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Kami
are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, beings and the qualities that these beings express, and/or the spirits of venerated dead people. Many ''kami'' are considered the ancient ancestors of entire Japanese clans, clans (some ancestors became ''kami'' upon their death if they were able to embody the values and virtues of ''kami'' in life). Traditionally, great leaders like the Emperor of Japan, Emperor could be or became ''kami''. In Shinto, ''kami'' are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of , the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. ''Kami'' are believed to be "hidden" from this world, and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoists'', although adherents rarely use that term themselves. With no central authority in control of Shinto, there is much diversity of belief and practice evident among practitioners. A polytheism, polytheistic and animism, animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the (神). The are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent landscape locations. The are worshipped at household shrines, family shrines, and Shinto shrine, ''jinja'' public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests, known as , who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amaterasu Cave Crop
, often called Amaterasu () for short, also known as and , is the Solar deity, goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Often considered the chief Kami, deity (''kami'') of the Shinto Pantheon (religion), pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the () and the (720 CE), as the ruler (or one of the rulers) of the heavenly realm Takamagahara and as the mythical ancestress of the Imperial House of Japan via her grandson Ninigi-no-Mikoto, Ninigi. Along with two of her siblings (the moon deity Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, Tsukuyomi and the impetuous storm-god Susanoo-no-Mikoto, Susanoo) she ranks as one of the "Three Precious Children" (, ), the three most important offspring of the creator god Izanagi. Amaterasu's chief place of worship, the Ise Grand Shrine, Grand Shrine of Ise in Ise, Mie, Ise, Mie Prefecture, is one of Shinto's holiest sites and a major pilgrimage center and tourist spot. As with other Shinto ''kami'', she is also enshrined in a number of Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Clans
This is a list of Japanese clans. The old clans (''gōzoku'') mentioned in the ''Nihon Shoki'' and ''Kojiki'' lost their political power before the Heian period, during which new aristocracies and families, ''kuge'', emerged in their place. After the Heian period, the samurai warrior clans gradually increased in importance and power until they came to dominate the country after the founding of the first Kamakura shogunate, shogunate. Japan traditionally practiced Primogeniture#Male-preference_(cognatic)_primogeniture, cognatic primogeniture, or male-line Historical_inheritance_systems#Cultural_patterns_of_child-preference, inheritance in regard to passing down titles and estates. By allowing Japanese adult adoption, adult adoption, or for men to take their wife's name and be adopted into her family served as a means to pass down an estate to a family without any sons, Japan has managed to retain continuous family leadership for many of the below clans, the Family tree of Japanese m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kojiki
The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperial line. It is claimed in its preface to have been composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Genmei in the early 8th century (711–712), and thus is usually considered to be the oldest extant literary work in Japan. The myths contained in the as well as the are part of the inspiration behind many practices and unified "Shinto orthodoxy". Later, they were incorporated into Shinto practices such as the purification ritual. Composition It is believed that the compilation of various genealogical and anecdotal histories of the imperial (Yamato) court and prominent clans began during the reigns of Emperors Keitai and Kinmei in the 6th century, with the first concerted effort at historical compilation of which we have record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirit (supernatural Entity)
In folklore and ethnography, a spirit is an "immaterial being", "supernatural agent", the " soul of a person", an "invisible entity", or the "soul of a seriously suffering person". Often spirits have an intermediate status between gods and humans, sharing some properties with gods ( Incorporeality, greater powers) and some with humans (finite, not omniscience). Thus, a spirit would have a form of existing and thinking; it would exist without being generally visible; often popular traditions endow it with miraculous powers and more or less occult influences on the physical world. Typology Spirits can be classified according to the science in charge of their study: angels and demons belong to theology, ghosts and spirits to metapsychology, fairies and gnomes to folklore, the souls of the dead to the cult of the dead, spiritualism, magic, necromancy. However, there are frequent hesitations.''Apologie'', 18, 4 Alternatively, a historical approach can be taken. Medieval ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitama
The Japanese word refers to the spirit of a ''kami'' or the soul of a dead person. It is composed of two characters, the first of which, , is simply an honorific. The second, means "spirit". The character pair 神霊, also read ''mitama'', is used exclusively to refer to a ''kami's'' spirit. Significantly, the term is a synonym of ''shintai'', the object which in a Shinto shrine houses the enshrined ''kami''. Early Japanese definitions of the ''mitama'', developed later by many thinkers like Motoori Norinaga, maintain it consists of several "spirits", relatively independent one from the other. The most developed is the , a Shinto theory according to which the of both ''kami'' and human beings consists of one ''whole'' spirit and four ''sub'' spirits.* The four sub-spirits are the , the , the and the . According to the theory, each of the sub-spirits making up the spirit has a character and a function of its own; they all exist at the same time, complementing each other. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Of Japan
The emperor of Japan is the hereditary monarch and head of state of Japan. The emperor is defined by the Constitution of Japan as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, his position deriving from "the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power". The Imperial Household Law governs the line of Succession to the Japanese throne, imperial succession. Pursuant to his constitutional role as a national symbol, and in accordance with rulings by the Supreme Court of Japan, the emperor is personally sovereign immunity, immune from prosecution. By virtue of his position as the head of the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial House, the emperor is also recognized as the head of the Shinto religion, which holds him to be the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu. According to tradition, the office of emperor was created in the 7th century BC, but the first historically verifiable emperors appear around the 5th or 6th centuries Anno Domini, AD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new Higher consciousness, levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life". Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheism, Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as "God"), whereas Polytheism, polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheism, Henotheistic religions accept one God, supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle. Nontheistic religions deny any supreme eter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animism
Animism (from meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in some cases words—as being animated, having agency and free will. Animism is used in anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many Indigenous peoples in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions. Animism is a metaphysical belief which focuses on the supernatural universe: specifically, on the concept of the immaterial soul. Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ko-Shintō
refers to the animistic religion of Jōmon period Japan, which is the alleged basis of modern Shinto. The search for traces of Koshintō began with the " Restoration Shinto" in the Edo period, which goal was to remove any foreign ideas and worldviews from Shinto (specifically referring to Buddhism). Some movements which claim to have discovered this primeval way of thought are Oomoto and Izumo-taishakyo. Worldview The following is deduced from studying the language of the ''Kojiki'' and ''Nihon Shoki'' which does not appear in any Chinese philosophy: In Koshintō, the present world or ''utsushiyo'' is put in contrast to the eternal world or ''tokoyo''. All individuals possess a ''tamashii'', meaning a mind, heart, or soul. A ''tamashii'' without a body is called a ''mitama''. Those whose ''tamashii'' has the nature of ''kami'' are called ''mikoto''. In the Age of the Kami, or ''Kamiyo'', the Earth was ruled by ''kami'', whose forms were akin to humans, but had pure hearts an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motoori Norinaga
was a Japanese people, Japanese scholar of active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies. Life Norinaga was born in what is now Matsusaka, Mie, Matsusaka in Ise Province (now part of Mie Prefecture). His ancestors were vassals of the Kitabatake clan in Ise Province for many generations. However, in the early Edo period they abandoned their samurai status, changing their surname to Ozu, and relocated to Matsusaka, where they became cotton wholesalers. The family initially prospered and had a store in Edo as well. (The film director Yasujirō Ozu was a descendant of the same line). After his elder brother's death, Norinaga succeeded to the Ozu line. At one stage he was adopted out to a paper-making family but the bookish boy was not suited to business. It was at his mother's suggestion that, at the age of 22, Norinaga went to Kyoto to study medicine. In Kyoto, he also studied Chinese and Japanese philology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
