Kami

Kami (Japanese: 神, [kaꜜmi]) are the deities, divinities, spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan.

[5][6] Although deity is the common interpretation of kami, some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term.

[7][page needed] Some etymological suggestions are: Because Japanese does not normally distinguish grammatical number in nouns (most do not have singular and plural forms), it is sometimes unclear whether kami refers to a single or multiple entities.

The kami's earliest roles were as earth-based spirits, assisting the early hunter-gatherer groups in their daily lives.

[12] There is a strong tradition of myth-histories in the Shinto faith; one such myth details the appearance of the first emperor, grandson of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu.

In this myth, when Amaterasu sent her grandson to earth to rule, she gave him five rice grains, which had been grown in the fields of heaven (Takamagahara).

Goryō are the vengeful spirits of the dead whose lives were cut short, but they were calmed by the devotion of Shinto followers and are now believed to punish those who do not honor the kami.

[12] In ancient animistic Japanese belief, kami were understood as simply the divine forces of nature.

Worshippers in ancient Japan revered kami of nature which exhibited a particular beauty and power such as ghosts,[13] the ocean,[13] the sun,[13] waterfalls, mountains,[13] boulders, animals,[13] trees,[13] grasses, rice paddies, thunder,[14] echoes,[14] foxes and fox spirits,[14] and Asian dragons.

[18] Although the ancient designations are still adhered to, in modern Shinto many priests also consider kami to be anthropomorphic spirits, with nobility and authority.

("八百万" literally means eight million, but idiomatically it expresses "uncountably many" and "all-around"—like many East Asian cultures, the Japanese often use the number 8, representing the cardinal and ordinal directions, to symbolize ubiquity.)

In addition to practicing the four affirmations daily, Shinto believers also wear omamori to aid them in remaining pure and protected.

The goal of life to Shinto believers is to obtain magokoro, a pure sincere heart, which can only be granted by the kami.

[20] As a result, Shinto followers are taught that humankind should venerate both the living and the nonliving, because both possess a divine superior spirit within: the kami.

[23] In Japanese mythology, the acceptance of the transfer of the land (Ashihara no Nakatsukuni) by the Kunitsugami to the Amatsu deities led by Ninigi is described as Kuni Yuzuri.

[24]The Chronicles of Japan cites certain passages (e.g., "Ichi Sho Saying" and "Aru Hon Yun" in most volumes of the Nihon Shoki), but the original recorded documents have been lost in later generations.

[27] Some people believe that the names "Tenjin Chigi (天神地祇)" and "Jingi (神祇)" are derived from the Chinese classics.

[28] In Japan, the term 天地神明 has been in use for centuries and is often associated with the image of the numerous gods and deities that have been worshipped in Japanese folklore and mythology.

In the ceremony, the Emperor offers crops from the new harvest to the kami, including rice, fish, fruits, soup, and stew.

This ritual begins with hand washing and swallowing and later spitting a small amount of water in front of the shrine to purify the body, heart, and mind.

[3]: 28, 84 Ascetic practices, shrine rituals and ceremonies, and Japanese festivals are the most public ways that Shinto devotees celebrate and offer adoration for the kami.

Yamamoto Guji, the high priest at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine, explains that this practice honors the kami because "it is in the festival, the matsuri, the greatest celebration of life can be seen in the world of Shinto and it is the people of the community who attend festivals as groups, as a whole village who are seeking to unlock the human potential as children of kami".

[citation needed] Shinto ceremonies are so long and complex that in some shrines it can take ten years for the priests to learn them.

[31] The priests (kannushi) may be assisted by miko, young unmarried women acting as shrine maidens.

[32] Neither priests nor priestesses live as ascetics; in fact, it is common for them to be married,[31] and they are not traditionally expected to meditate.

When a child is born they are brought to a shrine so that they can be initiated as a new believer and the kami can bless them and their future life.

The main reason for these ceremonies is so that Shinto followers can appease the kami in order to reach magokoro.