Kami
Evolution of the Concept of KamiI
A truly remarkable variety of kami make their appearance in the mythic
world of the early Shinto classics Kojiki![[Glossary: kojiki]](../../glossary/images/G.png)
and Nihon shoki: kami of heaven (amatsukami) and kami of earth (kunitsu-kami), human kami and "animistic" natural kami
of sea and mountain, ancestral kami
of the imperial house and those worshiped by powerful local lords. In the
myths, the imperial ancestor deity Amaterasu is placed at center stage, with
the tales and legends of various other kami
woven around her. It bears repeating that behind that structure lay the strong
impetus of the religion (i.e., political ideology) of the Yamato court and its
conscious designs for national unification.1
The myths in Kojiki and Nihon shoki
were subjected to a considerable degree of systematization on the basis of this
ideology, and the same can be said for the concept of kami as it is expressed in those myths.
In all likelihood, the elaboration of that
interpretation of kami and the divine
lineages based on it was a process which began prior to, and continued into the
period of the compilation of the two mythic classics, but the world of the kami that unfolds in those classics
nonetheless represents a tangled web. New and old, great and small --- a manifold
variety of kami appear, and the
overall scheme that emerges is not always wholly consistent. With that proviso
in mind, I want to consider the way in which the concept of kami is developed within the divine
world of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki.
The agricultural peoples of Southeast Asia
possess a widespread concept of a kind of spirit or soul called phi. According to the ethnologist Iwata
Keiji, the Thai and Lao peoples believe that phi dwell not only in humans, but in plants, animals, and even in
mineral matter, and they discriminate between these various beings by referring
to "the phi of a human," "the phi of an animal," "the phi of the river," "the phi of a tree," the phi of a rock," "the phi
of a cave," and so forth. Further, two kinds of phi are recognized, the "good phi"
which are friendly to humans and other living beings, and the "evil phi" which may invade the human body and
cause sickness. The phi which reside
within humans and rice are also called by the name khwan.2
The fact that the khwan dwells in rice the same way as it does in human beings is
likely a reflection of the important role rice plays as staff of life for these
agriculturalists; according to the Thai way of thinking, the khwan first enters the human being on
the third day after birth, and it gains power as the individual grows from
childhood to maturity. And so long as the khwan
is settled within the body, the individual remains healthy and happy. Should
the khwan leave the body, however,
the individual will fall sick and encounter misfortune.
Similar to the way that the khwan which indwells humans is crucial
for human life, the khwan of the rice
is indispensable for the preservation and maturation of the rice, and a poor
harvest will result if the khwan
departs from the rice. It should be noted that the khwan of rice is thought of as feminine, and when personalized,
goes by the name mâe phoosòb, or
"mother of the rice"; it is she that is believed responsible for bringing about
an abundant harvest.3
This kind of vague belief in spirits or
souls like the supernatural beings called phi
and khwan is found widely throughout
continental Southeast Asia. The belief in semangat
among the Malay peoples reported by W.W. Skeat4 and A.C Kruijt5
around the beginning of this century likely involves the same basic conception
as phi and khwan, but the supernatural worldview of the swidden agriculturist
Lamet people in northwest Laos is rather more complicated.
According to the ethnologist Izikowitz, the
Lamet peoples believe in supernatural beings called mbrog, prierr, si, and klupu. Mbrog is a synonym
for prierr, and refers to a nature
spirit or the soul of a dead person; frequently, the Lao word phi is used instead of the native mbrog. Further, although it is said that
si means a ghost (the spirit of a
dead person), while klupu corresponds
to soul, their concepts of supernatural beings are, in fact, rather more
complexly woven, as illustrated by their use of mbrog yig and mbrog mar
for "village spirit" and "field spirit," prierr
om and prierr ta for "river
spirit" and "valley spirit," si-ep gael
and si-ep pog) for "fire spirit" and
"ash spirit," and phi moit and phi senog for "mountain spirit" and
"spirit of the plain."
Further, inasmuch as it is limited to
humans and rice, the Lamet concept of soul, klupu,
is similar to the Thai khwan; but it
appears that concepts of spirit and soul are not clearly differentiated in
their minds, with the result that the supernatural being dwelling in the rice
is called both the "soul of rice" (klupu
go) and "spirit of rice" mbrog go.6
In short, a variety of supernatural beings
appear in the world of indigenous Southeast Asian religion, and those entities
maintain an easy concourse with the world of human beings. In turn, I find this
issue suggestive in the context of the ancient Japanese concept of kami for a number of reasons. First,
before compilation of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, it is likely that the
Japanese people widely venerated minor kami
rooted in the same kinds of animistic conceptions of ambiguous spirits or souls
as appear in the indigenous religious world of Southeast Asia.
Second, as various minor deities evolved in
Southeast Asia, one can detect a process whereby those deities were integrated
and came into coexistence, presenting us with suggestive material for
comparision with the Japanese case.
According to Iwata Keiji, the minor deities
worshiped by the Thai, Lao, Lamet, and Khmer peoples are not always uniform in
nature, and he suggests that difference is a reflection of differences in the
means of subsistence of those peoples. Within the hunting-gathering way of
life, the concept of supernatural existence remains at a rudimentary stage, but
when the way of life develops to incorporate larger-scale hunting activities
and swidden agriculture, minor animistic kinds of deities begin to be found in
coexistence. And when that lifestyle develops to center on hydraulic rice
agriculture, with the concomitant formation of village, tribal and national
societies, a process of selection, differentiation, and ultimately, syncretism
occurs within the system of minor deities. Labeling this process one of
"evolution," Iwata suggests a pattern whereby primitive kami evolve to be discriminated as kami of land, ancestors, and rice.7 It should also be
noted here that the term kami as used
here by Iwata refers to the concept of "spirit" [seirei] or soul [reikon] approximating the ancient Japanese
notion of tama.
What is of particular interest is Iwata's
suggestion that changes occurred in the concept of kami in conjunction with changes in a people's ecosystem and
corresponding shifts in the social system, whereby minor animistic deities
evolved from a state of mere coexistence, through functional differentiation,
to integration. Specifically, with evolution in the form of social integration,
kami are imbued with more diverse
powers and integrated, rising from the status of agricultural tutelaries and
protectors of local community life to the status of national protectors. And
together with that process, the status of kami
within folk culture changes from one of vague spiritual presences to "deities,"
which are worshiped as powerful and noble divine beings.8 How the
origins of Japanese culture are related to the culture of Southeast Asia is not
yet fully clear, with the result that we must remain cautious at any attempt to
draw direct parallels between the ancient Japanese world of kami and the spiritual beings found
throughout Southeast Asia. At the same time, the world of minor deities of the
Thai and Lao peoples, and the hypothesis regarding those deities suggested by
Iwata may provide important hints toward our understanding of the complex world
of kami characterizing the period
before and around the compilation of the Kojiki
and Nihon shoki.
According to Minamoto Ryôen, it was during
Japan's prehistoric Jômon period that the concept of kami took shape, rooted in animism and animatism, and the worship
of nature spirits called chi, mi, and tama.9 In that context, a considerable number of the kami appearing in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki are suggestive of the minor deities found in Southeast
Asia. On the other hand, it is also possible to recognize kami in the Japanese classics which correspond to the tutelaries of
the local community or nation as noted by Iwata. With one eye on these points,
I want to consider the ancient Japanese concept of kami through the metaphors of a "coexistence" of minor deities and
"integration" of major deities.
While it is almost impossible to achieve a
uniform interpretation of all aspects of the kami concept as it unfolds within the myths of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, Motoori Norinaga's frequently cited definition is
noteworthy as one attempt at a comprehensive interpretation of the kami concept.
According to Motoori, the term kami refers to the various deities of
heaven and earth seen in the classics, together with all the spirits of shrines
devoted to those kami. This category
includes humans, of course, as well as varieties of birds and beasts, trees and
grass, sea and mountain and all other "awe-provoking things which possess
superlative power of an extraordinary kind." Further, by "superlative" Motoori
means not only noble, good, and valorous, since evil and weird things, if they
provoke superlative awe, are also called kami.
Among human beings, the emperors are kami, and other people may become kami. And among non-human things, for
example thunder (kaminari) is by
definition called the "sounding kami"
(naru kami), while things like
dragons, tree spirits, and foxes likewise are highly uncanny, and so are kami due to their ability to inspire
awe. Further, the murmuring crags, and trees and grasses are likewise kami, while seas and mountains are also
frequently called kami. In sum, the
category kami includes both noble and
base, strong and weak, good and evil, making it difficult to discuss them in
any comprehensive way (Kojikiden,
Part 3II).
The essence of Motoori's understanding of kami lies in his characterization of
them as "superlatively awe-inspiring," but his description includes a number of
other thought-provoking characterizations as well. One of those is his
attention to the ambivalence of the kami
concept, as reflected in the fact that kami
demonstrate mutually opposing attributes such as good and bad, noble and base,
honorable and despicable, strong and weak. But what I want to consider here is
Motoori's focus on the diversity of kami,
and the fact that he views them all --- animal kami
and plant kami, kami of seas, mountains and other natural phenomena, human kami such as the kami of heaven and kami
of earth --- as being uniformly characterized by their possession of superlative
awe-provoking power. Unfortunately, in his determination to achieve this
comprehensive grasp of the kami
concept, Motoori provides little analysis of individual kami of nature.
It should be noted that while Motoori
includes the term tama (spirit) as
one of the awe-inspiring beings making up the category of kami, such spirits were apparently not originally considered the
same as kami. On the contrary, they
were more likely spirits or souls resembling the phi and khwan of
Southeast Asia.
One of the kami appearing within the mythos of Kojiki and Nihon shoki is
called Ukanomitama. This kami was
apparently some kind of rice-spirit or rice-soul (inadama), but the characters used to write the name differ, depending on
the version of the legend one consults. In the Kojiki, the kami is
called Ukanomitama no kami, and described as the child of Susanoo, who wed Ôichihime following his
expulsion from the Plain of High Heaven. As reflected in the name itself,
Ukanomitama no kami carries with it the characteristic of being simultaneously
both tama and kami.
On the other hand, within the Nihon shoki, different characters are
used to express this same deity as Ukanomitama no mikoto or merely Ukanomitama. Ukanomitama no mikoto is described as
having been produced after the procreative deities Izanaki and Izanami gave
birth to the great-eight-island-nation, when they were starving and without
energy.III Ukanomitama, on the other hand, is said to have been
produced as Izanaki killed the fire kami
Kagutsuchi and the latter's blood poured out to stain some rocks.IV
It is striking that in the former case, the deity is given the humanizing
suffix mikoto,V while in
the latter case, the implication is that Ukanomitama was originally a supernatural being separate from the category
of kami.
Further, at that time, the uka of Ukanomitama was also read uke, so it appears that the deities Toyoukehime
and
Toyoukanome no mikoto were also thought of as inadama
(rice spirits). The deities Yafune-Kukuchi no mikoto and Yafune-Toyoukehime no mikoto appear within the ritual liturgy (norito) for the Ôtono-hokai ritual
as found in the Engishiki; the former
is described as a kodama
(tree spirit), while the latter is called an inadama.VI It might also be noted in passing that Yafune
apparently referred to the container and lid used for enshrining a kodama or inadama when someone changed dwellings or built a new house.10
What I consider particularly relevant here
is the fact that once again, the two kami
here are interpreted as tama. In the Kojiki, (Yafune) Kukuchi no mikoto is
called Kukunochi no kami and described as a tree kami,
while in the Nihon shoki it is called
Kukunochi
and described as the "tree ancestor" (ki
no oya),
making it likely that the deity was originally understood as a tama dwelling in trees.
In the Nihon
shoki, the earlier mentioned [Yafune] Toyoukehime no mikoto is called
Toyoukebime no kami and described as the child of the deity Wakumusubi; once again, the
deity is apparently viewed as a tama
dwelling in rice. In a fragmentary passage from the Settsu no kuni fudoki, the origin of the mountain name Inakurayama is attributed to the legend that the
deity Toyoukanome no kami dwelled in the mountain and amassed rice there, with
the result that this deity Toyoukanome no kami may also have originally been
viewed as an inadama.11
The ethnological historian Oka Masao states
that ancient Japanese religion was composed of five categories of beliefs,
including beliefs in mo or mono, tama, marebito (strange visitors from afar), kami, and worship of the heavenly
bodies. Mo or mono referred to spiritual beings which existed within and were
closely linked to physical objects or human bodies; tama were spirits which resided within human bodies (or
occasionally within other objects), but were capable of entering and leaving
their place of residence at will, almost as though the body were no more than a
container; and kami were beings which
normally existed in heaven but descended on contingent occasions to earth.
12When viewed in comparison to concepts of the sacred found within the
indigenous religious world of Southeast Asia, the mo or mono
described by Oka appear to correspond
to the Southeast Asian phi, while tama and kami correspond to the khwan.
Oka speculates that these two sets, mo/mono and tama/kami originally formed differing religious morphologies.
Whether his assessment is correct or not, it cannot be denied that substantial
confusion is manifest in the concept of the sacred as expressed in the divine
world of Kojiki and Nihon shoki. One evidence of that
confusion is the fact that the supernatural beings referred to as tama are on occasion also called kami, a fact noted early on by Orikuchi
Shinobu.
Orikuchi paid particular attention to the
relationship between tama and kami within the ancient Japanese notion
of the sacred. And he concluded that the two were originally different
categories, but that a change occurred in the way tama was perceived, so that it came to be translated by the word kami instead. According to Orikuchi, tama originally referred to an abstract
entity which revealed its form on contingent occasions. Later, however, it came
to be viewed as having the two aspects of good and evil; the good side came to
be known as kami, while the evil
component was viewed as mono.13
Tama as understood by Orikuchi was a somewhat different entity from that
described by Oka, representing a rather nebulous supernatural being akin to
spirit or soul. Orikuchi likely assumed some kind of animism to lie behind the
notion of tama, and the fact that the
ostensible rice-spirit ukanomitama is
found called by names like Ukanomitama no kami, Ukanomitama no mikoto,
Toyoukenome no mikoto, or Toyoukehime may have been the result of the fact
that, as Orikuchi concluded, the word kami
had come to be used to represent the tama
concept.
It seems undeniable that a good deal of
confusion was occurring in the concepts of tama
and kami during the period
surrounding the compilation of the Kojiki
and Nihon shoki. And it may well be
that deities with names like Ôkunimitama no kami and Ôkunitama no kami evolved
from within just such a set of circumstances. And the fact that the so-called
"tree spirit" Kukunochi likewise is described both as a "tree kami" and as a "tree ancestor" is likely
a result of the fact that the distinction between tama and kami had already
become obscured by that date.
In the period prior to compilation of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, the various minor deities known as tama and kami must have been broadly worshiped as central figures within the
spiritual world of that time. The various nature deities represented by kami of mountain, sea, wind and field
were also minor divinities of this kind.
In the Kojiki,
the kami of the sea is called
Ôwatatsumi no kami, the kami of the mountain
is Ôyamatsumi no kami, the kami of wind as
Shinatsuhiko no kami, and the kami of field as
Kayanuhime no kami or
Nozuchi no kami.
Further, the kami of wind is said to
be male while the kami of field is
female. No doubt, such nature deities were --- in the same way as the "rice spirit"
and "tree spirit" seen earlier --- formerly worshiped as minor deities.
The Yato no kami
seen in the Namegata-gun section of the Hitachi no kuni fudoki can likewise be
considered within the category of such minor deities. The Yato no kami were
described as snakes, many of whom were said to live in fields near the
government office for the county (gun).
These snake-kami were the object of
great fear, since it was said that if one laid eyes on such a kami, his family line would be
exterminated.
During the reign of Emperor Keitai
(r. 507-531), a man named Yahazu no uji no Matachi
cleared a field of reeds in the valley west of the government office, planting
rice fields there. In response, the Yato no kami there gathered its cohort kami and attempted by various means to
impede the farming. Matachi grew enraged and killed the Yato no kami,
simultaneously scattering the other deities in the gang. He then dug a furrow
at the border of the mountain and erected a post there, declaring to Yato no
kami, "From this point upward shall be the kami's
land, but from here below are human fields. Henceforth, I shall be the kami's priest, offering you worship
forever. In exchange, you must curse me no longer." With this, he built a
shrine at the place and there enshrined the Yato no kami. The legend goes on to
say that Matachi developed some ten chô
of fields and that his descendants followed in his footsteps, continuing
thereafter to offer worship to the Yato no kami.
This tale has an afterword: during the
reign of Emperor Kôtoku(r.
645-654), a man named Mibunomuroji Maro
occupied
the same valley and erected a moat around the lake, whereupon the Yato no kami
reappeared in force, climbing up oak trees on the banks of the lake and
refusing to move.
Maro shouted in a loud voice, "I repair
this lake for the sake of the people who live here. What kami is it that stands against this authority?" He then turned to
the workers on the site and commanded them to "kill, without fear, any living
thing you see, whether fish or creeping thing." As he finished saying these
words, the divine snakes hid themselves away.
It is said that this tale of Yato no kami
is a reflection of the political situation as the Yamato court spread into the
northeast area of Japan and extended its central authority to those local
regions. As a snake, the Yato no kami was a "rough deity" (araburu gami ), and the motif whereby it is later enshrined is striking. It is
virtually certain that this kind of rough nature-kami was widely enshrined and worshiped in regions other than
Hitachi Province as well.
According to the mythos, the local serpent
deity of Izumo, Yamata-no-orochi was subdued by the kami Susanoo; Yamata was also a nature-kami like the Yato no kami, and within the pages of Kojiki and Nihon shoki, such nature-kami
frequently take the shape of animals. For example, when Yamatotakeru no mikoto stopped to eat at the pass of Ashigara
during his eastern campaign, the kami
of the pass appeared to him as a white deer. Or again, the mountain kami of Ibuki
was said to appear as a white boar. According to Ishida
Ichirô, Yato no kami was one of a number of survivals from prehistoric
Jômon-period kami which changed their
form and attributes.14 The same may be true of the kami of seas, mountains, winds, and fields
like Ôwatatsumi no kami, Ôyamatsumi no kami, Shinatsuhiko no kami, and
Kayanuhime no kami. Before these deities were given such names within the
official mythos, they may have been, like Yato no kami, fearsome nature deities
which went unworshiped.
Within the mythic world of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, I think there were likely other tama and kami based upon
animistic traditions, in addition to those minor kami I have already mentioned above. At a point considerably prior
to the compilation of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, an intimate rapport likely
arose between such tama, kami, and human beings, much like the
relationship found within the indigenous religious world of Southeast Asia. But
as Harada Toshiaki has pointed out, when one limits one's remarks to the
accounts of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, the difference between tama and kami was merely a matter of degree.15
This is mere speculation on my part, but it
may be that the ancient Japanese concepts of tama and kami, like the mbrog and klupu concepts of the Lamet peoples, were in fact mutual
composites, even while being superficially distinct on the level of folk
categories. Here, I merely want to emphasize the fact that these two notions
were equally personalized within the mythic world of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki,
and took root as the objects of worshipful activity.
I pointed out earlier that the divine world
of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki gives clear indication of
the strong religio-political ideology of the Yamato court, which was then
attempting to bring unity to the ancient nation. And as part of that ideology,
the ancestral deity Amaterasu, enshrined at the Grand Shrine of Ise, came to be
installed at the center of the mythic world.
According to the Kojiki, Amaterasu was produced as Izanaki washed his left eye while
bathing at Awagihara in Tachibana of Himuga. As transmitted by the myth of the
heavenly cave, Amaterasu was also the paramount kami, symbolizing the sun. It might be noted that the Nihon shoki relates that after Izanaki
and Izanami stated they would give birth to the lord of all, the first thing
they produced was the sun kami, which
was called variously Ôhirumemuchi, Amaterasu ômikami, and Amaterasu ôhirume no
mikoto.
It should also be noted that strangely
little legendary material is found in the Kojiki
and Nihon shoki regarding Amaterasu.
The main stories worth mention include the birth of Amaterasu noted here,
together with the division of rule among the three illustrious children and the
story of how Amaterasu hid away in the rock cave of heaven. It appears,
however, that worship of solar deities was widespread at that time, as
evidenced by the presence of names including elements related to amateru in
early documents.
For example, early works like Engishiki list shrines such as the
Kagamitsukuri ni masu Amateru-mitama Shrine in Shikinoshimo of Yamato; the
Konoshima ni masu Amateru-mitama Shrine in Kadono of Yamashiro; the Niiya ni
masu Amateru-mitama Shrine in Shimanoshimo of Settsu; the Amateru-tama no
Mikoto Shrine in Amata of Tanba; and the Ibo ni masu Amaterasu Shrine in Ibo of
Harima. Similarly, the Sandai jitsuroku
lists the deities Amateru-takahime no kami
and Asahi-toyoakaruhime
no kami, while a fragment of the Yamashiro no kuni fudoki includes the
divine name Amateru-takamimusubi no mikoto.
All of these shrines and divine names
reveal there was widespread belief in solar deities of the same kind as the
imperial ancestral kami Amaterasu. A
deity known merely as the "sun deity" (hi
no kami) is also seen in references to the island of Tsushima. In that
section of the Nihon shoki for the
fourth month of the third year of Emperor Kenzô (r. 485-487), it is reported that the "sun deity" possessed a man
named Abe no omi Kotoshiro and delivered an oracle, with the result that the
deity was enshrined and served by the Atahi of Shimotsuagata in
Tsushima.
This sun deity is further identified as Amanohikami no mikoto,
ancestral deity of the district lord (agatanushi) of Tsushima, and a deity which
apparently came to be enshrined throughout the Kinai region as the result of
various divine oracles.16
Other sun-related divine names like Hinome
no kami also
appear, making it even more likely that prior to the compilation of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, this kind of solar deity was worshiped by a broad
spectrum of the populace centering on the capital provinces of the Kinai
region. And the kami which served as
the object of their worship was likely the same kind of nature-kami as the solar deity seen on
Tsushima. The appearance of deities whose names include the character
combination "Amateru" was likely a result of the integration of various minor
local deities by the imperial ancestral deity Amaterasu --- the "politico-religious
symbol" of the Yamato clan --- in conjunction with the unification of the ancient
nation by the Yamato court. And the fact that the "sun deity" enshrined by
Shimotsuagata no Atahi of Tsushima was spread throughout the capital provinces
of Kinai can likewise be viewed as the result of the same kind of integration
by the imperial ancestral deity Amaterasu.
This kind of integration of kami did not stop with the sun deities
alone. According to Harada Toshiaki, the kami
of Kashima and Katori were woven into the hierarchy of deities centering on the
Yamato clan. Both Kashima and
Katori were
originally no more than local kami of
the eastern frontier regions, but with the establishment of ancient national
institutions, these local deities came to play supporting roles as martial or
envoy deities. Further, the Kunitama no kami which came to be enshrined in many
localities were likewise apparently the results of integration under the
Kunitama no kami of the central Yamato and Izumo areas.17
The deity Kunitama no kami
was probably a tutelary deity of a delimited
geographical area called a kuni.
According to Motoori's Kojikiden,
Part 9, shrines worshiping Kunitama no kami included, in addition to Ôyamato no
Ôkunitama Shrine of Yamato Province, the Yoshino Ôkuzumitama Shrine in Takechi
District of Yamato Province; the Minushi ni masu Yamashiro Ôkunitama no Mikoto
Shrine in Kuze District of Yamashiro Province; the Kutama (Kunitama) Shrine in
Hine District of Izumi Province, Ikukunitama Shrine in Higashinari District of
Settsu Province; Kawachi-Kunitama Shrine in Uhara District of Settsu Province;
Ôkunitamahime Shrine and Watarai no Ôkunitamahime Shrine in Watarai District of
Ise Province; Owari no Ôkunitama Shrine in Nakashima District of Owari
Province, Aômi no Kunitama Shrine in Iwata District of Tôtômi Province; the
Noto no Ikukunitamahiko Shrine in the Noto District of Noto Province, and the
Shima Ôkunitama Shrine in Kanzuagata of Tsushima Island.
Each of these shrines was dedicated to a kami which had rendered service in the
administration of a local kuni, with
the result that it would certainly appear that Kunitama no kami was another
deity widely worshiped at that time throughout Japan. It might be noted that a
fragmentary passage of the Ise no kuni fudoki
recounts a legend concerning the occasion Emperor Jimmu ordered Amanohiwake no
mikoto to
"search out the land." Along the way, smoke was seen rising from a peak at
Karisa in Watarai, so Amanohiwake asked, "Does this place have a ruler?" and
sent a messenger to investigate; the messenger returned, replying," Ôkunitama
no kami is here."
Further, it appears that the Ôkunitama no
kami of Yamato was, together with the imperial ancestral deity Amaterasu, the
most highly revered of all the Kunitama no kami. The Nihon shoki reports that a terrible epidemic spread through the
Yamato area during the reign of Emperor Sujin
(legendary
reign 97-30 B.C.E.). The emperor offered worship to Amaterasu and Yamato
Ôkunitama no kami within the imperial palace, but the two deities were in
mutual awe, with the result that they could not dwell together in the same
place. The next year, the emperor assembled the eighty myriads of kami at the plain of Kamiasachi (near
present-day Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture), and there performed a rite of
divination. As a result of the ritual divination, a woman named Kami-Yamato
Totobi Momosuso-hime no mikoto became possessed of a deity that called itself
the Ômononushi no kami
dwelling
in Yamato. In its oracle, the deity reported that the world would be at peace
once more if only it were offered worship by its child Ôtataneko. The emperor sent an order
throughout the realm to search for the person called Ôtataneko; when he was
found, he was made priest in the worship of Ômononushi no kami. Likewise, the
man Nagaochi was
simultaneously made priest for the worship of Yamato no Ôkunitama no kami,
whereupon the pestilence subsided and the land was restored to harmony.
If this Yamato no Ôkunitama no kami stood
at the apex of a hierarchy of Kunitama no kami which were broadly worshiped
centering on the Yamato area, then the Ôkunimitama no kami of Izumo, who was
said to be the child of the deity Ôtoshi no kami,VII likely stood in a similar relation at the center of
Kunitama no kami worship centered in the Izumo area. The Izumo no kuni fudoki contains numerous legends of deities which
were, or likely were, Kunitama no kami.
One legend states that the village of
Inashi in the district of Ou is the place where Ôkunitama no mikoto took a meal
on the occasion of his descent from heaven. The village of Yashiro
in the same district received its name (Yashiro or
"shrine") since the ancestor of the Iki clan, Amatsuhiko no mikoto (who had
descended from heaven as companion to Amenofuhi no mikoto) declared, "This is the shrine in
which I shall reside." Likewise, the name of the village of Susa in Iishi
District derives from the fact that Kamu-Susanoo no mikoto said that while the
province was small, it was the place where "my noble spirit (mitama ) has found rest." This kami
also has characteristics making one think of Kunitama no kami. The place name
of Kishima Village
in the same district is said to be due to the presence of the deity
Kishimatsumi no mikoto, and it can thus be assumed that this deity was
similarly worshiped as a kind of Kunitama no kami.
Further, the origin of the place name Etomo
in Aika District is explained as a result of the fact that Iwasakahiko no
mikoto, child of Susanoo no mikoto, made a progress through the country, at
which time he said of the fresh and lovely land, "I shall build my palace
shrine here," with the result that it was called Etomo or "blessing-companion."
The name of Tada Village in the same
district originated in a similar manner. Namely, when Susanoo's child
Tsukikitooniruhiko no mikoto was progressing through the land, he came to this
place and said "I will reside here," so the land was called "much greatness" (tada). Each of these places can be
considered a locale where a Kunitama no kami
was enshrined.
The Kojiki
states that the Ôkunitama no kami of Izumo was born to Ôtoshigami and Inuhime,
the daughter of Kamu-ikusubinokami. What is interesting is the fact that
Ôkuninushi no mikoto was apparently viewed as a kunitama no kami, as evidenced by the fact that he is called
Utsushikunitama no kami in both Kojiki
and Nihon shoki. In all likelihood,
the minor deity kunitama no kami
widely worshiped throughout the Izumo region was woven into a hierarchy of kunitama no kami dominated by deities
like Ôkunimitama no kami and Ôkuninushi no mikoto.
Further, in the mythic world of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, the relationship between kami and their human groups is subsumed under the hierarchy of the
imperial house and its founding ancestor Amaterasu.
The Nihon
shoki states that the priest who was assigned to worship Ômononushi no kami
was the deity's child Ôtataneko, and terms like oyagami ("parent deity" or "ancestral deity") or oya (parent or ancestor) are frequently
used in this way within the pages of Kojiki
and Nihon shoki.
For example, the three deities of the sea (watatsumi no kami) which were produced
at the time of Izanaki's lustration were said to be "ancestral deities of the
clan Azumi no muraji." Likewise, of the five deities which accompanied Ninigi
no mikoto at the time of his heavenly descent, Amenokoyane no mikoto was the
ancestor of the murajiVIII clan
Nakatomi, Futotama no mikoto was ancestor of the obito clan Inbe, Amenouzume no mikoto was ancestor of the kimi clan Surume, Ishikoridome no mikoto
was ancestor of the muraji clan
Kagamitsukuri, and Tamanooya no mikoto was ancestor of the muraji clan Tamanooya.
It should be noted that the Nihon shoki calls these five ancestral kami by the title "distant ancestors" (tô tsu oya
or),
and the expression "first ancestor" (hajime
no oya)
also appears on occasion, for example when Honosusori no mikoto is called
"first ancestor [hajime no oya] of
the Hayato." Terms like tô tsu oya
and hajime no oya are likely
expressions of the attempt to project the concept of oya (parent/ancestor) even further into the distant past.
It has been said that the root meaning of oya was originally "mother," but here,
the examples of oya and oyagami, or tô tsu oya and hajime no oya
are all indicative of origins in the various clans ranked as omi , muraji , kimi
, and obito, and which fell under the domination of the Yamato court. According
to Ueda Masaaki, as early as the latter half of the fifth and early sixth
century the Yamato court had already begun attempts to fix the descent of the
imperial house and local noble families, and to construct fictive genealogies
linking themselves to divine forebears.18 That genealogical
consciousness became settled from around the latter part of the eighth century,
resulting in the compilation of the well-known Shinsen shôjiroku ("New
compilation of clan surnames") around the beginning of the ninth century.
It should be noted that the expression
"descent" as used above did not refer merely to the determination of
genealogical relations. It was, rather, an ideology designed to integrate all
the members belonging to a given group. The concept of "descent" (shutsuji) is crucial to social anthropology, and an active debate has been
carried on by Western anthropologists since the 1920s regarding the issues of
descent and descent groups. But such concepts are not necessarily certain even
now, and there are roughly three currents of thought on the issue. The first is
represented by the Africanists, who limit descent narrowly to indicate the
right of membership in a group. Another is represented by the oceanists, who
propose that descent be interpreted more broadly to indicate the genealogical
bonds of ancestors and their descendants. And the third is the definition of
descent not merely as a group's membership principle, but as an ideology meant
to integrate the members of the group.19
It is this last definitional current which
I wish to emphasize here. By viewing descent as a matter of ideology, research
on descent and descent groups has shifted from the substantive level of group
composition to the conceptual level of group integration, a tact pioneered by
J.A. Barnes, Daryll Forde, and Marshall Sahlins. Barnes focused on social
groups in the New Guinea highlands, showing that in societies where the dogma
of descent has latent force, that dogma works through genealogy to reflect
current conditions or a desired improvement in conditions.20
Forde studied the patrilineal descent group called yepun found among the Yakö tribe in
Africa, and which is rooted in a system of dual unilineal descent. He noted in
particular the fact that, on the one hand, persons from differing lineages are
accepted as adopted children and given the same rights and obligations as
ordinary members, while on the other hand, a small number of members claim
patrilineal descent continuing from an apical ancestor. He noted that their
ideology included the element of unilineality (either patrilineal or
matrilineal), and came to view that ideology as forming the ultimate basis for
group attribution.21
Sahlins extended Forde's concepts, arguing
that group composition is fundamentally different from descent, and that a
group is not originally composed on the basis of a dogma of descent. On the
contrary, he believed that it is better to say that the dogma of descent is
itself artificially impressed onto the real composition of the group. As a
result, non-unilineal quasi-bilineal descent groups --- like the yepun of the Yakö people --- may maintain
the superficial claim that all members belong to a single, unified patrilineal
descent group, even while in fact carrying a considerable number of
non-patrilineal members.22
And my reason for discussing the matter of
descent and descent groups is for this same reason. Namely, I think that the
powerful local clans of omi, muraji, and kimi beneath the Yamato court may have sought their descent in
lineage from the kami as a form of
ideology which would integrate the members in their respective clan groups. If
so, it is likely that, by claiming as ancestor (or ancestral deity) one or more
of the kami woven into the divine
lineage centered on the imperial ancestral goddess Amaterasu, each of these
clans legitimated their status to the outside world, while internally
integrating the people beneath their control.
The issue of the origin of the ancient
Japanese people's concept of kami is
a problem both ancient and new. And the same goes for the issue of the
historical development of that concept. Many attempts have been made at
interpretation, but it is difficult to claim that the debate has been carried
out with full vigor, in part due to constraints on available historical
materials and other related issues.
Future developments in archaeology and
research into the period of prehistory will probably help solve the issue of
the concept of kami, but independent
of such research, there is also the need to consider relevant methodological
issues. Here, I have focused on the world of indigenous religion in Southeast
Asia and a few elements of research regarding that sacred world, in conjunction
with the perspective of the coexistence and integration of those deities. And
using this perspective as an analytical framework, I have considered the
problem of the development of the concept of kami in ancient Japan.
Needless to say, this is only a first
attempt, but I hope that this kind of research will be undertaken more
vigorously from other perspectives as well. And by stimulating such debate, it
is my hope that further light will be shed on the ancient Japanese concept of kami.
1. Ueyama Shunpei, Kamigami no taikei:
shinsô bunka no shikutsu
[Organization of the Japanese kami: an
exploratory excavation of deep culture] (Tokyo: Chûô Kôronsha
, 1972), 74;
Oka Masao, "Kôshitsu no shinwa: sono nigensei to shuzokuteki
bunkateki keifu ni tsuite" [Myths of the imperial
house: their duality and ethno-cultural lineage], in Itô Seiji and Ôbayashi Taryô, eds., Nihon shinwa kenkyû
[Research in Japanese myth] vol. 2 Kuniumi
shinwa, Takamagahara shinwa
[Myth of the birth of
the land and myth of the plain of high heaven] (Tokyo: Gakuseisha, 1977), 169.
2. Iwata Keiji, Sômokuchûgyô
no jinruigaku [An anthropology of grass, trees, fish and creeping
things] (Tokyo Tankôsha, 1973), 208-209. Idem, "Kami (seirei) to
kami" [Kami (spirits) and gods], in
Gorai Shigeru et al., Kôza
Nihon no minzoku shûkyô [Series in Japanese folk religion] (Tokyo: Kôbundô), vol. 3 Kami kannen to minzoku
[Folklore and the concept of kami] (1979), 47-48.
3. Ayabe Tsuneo, "Tai no kokuboshin to sono girei: Tai no
kokubo Mee Posopu o meguru kannen" [The Thai goddess of
grain and its rituals: notions regarding the Thai goddess Mei Posop], Niiname
Kenkyûkai, ed., Niiname
no kenkyû [Research on the festival of firstfruits] (Kyôdô
Shuppan), no. 3 Ine no
saigi [Rituals of rice] (1967), 160-162; S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults of Northeast Thailand (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1970), 57-59; R. B. Textor, Roster of the Gods: An Ethnography of the Supernatural in the Thai
Village (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, 1973), 4:522-525.
4. W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic: An Introduction to the Folklore and Popular Religion of
the Malay Peninsula (London: Macmillan Co., 1900).
5. A.C. Kruijt, Het Animisme in den Iudischen Archipel (`s-Gravenhage: Martinus
Nijhoff, 1906).
6. K.G. Izikowitz, Lamet: Hill Peasants in French Indochina (New York: AMS Press,
1979) 212-260, 339-340.
7. Iwata Keiji, "Hoo pii (seirei no hokora)
ni tsuite: Tônan Ajia ni okeru Bukkyô izen no shinkô" [Ho phi (spirit shrines): religion in pre-Buddhist Southeast Asia], in
Oka Masao Kyôju Kanreki Kinen Ronbunshû Henshû Iinkai,
ed., Minzokugaku nooto
[Notes on ethnography] (Tokyo:
Heibonsha, 1962), 226-229; idem, "Tônan Ajia no kami no ie:
Kumeeru zoku to Thai zoku no jirei o chûshin ni" [The house of the
gods in Southeast Asia: examples from the Khmer and Thai peoples], in Kanaseki
Takeo Hakase Koki Kinen Iinkai, ed., Nihon
minzoku to nanpô bunka [The Japanese race and southern culture] (Tokyo:
Heibonsha, 1968), 939-940.
8. Iwata Keiji, Kami no tanjô: genshi shûkyô
(Tokyo: Tankôsha, 1970), 225;
idem, "Kami (seirei) to kami," 49.
9. Minamoto Ryôen, "Nihon ni
okeru kami kannen no hikaku
bunkaronteki kôsatsu" [A comparative cultural study of the
Japanese concept of kami], in Tôhoku
Daigaku Bungakubu Nihon Bunka Kenkyûsho, ed., Kami
kannen no hikaku bunkaronteki kenkyû (Tokyo: Kôdansha, 1981), 14.
10. Yanagita Kunio,
"Ukanomitama-kô" [On the deity Ukanomitama], Teihon Yanagita Kunio-shû [The collected works of Yanagita Kunio, standard
edition], vol. 31 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô, 1964), 164.
11. Itô Mikiharu, "Ta no kami"
[The kami of the rice field], in Kôza
Nihon no kodai shinkô [Series on ancient Japanese religion], ed. Matsumae
Takeshi (Tokyo: Gakuseisha, 1979), vol. 2, Kamigami no tanjô
[Birth of the deities],
163-164.
12. Ishida Eiichirô et al., Nihon minzoku no kigen [Origins of the
Japanese people] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1963), 60-62, 238.
13. Orikuchi Shinobu, "Reikon no
hanashi" [Tales about souls], Orikuchi Shinobu zenshû [Collected works of Orikuchi Shinobu],
vol. 3 (Tokyo: Chûô Kôronsha, 1955), 261; Anzu Motohiko
et al., "Shintô no shomondai"
[Issues in Shinto], Shintô shûkyô, no. 3
(1951), 49-50.
14. Ishida Ichirô, "Nihon jôdai no
kami-kannen" [The ancient Japanese notion of kami], in Kami-kannen no
hikaku bunkaronteki kenkyû [Comparative-culture
research on the concept of kami], ed.
Tôhoku Daigaku Bungakubu Nihon Bunka Kenkyûsho (Tokyo: Kôdansha, 1981), 83-85.
15. Harada Toshiaki, "Tama ni tsuite"[About tama], Nihon kodai shûkyô [Ancient Japanese religion], rev. ed. (Tokyo: Chûô
Kôronsha, 1970), 113.
16. Matsumae Takeshi, Nihon shinwa no shin-kenkyû [New research on Japanese myth] (Tokyo: Ôfûsha, 1960), 106.
17. Harada Toshiaki, "Kokka soshiki no
hatten to kamigami no tanjô" [Development of national institutions and the
integration of the gods], Nihon kodai shûkyô, 225-227.
18. Ueda Masaaki
and Matsumae Takeshi, "Taiwa:
kamigami no tanjô" [Dialogue: Birth of the deities], in Kôza Nihon no kodai shinkô, vol. 2 Kamigami no tanjô, 263.
19. Itô Mikiharu, Kazoku kokka-kan no jinruigaku [Anthropology of the "family state" model] (Mineruva
Shobô, 1982), 96-115.
20. J.A. Barnes, "African Models in the New
Guinea Highlands," Man 62 (1962), 6.
21. Daryll Forde, "Some Further
Unconsidered Aspects of Descent," Man
63 (1963), 12-13; idem, Unilineal Fact or Fiction: An Analysis of the
Composition of Kin-groups among the Yakö, in Studies in Kinship and Marriage, ed. I. Schapera (London: Royal
Anthropological Institute, 1963), 38-57.
22. Marshall D. Sahlins, "On the Ideology
and Composition of Descent Groups," Man
65 (1965), 104-105.
I. Originally published as "Kami kannen no tenkai"
in Shimode Sekiyo
and Tamamuro Fumio, eds., Kamigami no tanjô to tenkai [The birth and
evolution of the gods], Kôza Shintô [The Shinto series], v. 1. (Tokyo: Ôfûsha, 1991).
II. Ôno Susumu, editor., Motoori Norinaga zenshû
[The complete works of Motoori
Norinaga], (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô, 1968), vol. 9, 125.
III. In the sixth version of the myth "in
one writing." See W.G. Aston, Nihongi:
Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 [London: George
Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1896, 1956], Part I, 22.
IV. In the seventh version "in one writing"; this portion of the "seventh
version" is omitted from Aston's translation.
V. Mikoto
is a term denoting high respect, frequently affixed to the names of kami appearing in the Nihon shoki and Kojiki. The word is frequently explained as originally meaning one
who, as a noble minister (mikoto-mochi),
received and bore the dictates or "word" (mi-koto)
of the deity; from this, it became a reference to the deity itself.
VI. See Felicia Gressitt Bock, Engi-Shiki: Procedures of the Engi Era,
Books VI-X (Tokyo: Sophia University, 1972), 80-83.
VII. According to the Kojiki,
Ôtoshi no kami was the child of Susanoo and Kamu-ôichi-hime. See Donald L.
Philippi, Kojiki (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1968), 92.
VIII. The titles muraji, obito and kimi were used to refer to relative clan rankings under the
so-called kabane system.
$Date: 2000/12/20 01:52:28 $