The spirits of ancestors are also worshipped as Kami in each family.įictitious animals such as dragons and Tengu, as well as real animals such as rabbits, snakes, foxes, raccoons, and dogs, etc., are sometimes worshipped as Kami. There are many Shinto shrines throughout Japan dedicated to the successive Emperors, Imperial families, nobles, Samurai, soldiers, scholars, and other great figures of each age. Sahohime presides over spring, Natsutakahigami presides over summer, Tatsutahime and Akibime preside over autumn, and Ame-no-Fuyukinu-no-Kami presides over winter. Japan is a country with four beautiful seasons, and the changing of the seasons is also thought to be the works by Kami. Shintoism is the belief in animism by the ancients, so these are also regarded as Kami. Natural objects and natural phenomena such as mountains, rivers, oceans, soil, waterfalls, rocks, wind, and plants, etc. They probably best fit the stereotype of Kami. Kami appear in Japanese mythology, such as Kojiki and Nihonshoki, like Amaterasu-Ōmikami at the Grand Shrines in Ise. They can be roughly classified as follows: In fact, since ancient times, there have been many kinds of Kami, as there are said to be eight million Kami in Japan (In this case, eight does not mean real number, but a large number). Not to mention human beings, birds, animals, plants, oceans, mountains, and whatever else is uncommonly great and rare are called Kami.” “Kami are the deities in heaven and earth in mythology, or spirits enshrined in Shinto shrines. The early modern Japanese Kokugaku (interdisciplinary studies on Japanese history and traditions) scholar, Norinaga Motori, defined Kami in the following way: Furthermore, some Kami are not only like people as deities of Greece Mythology or Roman Mythology, etc, but also other types of Kami as those which exercise the power of growth, of natural objects, and of real persons. It is fundamentally different from Christian God, Jewish YHVH, and Islamic Allah. There are so many Kami, and they are not omnipotent. However, these translations can lead to misunderstandings. Kami is often translated as “God”, “Gods”, or “Deities” in English. The objects of worship in Shintoism are “Kami (神)”. One of the reasons why Shintoism is so different from other religions is the wide range of objects of worship.
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