Kami are the divine spirits or gods recognized in Shinto , the native religion of Japan. There are eight million kami—a number that, in traditional Japanese culture, can be considered synonymous with infinity.
These are seven of the most prominent Shinto kami. Amaterasu, or Amaterasu-omikami, is the goddess of the sun, the universe and the High Celestial Plain from which all kami descend. She is a major kami and a central figure in Shinto. According to legend, the Emperors of Japan are descended from Amaterasu, and this was once used as justification for their reign.
Izanami and Izanagi are central to the Shinto creation myth. Legend has it that this god and goddess stirred the seas with a spear, and the mud which dripped from the tip became the first island of Japan.
Inari is the Shinto god of industry, prosperity, finance, and agriculture. The Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto is dedicated to this god. Hachiman is the god of war and military arts, helping to guide warriors on their way to mastery. The belief is that he is also the protector of Japan, as legend has it that it was Hachiman who sent the kamikaze or divine wind that destroyed the Mongol fleets of Kublai Khan in the 13th century, saving the country from invasion. Hachiman has about 25, shrines dedicated to him throughout Japan.
Only Inari has more. Fukko Shinto and the later Nativism widened the perspectives of former Shinto studies and their social influence became much larger. They promoted a systematic understanding of kami , theological sophistication about the workings of kami , etymological and other studies of kami.
Their efforts were directed toward making it perfectly clear that kami , as the origin of the Japanese belief, were the central symbols of Shinto. Some kokugakusha , as previously mentioned, were influenced by the Christian idea of God. Under such influence they felt the necessity to re-evaluate the function of kami that appeared in Japanese myth as "creator. The first three gods, Amenominakanushi no kami , Takamimusubi no kami , and Kamimusubi no kami, who appear in the opening sentences of the Kojiki , were understood as creators.
These three gods were claimed to have had a role in the creation of the universe. Kokugakusha attached importance to this idea in response to the Judeo-Christian theory of creation. Such theological arguments on ideas of kami established the basis of Shinto studies in modern Japan. In the modern era Shinto underwent new development with the appearance of Sect Shinto and the new religions of Shinto origin. Among the actively proselytizing Shinto sects unique ideas of kami began to appear, that is to say, names of kami not found in the Japanese classics but nonetheless conceived of as representing well the ideals of their sect began to appear.
Sectarian Shinto refers to the thirteen officially authorized sects in the period to The characteristic of these sects in terms of ideas of kami is that in each a unique deity is venerated, and respect is still paid to traditional Japanese kami. At the level of the actual believer, however, there is negligible difference in most cases between their ideas of kami and those of ordinary people. They often indicate the unique deity of their sect as their nominal objects of worship. The uniqueness of kami is much more remarkable in new religions of Shinto origin.
Most of the names of their kami are not recorded in the Japanese classics. The main kami of the various new religions is often a deity first revealed by the founder of the sect.
In the case of the new religions, kami is often recognized as the root of life rather than as a creator god. It is often claimed that various deities are, in fact, multiple manifestations of the true god. This might be understood as a fusion of pantheism and monotheism. It should be added that in the new religions the actual object of worship is often the founder of the sect. The founder is sometimes venerated as a "living god. They are imagined as beings who want to save human beings, to save the world from catastrophic happenings, or to realize heaven in this world.
Folk Shinto can be defined as folk belief deeply connected to the religion of jinja or traditional ideas of kami. Although the concept of Folk Shinto might be slightly ambiguous, it is quite useful when discussing the actual behavior of people.
Because they hold various ideas of kami and pray to them in their daily lives, yet without holding particular relations to rituals at jinja nor the teachings of religious organizations. That is to say, Folk Shinto shows its own principle of behavior pattern irrespective of the traditional manners of each jinja , even if it is connected to Shrine Shinto. For example, many Japanese don't care what deities are enshrined at the shrines they visit. Although the number of visitors during the first few days of the New Year is the largest at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, most of the young visitors haven't the slightest idea as to what deities are enshrined there.
For some reason they also think that the shrine is a traditional one, even though it was actually only established in Many Japanese decide what shrine to visit during New Year's chiefly for the reason that the shrine is relatively famous, not because the kami they venerate as their clan deity or guarding deity is enshrined there.
On the other hand, they tend to visit a shrine when the enshrined kami is one that will fulfill their specific desires or needs. Accordingly, in Tokyo candidates for an examination might visit Yushima Tenjin Shrine or in Kyushu they might go to Dazaifu Tenman Shrine, because the spirit of Sugawara Michizane, the patron kami of scholarship, is enshrined there. Here, there is a fusion of general veneration of kami based on worship at jinja and specific prayers or petitions to kami aimed at obtaining particular this-worldly benefits.
Thus, the attitude toward kami is often quite free, even when it is concerned with kami at shrines. In the Tokugawa era, there was a very interesting phenomenon called hayarigami in which it was fashionable for people to believe in a certain god.
A particular deity or Buddha, stones, and sometimes even living persons suddenly became objects of special prayers usually for healing. The news spread widely by word of mouth and in a short time many worshippers began to gather. As this phenomenon mostly occurred without any connection to traditional jinja , it can be regarded as a typical form of Folk Shinto. In the Tokugawa era about eighty percent of the population were farmers and peasants.
Therefore, agricultural rituals were the most important among the various rituals related to professions. Nowadays, the percentage of farmers has decreased to as little as several percent, but the number of agricultural rituals remains large in many districts.
In such rituals, the community members band together to pray to and give thanks to the kami. Ancestral spirits are often included as kami in these types of rituals. Yanagita Kunio , the so-called founder of folklore in Japan, advocated the idea that the gods of rice fields and the gods of mountains are actually ancestral spirits.
The fusion of kami and ancestral spirits is one of the characteristics of Folk Shinto. Among the kami of Folk Shinto, there exist such various types of kami as those venerated at jinja , those influenced by Chinese folk beliefs, those that became famous as a result of the fusion of Buddhism and Shinto, those that came to be venerated by chance, and those whose origins are not clear.
It is a feature of Folk Shinto that the people the "end-users," if you will pick and choose from among these miscellaneous kami the ones they wish to venerate. The benefits to be obtained by praying to these kami play are big part in their choice. As we have seen, the ideas of kami among Japanese are quite diversified and call for a variety of analyses. Researchers from across a wide spectrum of disciplines mythology, comparative religions, the history of Japanese religions, and Japanese thought are conducting studies about kami.
The papers included in this volume demonstrate one aspect of such research. The ideas of kami among Japanese have heretofore been discussed principally as a matter of comparison with Western ideas of monotheism. In the future, however, a comparison with the ideas found in East Asian countries should prove interesting partly because of their similarity with Japanese ideas of kami and partly because of their differences.
Polytheism is common in these countries, but the combination is different than that in Japan. The fusion of Buddhism and Shinto which some scholars have understood as a typical phenomenon in Japanese religious history should be compared with similar phenomenon in Asian countries for example, with the fusion of Buddhism and Hinduism in India, with Buddhism and Taoism in China, and Buddhism and shamanism in Korea.
The material for such comparisons is abundant. Our expectation for the future is to undertake research from this perspective.
Many etymological theories exist regarding the origins of kami , but none of them is entirely satisfactory. Among them, the interpretation of Motoori Norinaga is the most famous and popular. In his interpretation the word kami was used as an appellation for all beings which possess an extraordinary ability or virtue, and which are awesome and worthy of reverence.
For this reason, scholars have tended to analyze the nature of kami in ancient times in terms of animism. It may be possible to discuss the characteristics of kami in this way, if animism is defined as E.
Tylor did, that is, as the general belief in spiritual beings. However, the ideas of kami tend to contain rather systematic principles in the course of historical development. Therefore, animism alone is inadequate for discussing the various characters of kami. It should be noted that the concept of Shinto the way of kami itself was developed only after Buddhism had been introduced in order to identify the indigenous Japanese religious system.
Honji-suijaku literally means true nature-manifest traces. In other words, kami were understood to be manifest traces of Buddhist realities, that is, buddhas or bodhisattvas. For example, the honji or true nature of the Grand Shrines of Ise was believed to be the buddha Birushana Skt. Vairocana , or one of the bodhisattvas Kannon Skt. Vairocana as its honji.
Other estimates put the figure around ,, See Sasaki Kiyoshi's paper in this volume. Those established by Buddhist denominations followed, and about one fourth of the total. See IJCC ed. For example, while the notion of tenshin chigi originated in China, the content of the notion differs somewhat between China and Japan.
To the notions of heavenly gods tenshin and earthly gods chigi in Chinese belief the Japanese notions of amatsukami and kunitsukami were mixed. According to the presently prevailing theory, amatsukami refers to the gods who are connected with the origin of the Yamato dynasty, while kunitsukami refers to indigenous kami in each local district.
One of the most important points to keep in mind when considering the development of ideas of kami at jinja shrines is the identity of the financial supporters of the jinja in each historical period. The nation was the chief supporter in the ancient and medieval periods.
From the middle of the medieval period, however, national control of the jinja became weaker and the situation became more complicated. At the end of the 12th century, the samurai class took control of the government from the nobles and established the Kamakura government. Political control by the samurai class continued until the middle of the 19th century.
With the appearance of samurai, worship of kami came into new stage. Each clan of samurai enshrined their ancestral deities, sometimes with the hope of making a connection with a famous samurai clan such as the Genji. Thus, Hachiman was widely enshrined as it was the ancestral deity of the Genji clan.
In the Tokugawa era ordinary people took a more important role in supporting jinja. As commercial activities became more and more active in the Tokugawa era, Inari, the kami benefactor of businessmen and merchants, began to spread throughout Japan. The Shinto priests of these shrines were a kind of government official. With the separation of church and state in the postwar constitution worship at jinja became quite free and jinja supporters were ordinary people.
The result of this is that popular jinja managed well irrespective of their origin or historical development, while some jinja in sparsely populated rural areas had to close. On the concept of "new religion," see the discussion in the introductory chapter in the second volume of this series, New Religions.
This is often observed in modern Japan. On this point, see the third volume of this series, Folk Beliefs in Modern Japan.
All rights reserved. Who's who of kami Find out more Page options Print this page. What are kami? Kami Shinto is based on belief in, and worship of, kami. Kami can be elements of the landscape or forces of nature. Shinto tradition says that there are eight million million kami in Japan.
Concepts of kami Shinto belief includes several ideas of kami: while these are closely related, they are not completely interchangeable and reflect not only different ideas but different interpretations of the same idea.
Kami can refer to beings or to a quality which beings possess. Not all kami are good - some are thoroughly evil. Kami as 'God' The idea that kami are the same as God stems in part from the use of the word kami to translate the word 'God' in some 19th century translations of the Bible into Japanese. The next section shows that kami are actually very different from the Western concept of God. Kami as beings The concept of kami is hard to explain. But kami are not much like the gods of other faiths: Kami are not divine like the transcendent and omnipotent deities found in many religions.
Kami are not omnipotent. Kami are not perfect - they sometimes make mistakes and behave badly. Kami are not inherently different in kind from human beings or nature - they are just a higher manifestation of the life energy Kami don't exist in a supernatural universe - they live in the same world as human beings and the world of nature Kami include the gods that created the universe, but can also include: The spirits that inhabit many living beings Some beings themselves Elements of the landscape, like mountains and lakes Powerful forces of nature, like storms and earthquakes human beings who became kami after their deaths Kobayakawa Takakage, Japanese historical figure, talks to the tengu minor kami of Mount Hiko.
Three types of kami are particularly important: Ujigami, the ancestors of the clans: in tribal times, each group believed that a particular kami was both their ancestor and their protector, and dedicated their worship to that spirit Kami of natural objects and creatures, and of the forces of nature The souls of dead human beings of outstanding achievement A Japanese description of kami Motoori Norinaga was one of the most distinguished Japanese scholars of religion and enthusiasts for Shinto revival.
He described kami like this: I do not yet understand the meaning of the word 'kami'. Motoori Norinaga. Ebisu A kami who brings prosperity. Originally the abandoned leech-child of Izanami and Izanagi. Hachiman Traditionally the god of archery and war. Izanami - Izanagi The two kami who gave birth to Japan.
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