"kamu-tsu-yashiro" or "mori", both meaning "kami grove". Both readings can be found for example in the Man'yōshū. is a generic term for shinto shrine like jinja. A is a place where a kami is present. It can therefore be a shrine and, in fact, the characters 神社, 社 and 杜 can all be read "mori" ("grove"). This reading reflects the fact the first shrines were simply sacred groves or forests where kami were present. The suffix , as in Shinmei-sha or Tenjin-ja, indicates a minor shrine that has received through the kanjō process a kami from a more important one. is an extremely small shrine of the kind one finds for example along country roads. is a shrine of particularly high status that has a deep relationship with the Imperial household or enshrines an Emperor, as for example in the case of the Ise Jingū and the Meiji Jingū. The name Jingū alone, however, can refer only to the Ise Jingū, whose official name is just "Jingū". indicates a shrine enshrining a special kami or a member of the Imperial household like the Empress, but there are many examples in which it is used simply as a tradition. During the period of state regulation, many -miya names were changed to jinja. indicates a shrine enshrining an imperial prince, but there are many examples in which it is used simply as a tradition. A (the characters are also read ōyashiro) is literally a "great shrine" that was classified as such under the old system of shrine ranking, the , abolished in 1946. Many shrines carrying that shōgō adopted it only after the war. During the Japanese Middle Ages, shrines started being called with the name gongen, a term of Buddhist origin. For example, in Eastern Japan there are still many Hakusan shrines where the shrine itself is called gongen. Because it represents the application of Buddhist terminology to Shinto kami, its use was legally abolished by the Meiji government with the , and shrines began to be called jinja. These names are not equivalent in terms of prestige: a taisha is more prestigious than a -gū, which in turn is more important than a jinja. Shrines with structures designated as National Treasures Shrines that are part of a World Heritage Site are marked with a dagger (). Tōhoku region Ōsaki Hachiman Shrine (Sendai, Miyagi) Kantō region Nikkō Tōshō-gū (Nikkō, Tochigi) Rinnō-ji