Why this word is great
SHINTAI — [Noun] The consecrated physical vessel in which a kami, a Shinto spirit, is believed to permanently reside. Borrowed from Japanese 神体 (shintai), from 神 (shin, "kami, spirit, god") + 体 (tai, "body"), thus literally meaning "body of a kami." Unlike a yorishiro, a temporary object that merely invites a kami to descend, or a shinzō, an explicitly anthropomorphic statue, the shintai is the specific, enduring dwelling, often an unworked natural object. It can be a smooth river stone cradled in a shrine's inner darkness, an ancient, gnarled tree girdled with sacred rope, or a bronze mirror reflecting nothing but its own abyssal sheen—each a humble anchor for the infinite, a quiet proof that the sacred resides not in likeness, but in the raw fact of a thing itself.