddha in the form of an indigenous kami, an entity who had come to guide the people to salvation, during the era of shinbutsu-shūgō in premodern Japan. The words gonge (権化) and kegen (化現) are synonyms for gongen. Gongen shinkō (権現信仰) is the term for belief in the existence of gongen.
A yorishiro (依り代/依代/憑り代/憑代) in Shinto terminology is an object capable of attracting spirits called kami, thus giving them a physical space to occupy during religious ceremonies. Yorishiro are used during ceremonies to call the kami for worship. The word itself literally means "approach substitute". Once a yorishiro actually houses a kami, it is called a shintai. Ropes called shimenawa decorated with paper streamers called shide often surround yorishiro to make their sacredness manifest. Persons can play the same role as a yorishiro, and in that case are called yorimashi or kamigakari.
Shinto architecture is the architecture of Japanese Shinto shrines.
This is the glossary of Shinto, including major terms on the subject. Words followed by an asterisk (*) are illustrated by an image in one of the photo galleries.
In Shinto, shintai, or go-shintai when the honorific prefix go- is used, are physical objects worshipped at or near Shinto shrines as repositories in which spirits or kami reside. Shintai used in Shrine Shinto can be also called mitamashiro.
In Japan, a chinjusha is a Shinto shrine which enshrines a tutelary kami; that is, a patron spirit that protects a given area, village, building or a Buddhist temple. The Imperial Palace has its own tutelary shrine dedicated to the 21 guardian gods of Ise Shrine. Tutelary shrines are usually very small, but there is a range in size, and the great Hiyoshi Taisha for example is Enryaku-ji's tutelary shrine. The tutelary shrine of a temple or the complex the two together form are sometimes called a temple-shrine. If a tutelary shrine is called chinju-dō, it is the tutelary shrine of a Buddhist temple. Even in that case, however, the shrine retains its distinctive architecture.
Until the Meiji period (1868–1912), the jingū-ji were places of worship composed of a Buddhist temple and a Shintō shrine, both dedicated to a local kami. These 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), jingū-ji remained common for over a millennium until, with few exceptions, they were destroyed in compliance with the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868. Seiganto-ji is a Tendai temple part of the Kumano Sanzan Shinto shrine complex, and as such can be considered one of the few shrine-temples still extant.
A shinboku (神木) is a tree or forest worshipped as a shintai – a physical object of worship at or near a Shinto shrine, worshipped as a repository in which spirits or kami reside. They are often distinctly visible due to the shimenawa wrapped around them.
Kannabi (神奈備), also kaminabi or kamunabi, refers to a region in Shinto that is a shintai itself, or hosts a kami. They are generally either mountains or forests. Nachi Falls is considered a kannabi, as is Mount Miwa.
