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A classic yorishiro: a giant tree

A yorishiro (依り代) in Shinto terminology is an object or person capable of attracting kami and then give them a physical space to occupy. Yorishiro can also be thought as physical representations of a kami. The word itself literally means approach substitute.

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 worshipped as kami, entities closer in their essence to Polynesian mana than to a Western God. Village councils sought the advice of kami and developed the yorishiro. Yorishiro were conceived to attract the kami and give them a physical space to occupy, thus making them accessible to human beings for ceremonies. Village council sessions were held in a quiet spot in the mountains or in a forest near a great tree 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 hokura (神庫), literally meaning "deity storehouse", which evolved into hokora (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

Two iwakura: the Meoto Iwa Husband and Wife

The most common yorishiro are swords, mirrors, ritual staffs decorated with paper streamers called gohei, comma-shaped jewels called magatama (勾玉 or 曲玉) large rocks (iwasaka (岩境) or iwakura]] (磐座)), and sacred trees. They can also be persons, and in that case they are called yorimashi (憑坐).

Trees

The importance trees have in Shinto can be seen in the fact that the characters for Shinto shrine (神社, 社 and 杜縄) can all be read "mori" ("grove"). This reading reflects the fact that, as already stated, the first shrines were simply sacred groves or forests where kami were present. Because of Shinto's nature, yorishiro are often natural objects like trees or rocks. Many shrines still have on their grounds one of the original great yorishiro, a great tree surrounded by a sacred rope called shimenawa (標縄・注連縄・七五三縄). Now such trees however have become sacred by association, and no longer simply represent a kami, but are sacred of themselves.

Shinto altars called himorogi are usually areas demarcated with green bamboo or sakaki at the four 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.

Iwasaka

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

References

• Okada, Yoshiyuki (2005-6-2). "Yorishiro". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2008-07-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Sugiyama, Shigetsugu (2005-6-2). "Iwakura". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2008-07-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Sugiyama, Shigetsugu (2005-6-2). "Iwasaka". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2008-07-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Sugiyama, Shigetsugu. "Himorogi". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
• Tamura, Yoshiro (2000). Japanese Buddhism - A Cultural History (First Edition ed.). Tokyo: Kosei Publishing Company. pp. 232 pages. ISBN 4-333-01684-3. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• John Breen, Mark Teuween (editors) (July 2000). Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0824823634. OCLC 43487317. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Category:Shinto]] Category:Japanese religions terms]]