rgy, and other traits common to most religions in succeeding centuries, the original impulse was based strictly on the response to the awesome qualities of nature. Natural objects such as trees or stones, usually with some distinguishing characteristic form, were viewed as the dwelling places of spirits, or kami. It is not the objects themselves that are "the focus of worship," but the kami who reside in them (Drexler 23). Though an entire forest or a mountain could be revered in this way, the holiness of smaller objects was generally the concern of Shinto worship. In such cases the usual practice was to surround the object with a wooden fence. These small "iwakura" shrines marked the sacred off from the more profane world and here "worship took place in its purest form, in total silence with no ritual" (Stanley-Baker 27). The kami, who selected their own dwellings, often chose to reside in sites of astonishing beauty and Shinto shrines continued to be built, even after the arrival of Buddhism, "in serene woods and beside quiet shores, and were of
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