Honden (本殿) – main hall, enshrining the kami (神). On the roof of the haiden (拝殿) and honden (本殿) are visible chigi (千木, forked roof finials) and katsuogi (鰹木, short horizontal logs), both common shrine ornamentations.
Katsuogi (鰹木, 堅魚木, 勝男木, 葛緒木) or Kasoegi (斗木) are short, decorative logs found in Shinto architecture. Placed at a right angle along the ridge of roofs, they predate Buddhist influence and are an architectural element endemic to Japan.
In ancient times, katsuogi were used as symbols of status or rank on the houses of members of the court and other powerful families, but they later came to be used only on the major structures of shrines.
Chigi are believed to be a vestige of primitive construction practices in which roofs were formed by crossing and binding together ridge-support poles, the extended tops of which were left uncut.
The original purpose of chigi was as a functional reinforcement to the structure, but today, most serve as symbols emphasizing the sacred nature of the structure.
At the Grand Shrines of Ise, shrine buildings dedicated to male kami are traditionally given an odd number of katsuogi and the ends of chigi are cut perpendicular to the ground, while shrines to female kami have an even number of katsuogi, and chigi are cut parallel to the ground.
The ends of the diagonal chigi are cut at mitered angles either perpendicular (sotosogi) or parallel (uchisogi) to the ground, leading to the alternate name katasogi ("miters").