A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more
kami. Its most important building is used for the safekeeping of sacred objects, and not for worship. Although only one word ("shrine") is used in English, in Japanese Shinto shrines may carry any one of many different, non-equivalent names like
gongen,
-gu,
jinja,
jingu,
mori,
myojin,
-sha,
taisha,
ubusuna or
yashiro. (For details, see the section Interpreting shrine names.)