Shintai

The most common shintai are man-made objects like mirrors, swords, jewels (for example comma-shaped stones called magatama), gohei (wands used during religious rites), and sculptures of kami called shinzō (神像),[3] but they can be also natural objects such as rocks (shinishi (神石)), mountains (shintai-zan (神体山)), trees (shinboku (神木)), and waterfalls (shintaki (神滝))[1] Before the forcible separation of kami and Buddhas of 1868 (shinbutsu bunri) a shintai could even be the statue of a Buddhist deity.

The founding of a new shrine requires the presence of either a pre-existing, naturally occurring shintai (for example a rock or waterfall housing a local kami), or of an artificial one, which must therefore be procured or made to the purpose.

Because over the years the shintai is wrapped in more and more layers of precious cloth and stored in more and more boxes without being ever inspected, its exact identity may become forgotten.

[8] If a shrine has more than one building, the one containing the shintai is called honden; because it is meant for the exclusive use of the kami, it is always closed to the public and is not used for prayer or religious ceremonies.

The shintai leaves the honden only during festivals (matsuri), when it is put in a "divine palanquin" (mikoshi, a term usually translated in English as "portable shrine"[9]), and carried around the streets among the faithful.