Shinto Lesson #5

By Brother Kaz T. - Konnichiwa and Merry Meet! Todays Shinto Lesson will be on The Kami.

What are the Kami? The Dictionary defines the Kami as "a devine being or spiritual force in Shinto." However, that is only the most basic idea of a Kami, the actual thing is much more complex. There are dozens of Kami in the shindo belief. The term "kami" can als refer to beings or to a quality in which a being possesses.

[1] So while the Kami are another pantheon of Gods, according to shinto, their essence is found in all of man kind. However, the Kami are not considered Transcendent or omnipotent, they are far from perfect, not inherently different from humans or nature (existing as higher manifestations of life energy), and they do not exist in another part of some theological cosmology (meaning they live here with us). A description of kami, as made by Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), goes as thus: "I do not yet understand the meaning of the word 'Kami.' In the most general sense, it refers to all divine beings of heaven and earth that appear in the classics. More particularly, the kami are the spirits that abide in and are worshipped at shrines." The term Kami also applies to spirits that live within objects, and also to the object itself. So the Kami of a forest or mountain, may be the actual forest or mountain. Not all Kami have names, and those without are usually reffered to in the manner of "the kami of Mount Fuji." Kami tend to come in three Categories: Ujigami, Kami of Nature, and the souls of the dead who achieved outstanding feats. The Following is the entry for Ujigami in the Encyclopedia of Shinto, made available to us by Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. "Clan kami," in ancient Japanese society, an ancestral kami or other tutelary worshiped by individuals sharing the same clan (uji) name. As a result of historical changes in the composition of groups worshiping such kami, however, ujigami today are most frequently identified with local chthonic tutelaries (including both chinjugami and ubusunagami).

As medieval warrior clans strengthened their presence on the local manors known as shōen, they gradually adopted local indigenous tutelaries as their own ujigami, and the people worshiping those ujigami likewise evolved from consanguineous familial organizations to groups linked by the mere sharing of residence in the same geographical area. This process thus resulted in the merging of clan kami (ujigami) and local geographical tutelaries (ubusunagami).

Around the same time, shrines to chinjugami-originally enshrined as the tutelaries of specific buildings or pieces of land-came to be formally dedicated (kanjō) within noble-owned manors as well, leading to a merging of ujigami and chinjugami. Today, ujigami cults can be broadly classified into three types. The first is the "village ujigami"; in this type, each local resident is considered a "clan member" (ujiko) and participates in worshiping the kami. The second is called variously yashiki-ujigami or ie-ujigami, a type of kami enshrined in a small shrine (hokora) within the grounds of individual family dwellings. The final type is referred to as an ikke-ujigami or maki-ujigami, and occupies an intermediate position between the other two types, since it is worshiped by all members of an extended family (ikke) or local neighborhood grouping (maki).

-Iwai Hiroshi[2] Kami of Nature often rule over natural objects and creatures as well as the forces of nature. Examples of these are Amaterasu (kami of the sun), Ryujin (also called Owatatsumi, the kami of the sea), and Kojin (also called Sambo-Kojin, Kami of fire). Below are three links that will take you to a complete list of all named Kami. [3][4][5]

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/…/religions/shinto/beliefs/kami_1.shtml [2] http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php… [3] http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/category.php… [4] http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/category.php… [5] http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/category.php…

This concludes lesson #5

Thank you for reading! We hope that you found this lesson informative amd as always you can contact us here or on FB @ facebook.com./triplemoonministries with any comments or questions.

Text By Kaz T. with credit to The Encyclopiedia of Shinto & the above Mentioned links

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