A in Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 terminology is an object capable of attracting spirits called kami

Kami

is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term...

, 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

Shintai

In Shinto, , or when the honorific prefix go- is used, are physical objects worshiped at or near Shinto shrines as repositories in which spirits or kami reside...

. Ropes called shimenawa

Shimenawa

Shimenawa are lengths of braided rice straw rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. They can vary in diameter from a few centimetres to several metres, and are often seen festooned with shide...

decorated with paper streamers called shide

Shide (shinto)

is a zigzag-shaped paper streamer, often seen attached to shimenawa or tamagushi, and used in Shinto rituals. A popular ritual is using a haraegushi, or "lightning wand", named for the zig-zag shide paper that adorns the wand. A similar wand, used by miko for purification and blessing, is the gohei...

often surround yorishiro to make their sacredness manifest. Persons can play the same role as a yorishiro, and in that case are called or .

The concept and the use of yorishiro are not exclusive to Japan, but arise spontaneously in animistic

Animism

Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....

 cultures. In monotheistic

Monotheism

Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...

 religions animals and objects are just works of the world's creator, whereas to animists they are the natural residence of spirits, kami in the case of Japan.

History

Yorishiro and their history are intimately connected with the birth of Shinto shrines. Early Japanese did not have the notion of anthropomorphic deities, and felt the presence of spirits in nature and its phenomena. Mountains, forests, rain, wind, lightning and sometimes animals were thought to be charged with spiritual power, and the material manifestations of this power were worshiped as kami, entities closer in their essence to Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...

n mana

Mana

Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....

 than to a Western God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

. Village councils sought the advice of kami and developed the yorishiro, tools that attracted kami acting like a lightning rod. Yorishiro were conceived to attract the kami and then give them a physical space to occupy to make them accessible to human beings for ceremonies. This is the purpose they are still used for. Village council sessions were held in a quiet spot in the mountains or in a forest near a great tree, rock or other natural object that served as a yorishiro. These sacred places and their yorishiro gradually evolved into the shrines of today. The very first buildings at shrines were certainly just huts built to house some yorishiro.

A trace of this origin can be found in the term , literally meaning "deity storehouse", which evolved into hokora

Hokora

A is a miniature Shinto shrine either found on the precincts of a larger shrine and dedicated to folk kami, or on a street side, enshrining kami not under the jurisdiction of any large shrine...

(also written with the character 神庫), one of the first words for shrine. Most of the sacred objects we find today in shrines (trees, mirrors, swords, magatama stones) were originally yorishiro, and only later became kami themselves by association.

Common yorishiro

The most common yorishiro are swords, mirrors, ritual staffs decorated with paper streamers called gohei

Gohei

, or are wooden wands, decorated with two shide used in Shinto rituals.The streamers are usually white, although they can also be gold, silver, or a mixture of several colors...

, comma-shaped jewels called , large rocks ( or , and sacred trees. Kami dwell often in unusually shaped rocks or trees, or in caves and earth mounds. Yorishiro can also be persons, and in that case they are called .

Trees

Because of Shinto's nature, yorishiro are often natural objects like trees. Significantly, the characters for can all be read, besides jinja and yashiro, also "mori" ("tree grove"). This reading reflects the fact that the first shrines were simply sacred groves or forests where kami were present. Many shrines still have on their grounds one of the original great yorishiro, a great tree surrounded by a sacred rope called . Now such trees have become divine by association, and no longer simply represent a kami.

Shinto altars called himorogi are usually just square areas demarcated with green bamboo or sakaki

Sakaki

Sakaki is a flowering evergreen tree native to warm areas of Japan, Korea and mainland China. It can reach a height of 10 m. The leaves are 6–10 cm long, smooth, oval, leathery, shiny and dark green above, yellowish-green below, with deep furrows for the leaf stem. The bark is dark reddish...

at the corners supporting sacred border ropes (shimenawa). A branch of sakaki at the center is erected as a yorishiro.

Iwakura

Rock cults are also common. An iwakura is simply a rock formation where a kami is invited to descend, and is therefore holy ground. With time, through a process of association, the iwakura itself can come to be considered divine. Archeological research in Japan confirms these cults to be ancient. In shrines, even today stones considered to be related to the shrine's kami are used to make food offerings to the kami.

Iwasaka

An iwasaka is a stone altar or mound erected as a yorishiro to call a kami for worship. The concepts of iwasaka and iwakura are so close that some suggest the two words are in fact synonymous.

Yorishiro in homes

Yorishiro are however most numerous in people's homes. During the New Year's holidays people decorate their entrances with kadomatsu

Kadomatsu

A is a traditional Japanese decoration of the New Year placed in pairs in front of homes to welcome ancestral spirits or kami of the harvest. They are placed after Christmas until January 7 and are considered temporary housing for kami...

, which are the yorishiro of the new year's kami. Kamifuda, pieces of paper representing the kami, are hung above the door. There are kami who dwell in the toilet (benjō-gami) and in the well (suijin). The kamado-gami lives in the oven, and its function is to protect the house from fires. Other common yorishiro are the small altar called kamidana

Kamidana

Kamidana , is a miniature Shinto shrine found in many Japanese homes. The kamidana is typically placed high on a wall and contains a wide variety of items related to Shinto-style ceremonies, the most prominent of which is the shintai, most commonly in the form of a small circular mirror, though it...

and the butsudan

Butsudan

A butsudan is a shrine commonly found in temples and homes in Japanese Buddhist cultures. A butsudan is a wooden cabinet with doors that enclose and protect a gohonzon or religious icon, typically a statue or painting of a Buddha or Bodhisattva, or a "script" mandala scroll...

, which is an altar for the dead. (Butsudan were originally meant just for Buddhist

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 worship, but now often contain also memorial tablets called "ihai", which are yorishiro used to recall one's dead). In shops one sees often clay cats with a raised paw called manekineko or rake-like bamboo objects called kumade supposed to attract good business.