Shrine

The places where there were yorishiro─temporary abodes of the kami─became more permanent shrines, or yashiro. This word was originally written yashiro 屋代, which suggests that their prototype was nothing more than a himorogi enclosure with a simple roof (ya). Gradually, the roof would become more elaborate; the enclosure would become pillars of hinoki (cypress) raising the structure above the ground; stairs and doors would be added; enclosing fences called mizugaki or tamagaki would grow more numerous; and the architecture of Shinto shrines as we now know it slowly took shape. Shrine styles followed two different models. The model for the Ise Grand Shrine is a Yayoi-period granary; that of Izumo Shrine, the residence of a powerful clan of that region. This echoes how in Ise deities are worshipped in a space separated from that occupied by ordinary humans, while in Izumo the two coexist in a shared space.

Shinto shrines were largely a development of yashiro, simple roofed enclosures, the majority of which did not originally contain a physical embodiment of the deity (goshintai).