A yorishiro is an object into which a kami is invited to descend and in which it temporarily lodges, the vessel that gives a formless deity a place to which worship can be directed. The concept underlies much of Shinto's relation to the natural world: a striking tree, a great rock, a mountain or a waterfall may serve as a yorishiro, and when marked off with a shimenawa rope it becomes a recognised object of reverence, which is why so many natural features are venerated in the tradition. Ritual objects too can act as yorishiro, a branch of sakaki, an upright wand of paper streamers, or a pillar set up for a festival, into which the kami is summoned for the duration of a rite. The idea is close to that of the shintai, the enshrined body of the kami, but where the shintai is the permanent seat of a deity established in a shrine, the yorishiro is more generally any object, often temporary, into which a kami is drawn down to be present, and it is the mechanism by which the divine is localised so that it can be approached.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItClergy or ordained officiants only 2 ConsecrationConsecrated in a rite before use 2 Physical Form
MaterialVaries: tree, rock, pillar, branch, or other object 1 Identity
Category of Sacred ObjectObject of divine presence 1 Learn More
The Vessel a Formless God Descends Into
The yorishiro is an object into which a kami is invited to descend and in which it temporarily lodges, the vessel that gives a formless deity a place to be present.
A place for the formless
The kami are not, in the older understanding, bound to images but are formless and roving, and worship requires that a deity be drawn to a particular place and given something to occupy, which is the function of the yorishiro: a tree, a rock, a pillar, a branch, a wand or another object into which the kami is invited to descend so that it can be present and be worshipped. The object is not the deity but its temporary seat, and once the kami has descended into the yorishiro the space becomes sacred and the rite can proceed.
From temporary seat to permanent body
The yorishiro is often temporary, the kami invited into a branch or a wand for the duration of a rite and then sent off again, but the same logic underlies the permanent shintai, the hidden object enshrined as the fixed seat of a kami at the heart of a shrine, so the yorishiro and the shintai are the passing and the permanent forms of a single idea, the giving of a lodging to a deity that has no form of its own. This conception explains why so many natural things, a great tree marked with a rope, a rock, a mountain, are treated as sacred in Shinto: they are or may become the yorishiro into which a kami descends, and the object is honoured for the presence it holds rather than for itself.
A Temporary Dwelling, Not to Be Confused with a Shintai
A yorishiro can be almost anything, a tree marked with a shimenawa rope to show it has been set apart, a rock, a pillar erected specifically for a festival such as the Onbashira pillars raised at Suwa, or an object carried in procession, and in most cases nothing about its physical construction is special, a tree is not carved or altered, what matters is the marking that designates it.
How something becomes a yorishiro
Shrine priests designate a given tree, rock or pillar through ritual, typically the same rope tying ceremony that produces a shimenawa, and it is that act of marking, not any manufacture, that turns an ordinary natural object into a vessel a kami may temporarily occupy, a rock beside it with no rope remains simply a rock.
Why this is not the same as a shintai
A yorishiro and a shintai are frequently confused, but the distinction is real, a yorishiro is a temporary dwelling, used for a single festival or a season and then released from that role, while a shintai is a permanent, singular vessel installed once and never replaced. Confusing the two misrepresents both, treating a seasonal marker as though it carried the same unbroken, generations long continuity a shintai is specifically defined by.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
Anything a kami is invited to occupy for the duration of a rite, which is why a rope around a rock or a tree is enough to make a shrine.
Related To
Ritual objects can act as yorishiro, including a branch of sakaki.
A natural feature marked off with a shimenawa rope becomes a recognised yorishiro.
The yorishiro concept is close to that of the shintai, the permanent enshrined seat of a kami, though the yorishiro is often a temporary vessel.
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source 2. Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)
Kokugakuin University, Kokugakuin University, 2006Entry "yorishiro"View the Source 2. Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)
Kokugakuin University, Kokugakuin University, 2006on the yorishiro and the descent of the kamiView the Source Shinto: The Kami Way
Sokyo Ono with William P. Woodard, Tuttle, 1962
Shinto: A History
Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press, 2017on the shintai and the seat of the deityView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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