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
Hokora
Accessed on December 14, 2009 ''

Dōsojin is a generic name for a type of Shinto ''kami'' popularly worshipped in Kantō and neighboring areas in Japan where, as tutelary deities of borders and paths, they are believed to protect travellers, pilgrims, villages, and individuals in "transit ...

'', minor ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' 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 , literally meaning "kami repository", a fact that seems to indicate that the first shrines were huts built to house some ''

yorishiro A in Shinto terminology is an object capable of attracting spirits called , thus giving them a physical space to occupy during religious ceremonies. are used during ceremonies to call the for worship. The word itself literally means "approach ...

''. The word 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.

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{{Shinto shrine Architecture in Japan Shinto in Japan Shinto religious objects

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