看板を読もう「お寺？神社？」

Do you ever confuse temples and shrines? While there are visual cues to help one distinguish between Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, such as the type of gate and other architectural features, statues and so on, you can also look for a number of kanji to help.

■Temples (寺院)

～寺 ～ji, ～dera (～ temple)

～院　～in (～ temple; sub-temple)

～院 (also seen in 病院 [byōin, hospital / clinic], 大学院 [daigakuin, postgraduate school]) can be used to denote a temple, a sub-temple of a major temple, or sometimes a particular part of a temple structure.

(Read right to left)

～山　～san, ～zan (lit. ~ mountain)

Many Buddhist temples also have an honorific 'mountain name', or 山号 (sangō), even though there may not be so much as a hill in sight.

　

(大)本山　(dai) honzan (head temple)

～山 can also indicate a major temple that a smaller temple or branch temple is affiliated with. E.g. 成田山 (Naritasan) is a major temple, 成田山新勝寺 (Naritasan Shinsho-ji), located in Chiba Prefecture with many branch temples throughout the country, including Inuyama Naritasan (犬山成田山) in Inuyama City and the Naritasan Manpukuin (成田山萬福院) temple in Nagoya City (see below).

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■Shrines (社)

神社　jinja (shrine)

神　kami (deity; spirit; god) + 社　yashiro (shrine)

社 / yashiro (also seen in 会社 [kaisha, company], 社会 [shakai, society]) is another expression used to refer to a shrine.

While many shrines are actually named ～神社 (～ jinja), some are named ～社 (～ sha).

There are also a number of kanji to look for before 社 that indicate the deity associated with the shrine, for example:

八幡社　hachiman-sha (shrine devoted to the ancient Emperor Ōjin [応神天皇], deified as 八幡神 [Yahata-no-kami / Hachiman-shin], a tutelary deity of warriors, etc.)

神明社　shinmeisha (shrine devoted to the deity Amaterasu-Omikami [天照大神])

Some shrines do not feature 社 in the name at all, such as those with names ending in ～宮 (～gū).

～神宮　～jingū (high-status shrine connected to the imperial family)

～天満宮　～tenmangū (shrine devoted to Heian period scholar Sugawara no Michizane [菅原道真], revered as the deity of learning Tenman-Tenjin [点満天神])