hokora

{{italic title}}

{{short description|Miniature Shinto shrine}}

{{About|Japanese shrines|Chinese shrines that use the same character|Ci shrine}}File:Hokora, Kyoto.jpg which in Japan is a symbol associated with Buddhism. In Kyoto especially, many hokora are actually dedicated to Kannon, a bodhisattva, rather than Shinto deities.]]

File:祠svg.svg

{{nihongo|Hokora or hokura|祠 or 神庫}} is a miniature Shinto shrine either found on the precincts of a larger shrine and dedicated to folk kami, or on a street side, enshrining kami not under the jurisdiction of any large shrine.Encyclopedia of Shinto, [http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=249 Hokora]. Accessed on December 14, 2009 Dōsojin, minor kami protecting travelers from evil spirits, can for example be enshrined in a hokora.

The term hokora, believed to have been one of the first Japanese words for Shinto shrine, evolved from {{nihongo|hokura|神庫}}, literally meaning "kami repository", a fact that seems to indicate that the first shrines were huts built to house some yorishiro.The word {{nihongo|yorishiro|依り代}} literally means approach substitute. Yorishiro were tools conceived to attract the kami and give them a physical space to occupy, thus making them accessible to human beings.{{cite book

|last=Tamura

|first=Yoshiro

|title=Japanese Buddhism - A Cultural History

|publisher=Kosei Publishing Company

|location=Tokyo

|year=2000

|edition=First

|chapter=The Birth of the Japanese nation

|isbn=4-333-01684-3

|page=232 pages

}}