Kibu

Kibu [院; きぶ] is the generic Kantonese word for 'priest'. In the Kiren hierarchy, they are considered the second-highest rank, belowing High Priest [涤缠, biya]. Generally, priests are responsible for the maintenance of a temple and local shrines, along with leading worship of a specific spirit, and conducting spiritual rituals. There are many variations on the word kibu, most of them dialectal, such as kibo, kibō, kibun, and okibu.
Originally, the kibu were intermediaries between kami and humans, a type of shaman who specialised in delivering divine messages from the gods. A kibu was a man capable of appeasing a kami through purification rites, and his own purity of heart which he would work to cultivate and maintain. Priests were expected to be ideal expressions of mankind, as they were the ones who represented humans while communicating with the spirits. Therefore, it was imperative that they lived as piously as possible, practicing meditation, existing simply, and striving to reach spiritual enlightenment in order to achieve eternal inner peace and contentment. Although kibu do not communicate directly with the kami anymore, they are still expected to follow this lifestyle for the good of their temple and wider community.
Kibu are notably different from lower-ranking priests known as damo, who are essentially kibu without such heady spiritual ties. Damo will assist with temple duties but will often interact more with the public, engage with the community, help to organise events and act as advisors and counsellors. They may be able to purify, cleanse or bless a person or place, but are known more as 'helpers' in the community who claim to work from a place of strong faith and goodwill.