Sacred Buildings Explained · Temples and shrines of East Asia
The Shinto Shrine
How a Shinto shrine works, from the torii gate and purification basin to the closed inner hall where the kami is believed to dwell, with its history, rituals and famous styles.
Traditions: Shinto
Part by part
Point at a number in the drawing or at a name in the list to see where each part is.
Torii
The gate that marks the boundary between the everyday world and the sacred ground of the shrine. It consists of two uprights and two crossbeams and may be of plain wood, stone or wood painted vermilion. Large shrines often have a series of torii along the approach.
Sandō (approach path)
The path that leads from the first torii to the worship hall, often paved with stone or covered with gravel and lined with lanterns and trees. Tradition holds that the centre of the path belongs to the kami, so visitors are encouraged to walk to one side.
Komainu (guardian lion-dogs)
A pair of stone or bronze guardian animals that flank the approach or the steps of the hall. Their form came to Japan from China by way of Korea, and their name is usually explained as “Korean dog”. One usually has its mouth open and the other closed, a pairing often linked to the sounds a and un, the beginning and end of all things.
Temizuya (purification basin)
A roofed stone basin of running or still water with long-handled wooden ladles. Visitors rinse the left hand, the right hand and then the mouth, a short form of the purification (harae) that is central to Shinto ritual.
Shimenawa (sacred rope)
A thick rope of twisted rice straw, often hung with zigzag paper streamers (shide), that marks something as sacred and pure. It hangs across the front of halls and gates and is also tied around sacred trees and rocks.
Offering box and bell
A wooden box with a slatted top stands before the worship hall to receive coin offerings, and above it a large bell hangs from a thick rope that worshippers shake before praying. The sound is said to call the kami’s attention and to purify the space.
Haiden (worship hall)
The hall in front of the sanctuary where prayers are offered and where priests perform rites for groups and individuals. Ordinary visitors pray from outside it, while those who request a ceremony are admitted inside.
Honden (main sanctuary)
The innermost building, usually smaller, raised and closed, in which the kami is believed to reside in a sacred object (shintai) such as a mirror, a sword or a stone. The shintai is not shown to the public and is rarely seen even by priests.
Chigi and katsuogi (roof ornaments)
Crossed boards that project like horns from the ends of the roof (chigi) and short logs laid across the ridge (katsuogi). Found above all on shrines in the oldest styles, they descend from the construction of ancient storehouses and dwellings of high status.
In brief
- I.A Shinto shrine (jinja) is the dwelling place of a kami, a sacred power that may be a deity, an ancestor, a force of nature or a mountain, and it is entered through one or more torii gates.
- II.Visitors walk an approach path, purify their hands and mouth with water, and pray before the worship hall, while the kami itself is held to reside in a closed inner sanctuary that only priests open.
- III.Kami were first honoured at rocks, groves and mountains without buildings; permanent shrines spread from about the seventh century and for a thousand years were closely bound up with Buddhist temples.
- IV.Japan has around 80,000 shrines in the main shrine association alone, ranging from great complexes such as Ise and Izumo to tiny roadside shrines, each built in one of several recognised architectural styles.
Visiting respectfully
- Bow lightly before passing through the torii, and walk to the side of the approach rather than down the centre.
- Purify at the basin before praying, letting the water fall onto the ground rather than back into the basin.
- The common form of prayer is two bows, two claps and a final bow, though a few shrines, such as Izumo, use four claps.
- Do not photograph inside halls or wherever signs ask you not to, and treat ropes, fences and closed doors as boundaries.
- Shrines are generally open to visitors of any faith; small offerings are welcome but never compulsory.
What the records show
- The Engishiki, a code of procedures completed in 927, lists some 2,861 shrines that received offerings from the imperial court.
- The inner and outer shrines of Ise have been rebuilt on adjacent plots about every twenty years; tradition dates the custom to the late seventh century, and the most recent rebuilding, the 62nd, took place in 2013.
- In 1868 the new Meiji government ordered the separation of Shinto and Buddhism, ending more than a thousand years in which shrines and temples were often run together.
- After 1945 shrines lost their state support and became private religious bodies, most of them joining the Association of Shinto Shrines (Jinja Honchō) founded in 1946.
Common misconceptions
- It is often assumed that a statue of the god stands inside the shrine. Shinto has no tradition of cult statues comparable to Buddhist images; the kami is believed to dwell in a hidden object or, at some shrines, in a mountain or rock outside the buildings.
- Shrines and temples are frequently confused. In Japan a shrine (jinja) belongs to Shinto and a temple (tera) to Buddhism, although many sites shared buildings and clergy before 1868 and the two are still visited by the same people.
- Torii are often thought to be always red. Vermilion torii are common, especially at Inari and Hachiman shrines, but many are of unpainted wood or grey stone, including those at Ise.
Chapter I
From sacred groves to shrine halls
The first places of kami worship in Japan were not buildings at all. The early chronicles, the Kojiki of 712 and the Nihon shoki of 720, and the evidence of archaeology point to rituals held at striking rocks, in groves, on mountains and on islands, where a sacred space was marked off for the occasion and the kami was invited to descend. On the island of Okinoshima, archaeologists have found tens of thousands of offerings left at rock sites between about the fourth and the ninth centuries. Something of this older pattern survives at Ōmiwa Shrine in Nara, which has a worship hall but no main sanctuary, because Mount Miwa itself is regarded as the kami’s dwelling.
Permanent shrine buildings became common from about the seventh century. Historians link their spread to the growth of the imperial state, which ranked shrines and sent them offerings, and to the example of Buddhist temples, which arrived in the sixth century with a fully developed architecture. The oldest shrine styles, however, look back to native forms: raised wooden storehouses and high-status dwellings with thatched or bark roofs. The shrines of Ise preserve one of these styles, and their custom of rebuilding every twenty years has kept a seventh-century design alive with fresh timber.
For most of Japanese history, shrines and temples were not separate worlds. Under the idea known as shinbutsu shūgō, the blending of kami and buddhas, many shrines had Buddhist halls and pagodas within their grounds, monks performed rites before the kami, and kami were often explained as local manifestations of buddhas. This changed abruptly in 1868, when the Meiji government ordered the two to be separated. Buddhist buildings and images were removed from many shrines, and Shinto was reorganised under state supervision until 1945. Since then shrines have been independent religious bodies supported by their parishioners and visitors.
Chapter II
A visit and a year
A visit to a shrine follows a simple sequence that most Japanese people learn as children. The visitor passes beneath the torii, walks along the approach, and stops at the basin to purify hands and mouth. At the worship hall they drop a coin into the offering box, shake the bell rope, bow twice, clap twice, make a silent prayer and bow once more. Prayers may give thanks or ask for help with exams, health, safe childbirth, business or travel. Many people then buy an amulet (omamori), write a wish on a small wooden plaque (ema) or draw a paper fortune (omikuji), tying unlucky ones to a frame or tree to leave the misfortune behind.
The shrine is served by priests (kannushi), who conduct purifications, offerings of food and sake, and prayers on behalf of worshippers, assisted by shrine maidens (miko) in white and red who may also perform sacred dance (kagura). The doors of the main sanctuary stay closed. They are opened only for the most solemn rites, and the sacred object inside is kept wrapped and hidden. Priests also leave the shrine to purify building sites, new cars and homes, carrying the shrine’s protection into daily life.
The shrine year is full of festivals. At New Year millions of people make a first visit (hatsumōde); the largest shrines, such as Meiji Jingū in Tokyo, count their visitors in the millions over the first few days. In November families bring children aged three, five and seven to give thanks for their growth (shichi-go-san). Each shrine also holds its own festival (matsuri A shrine festival, often with processions carrying the kami through the streets. Glossary), when the kami is carried through the streets in a portable shrine (mikoshi) on the shoulders of local people, a vivid expression of the bond between a kami and its neighbourhood. Shinto-style weddings, now familiar, became popular only in the twentieth century.
Chapter III
Styles and famous shrines
Japanese architectural historians distinguish several shrine styles, named after the shape of the main sanctuary. The shinmei style of Ise uses plain, unpainted cypress, a straight thatched roof and prominent crossed finials. The taisha style of Izumo Taisha, one of the oldest and largest shrines, places the entrance on the gable end and off-centre. The nagare style, the most widespread, has a front roof that sweeps forward in a long curve to shelter the steps, as at the Kamo shrines of Kyoto. The gongen style links the worship hall and sanctuary under one complex roof, and reached its most ornate form at the seventeenth-century Tōshōgū at Nikkō, mausoleum shrine of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, covered in carving, lacquer and gold.
Some shrines are known above all for their setting. Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima stands on piers over the sea, and at high tide its great torii seems to float on the water. Fushimi Inari in Kyoto is famous for the thousands of vermilion torii, each donated by a person or business, that form tunnels up the mountain behind it. Inari shrines are guarded by stone foxes, the messengers of the kami, instead of lion-dogs. Other shrines have their own animal messengers, such as deer at Kasuga in Nara.
Most shrines, though, are small. Neighbourhood shrines with a single hall, wayside shrines no bigger than a cabinet, and shelves for the kami (kamidana) in homes and offices bring the same pattern of boundary, purity and offering into everyday spaces. Shrines were also built wherever Japanese communities settled, from Hawaii to Brazil, and a few have been founded in Europe and North America in recent decades.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple?
A shrine honours kami and is usually entered through a torii, with a purification basin and a closed inner sanctuary. A temple houses Buddhist images, often has a gate with guardian figures and a pagoda, and is run by monks or priests of a Buddhist school.
Can non-Japanese or non-Shinto visitors pray at a shrine?
Yes. Shrines welcome visitors of any background, and many people take part in the simple prayer ritual as a sign of respect without considering themselves followers of Shinto.
Why do people throw coins into the offering box?
The coins are an offering of thanks to the kami. A five-yen coin is popular because its name, go-en, sounds like a word for a bond or good relationship.
Sources and further reading
- Helen Hardacre, Shinto: A History (Oxford University Press, 2017)
- John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, A New History of Shinto (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)
- Kenzo Tange and Noboru Kawazoe, Ise: Prototype of Japanese Architecture (MIT Press, 1965)
- Sokyo Ono, Shinto: The Kami Way (Charles E. Tuttle, 1962)