kannushi

Shinto priests (神職, shinshoku) are members of the clergy at a Shinto shrine (神社, jinja) responsible for maintaining the shrine and leading worship of the kami there. In Japanese, they are also commonly referred to as kannushi (神主, "divine master (of ceremonies)"). The characters for kannushi are sometimes also read as jinshu with the same meaning. Kannushi originally referred only to the highest-ranking member of the clergy at a shrine, but has since expanded to become a collective term for all members of the clergy, synonymous with shinshoku. Another office called shinkan (神官; lit. "religious official") used to exist, but the position was abolished during the removal of Shinto from government oversight during the establishment of the Japanese constitution.