page_title: Shinto shrine
section_title: Shinbutsu shūgō and the jingūji
hierarchical_section_title: Shinto shrine / Arrival and impact of Buddhism / Shinbutsu shūgō and the jingūji
caption_attribution_description: An old drawing of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura, Japan, cropped
context_page_description: A Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house one or more kami. Its most important building is used for the safekeeping of sacred objects, and not for worship. Although only one word is used in English, in Japanese, Shinto shrines may carry any one of many different, non-equivalent names like gongen, -gū, jinja, jingū, mori, myōjin, -sha, taisha, ubusuna, or yashiro.
  Structurally, a Shinto shrine is usually characterized by the presence of a honden or sanctuary, where the kami is enshrined. The honden may however be completely absent, as for example when the shrine stands on a sacred mountain to which it is dedicated, and which is worshipped directly. The honden may also be missing when there are nearby altar-like structures called himorogi or objects believed to be capable of attracting spirits called yorishiro that can serve as a direct bond to a kami. There may be a haiden and other structures as well. However, a shrine's most important building is used for the safekeeping of sacred objects rather than for worship.
  Miniature shrines can occasionally be found on roadsides. Large shrines sometimes have on their precincts miniature shrines, sessha or massha.
context_section_description: Until the Meiji period (1868–1912), shrines as we know them today were rare. With very few exceptions like Ise Shrine and Izumo Taisha, they were just a part of a temple-shrine complex controlled by Buddhist clergy. 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. 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.
caption: 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.
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