Haiden (Shinto) in the context of Jinja (shrine)

A Shinto shrine (神社, jinja; archaic: shinsha, meaning: 'kami shrine') is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, the deities of the Shinto religion.

The main hall (本殿, honden) is where a shrine's patron kami is or are enshrined. The honden may be absent in cases where a shrine stands on or near a sacred mountain, tree, or other object which can be worshipped directly or in cases where a shrine possesses either an altar-like structure, called a himorogi, or an object believed to be capable of attracting spirits, called a yorishiro, which can also serve as direct bonds to a kami. There may be a hall of worship (拝殿, haiden) and other structures as well.

In Shinto shrine architecture, the honden (本殿, main hall), also called shinden (神殿), or sometimes shōden (昇殿) as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined kami, usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a statue. The building is normally in the rear of the shrine and closed to the general public. In front of it usually stands the haiden, or oratory. The haiden is often connected to the honden by a heiden, or hall of offerings.

Physically, the honden is the heart of the shrine complex, connected to the rest of the shrine but usually raised above it, and protected from public access by a fence called tamagaki. It usually is relatively small and with a gabled roof. Its doors are usually kept closed, except at religious festivals. Shinto priests themselves enter only to perform rituals. The rite of opening those doors is itself an important part of the shrine's life. Inside the honden is kept the go-shintai (御神体), literally, "the sacred body of the kami". The go-shintai is actually not divine, but just a temporary repository of the enshrined kami.

Ujigami Shrine (宇治上神社, Ujigami-jinja) is a Shinto shrine in the city of Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The shrine was built as a guardian shrine for the nearby Byōdō-in, and is adjacent to the Uji Shrine. In 1994, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto". The honden and haiden have been designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as National Treasures in the category shrines.

Ujigami Shrine is dedicated to the Emperor Ōjin and his sons, the imperial princes Uji no Wakiiratsuko and Emperor Nintoku. Uji no Wakiiratsuko committed suicide to solve a dispute over the imperial succession, and the shrine was built in his honor.

In Shinto shrine architecture, a heiden (幣殿, offering hall) is the part within a Shinto shrine's compound used to house offerings. It normally consists of a connecting section linking the honden (sanctuary, closed to the public) to the haiden (oratory). In heiden, offerings (heihaku), consisting of strips of paper or silk or white and red clothing, are offered to the kami.

If the shrine is built in the Ishi-no-ma-zukuri style, its stone pavement is lower than the floor of the other two rooms, and it is called ishi-no-ma (石の間, stone room), hence the name. It can also be called chūden (中殿) or in other ways, and its position can sometimes vary. In spite of its name, nowadays it is used mostly for rituals.

Ōmiwa Shrine (大神神社, Ōmiwa-jinja), also known as Miwa Shrine (三輪神社, Miwa-jinja; alternately written as Miwa-myōjin (三輪明神)), is a Shinto shrine located in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is notable because it contains no sacred images or objects, since it is believed to serve Mount Miwa, the mountain on which it stands. For the same reason, it has a worship hall (拝殿, haiden), but no place for the deity to be housed (神殿, shinden). In this sense, it is a model of what the first Shinto shrines were like. Ōmiwa Shrine is one of the oldest extant Shinto shrines in Japan and the site has been sacred ground for some of the earliest religious practices in Japan. Because of this, it has sometimes been named as Japan's first shrine. Ōmiwa Shrine is a tutelary shrine of the Japanese sake brewers.