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Japanese Deities
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The kami of Shinto and the deities of Japanese Buddhism and folk religion, known from the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, from shrine tradition, and from continuing local practice. Kami are not confined to gods in the Western sense: ancestors, natural features and forces are addressed in the same terms.
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Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe kami of Shinto together with the buddhas and bodhisattvas long worshipped alongside them. Kami are not a fixed pantheon: the word covers sacred powers in nature, places, ancestors and exceptional people, held to be innumerable, and the named great kami of the eighth-century chronicles are a small and deliberately organised part of what is venerated at shrines. 2 Attestation
Era of AttestationThe named kami first appear as an ordered corpus in the Kojiki of 712 and the Nihon Shoki of 720, compiled to serve the claims of the imperial court. Shrine worship continues today. 2 Veneration TodayVenerated today at shrines throughout Japan and in the Japanese diaspora. 2 Origins
Origin of the NameKami is the tradition's own word and is not a translation of god. It names a quality of awe-commanding power that may belong to a deity, a place, a natural force, an ancestor or a living person, and it takes no plural. 2 Learn More
The kami of Japan
This group holds the deities of Shinto, the indigenous tradition of Japan, together with figures shared with Japanese Buddhism. The Shinto divine is the kami (sacred powers present in nature, ancestors, places and exceptional beings), understood as innumerable rather than as a fixed pantheon.
The browser will find the great kami of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki: the sun-goddess Amaterasu, from whom the imperial line is traced; her brother the storm-god Susanoo; the moon-god Tsukuyomi; the creator pair Izanagi and Izanami; and popular figures such as Inari and the Seven Lucky Gods. The entries note the long entanglement of Shinto and Buddhist worship in Japanese history.
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