三輪山
Important as it is, the "honden" may sometimes be completely absent, as for example when the shrine stands on a sacred mountain to which it is dedicated, or when there are nearby "himorogi" (enclosure) or other "yorishiro" (substitute object) that serve as a more direct bond to a "kami". Ōmiwa Shrine in Nara, for example, contains no sacred images or objects because it is believed to serve the mountain on which it stands (Mount Miwa). For the same reason, it has a , but no "honden". In this sense, it is a model of what the first Shinto shrines were like.