Tsumi (罪) is a Japanese word that indicates the violation of legal, social or religious rules.
[2] When translated in English as "sin", the term covers therefore only one of the three meanings of the Japanese word.
[1] The term evolved to its present form as a contraction of tsutsumu (障む・恙む, to hinder, be hindered, to have an accident, to have some trouble),[3] a verb which very generally indicated the occurrence of a negative event.
[1] In ancient Japan the word thus indicated not only crimes and other forbidden human actions, but also diseases, disasters, pollution, ugliness and any other unpleasant object or fact.
Some of the tsumi have to do with disease and natural disasters, and are not therefore sins in the modern sense, but order perturbations (kegare) which had to be dealt with and solved by the person or persons concerned in certain ways, for example through purification rites called harae.