otabisho 御旅所

Keywords
Architecture
Shrines

Also otabi-no-miya 御旅宮, otabi 御旅, tabisho 旅所, mikoshiyadori 神輿舎.
A palanquin-like portable sanctuary where a divine spirit is enshrined temporarily during a shrine festival. This enshrinement is called shinkō 神幸 or divine fortune. The custom is based on a story related in the Nihon shoki 日本書紀 about a princess named Yamato Hime no Mikoto 倭姫命, the daughter of Emperor Suinin 垂仁 who reigned from the late 1st century BCE to the early 1st century CE. She was entrusted with the task of finding a place to enshrine the great sun-goddess, Amaterasu Ōmikami 天照大御神. First she went to Uda 宇陀 in Nara, and then to Ōmi 近江 in Shiga Prefecture before continuing eastward to Mino 美濃, the southern part of Gifu Prefecture. Finally, she reached Ise 伊勢 Province and was told by the goddess that was where she wished to dwell. Thus, a shrine was established at Ise and from then on it became the holiest shrine in Japan.