Honden

[3] Inside the honden is kept the go-shintai (御神体), literally, "the sacred body of the kami".

[5] 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.

[3] 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).

Many exist, but three (taisha-zukuri, shinmei-zukuri and sumiyoshi-zukuri) are of particular importance because they are the only ones believed to predate the arrival of Buddhism, and have therefore a special architectural and historical significance.

German architect Bruno Taut compared the importance of Ise Shrine's honden to that of Greece's Parthenon.