A kannushi serves as the chief priest of a Shinto shrine, responsible for the shrine's rituals, honoring and maintaining the enshrined kami, the spirit or deity the shrine is dedicated to, and overseeing the shrine's physical upkeep and administration, a role combining ritual, custodial and managerial functions considerably more integrated than the more specialized clerical roles found in many other traditions. Daily and seasonal rituals a kannushi performs or oversees include purification rites, offerings of food and sake to the enshrined kami, and the shrine's participation in its own annual festival calendar, matsuri, events that often draw substantial community participation well beyond the shrine's core, regularly attending worshippers.
Certification to serve as a kannushi is provided today chiefly through accredited institutions, most prominently Kokugakuin University in Tokyo and Kogakkan University in Ise, which offer structured academic and practical training culminating in formal priestly qualification recognized by Jinja Honcho, the Association of Shinto Shrines, the umbrella organization overseeing the great majority of Japan's shrines since the Second World War; historically, however, many shrine priesthoods passed within specific families associated with a particular shrine for generations, a hereditary pattern that persists informally at numerous shrines even alongside the modern, institutionally credentialed path.