| Kado-mori-no-kami |
Guardians of the shrine gates, i.e. of the kami. See |
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| Kadomatsu |
'Door-pine'. Pine-branch and bamboo decorations are hung on the front of shops and houses at New Year, together with the February-flowering plum (ume) The evergreen pine represents continuity, the sharply cut bamboo straightness and sincerity, and the ume new life. The custom is now universal in Japan although those living near the Ikuta-jinja in Kobe reportedly do not decorate their homes in this way, ever since the kami of the shrine indicated his dislike for pine trees by sending a flood that washed away all those around his shrine—in the eighth century. See also |
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| Kaeru |
A frog, but kaeru also means 'return home'. Several shrines therefore sell frog figurines signifying a return to health, safe return from travel or if kept in the purse or pocket the return of any money spent |
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| Kagura |
Sacred music and dance; music of the kami. The term kagura is derived from kamu-kura "seat of the gods" i.e. the place or object into which the kami descends, and it suggests the invocation of gods. The mythical origin of kagura is the hilarious dance performed by the heavenly kami Ame-no-uzume which caused such merriment among the assembled kami that it successfully enticed Amaterasu out of the cave into which she had withdrawn (see Iwato-biraki) Kagura fall broadly into two types. Classical kagura (mi-kagura) connected with the court has developed as a reverent classical dance form little resembling the boisterous performance by Ameno-uzume. It is performed by singers to an accompaniment of wooden clappers (shakubyoshi) a special oboe (hichiriki) a flute (kagura-bue) and a six-stringed zither, the wagon. It is performed at the imperial court annually on the night of 15th December. The second form called refers to regional forms of shrine or festival-based dance-drama which have evolved into semi-professional performances by masked players of scenes from Shinto mythology and other historical or legendary themes. The accompaniment is by a band consisting of flutes and drums. At shrines, kagura may be performed by dressed in red and white blouse. Its purpose is to entertain, pacify and invoke the benevolence of the enshrined kami. There are regional types of kagura associated with the Atsuta taisha, Izumo taisha, Kasuga taisha and other shrines including jingu where kagura was traditionally performed, as elsewhere, in return for donations. For further examples see Kazami-no-Kagura, Toyama-no-shimotsuki matsuri, Sanzoro matsuri, Myoga kagura, Honkawa kagura, Takuno-no-kodomo kagura and kagura In trance kagura such as the kojin kagura, found in Okayama, a medium dances while waving a length of white cotton in snake-like gestures, before falling into a trance and issuing a message from the god kojin. A form of kagura (Mi-kagura-uta) also has a central place in ritual. It is performed in a pit at the centre of the central shrine in Tenri, Nara prefecture |
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| Kagura-den |
A shrine building constructed or used for performances. Kagura is said to have been performed originally in the open space in front of the shrine, and in shrines with no separate kagura-den other buildings such as the may be used (see Jinja) Classical kagura is still performed in the open air, for example at Ise |
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| Kai-i |
Ranks within the Shinto priesthood currently awarded by the Honcho : they are jo, mei, sei, choku (yielding jokai, meikai, seikai and chokkai) See |
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| Kaijin |
Sea-kami enshrined in boats, shrines and sometimes in See and matsuri |
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| Kaijin matsuri |
Sea-kami festivals. A term used for the numerous festivals dedicated to the sea gods, or kaijin. Kaijin is a collective term for a number of different kami, important to seafarers and fishermen and worshipped mainly in coastal areas around Japan, which form a large proportion of the habitable land. Until recently fishing was the occupation second only to agriculture in Japan and kaijin are very popular. They include the munakata female kami, various kami worshipped in the taisha and its numerous branch shrines, and the kami of the Kotohira-gu on Shikoku, i.e. dai-gongen |
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| Kakure kirishitan |
"Hidden Christians" who survived the early Tokugawa persecutions, compulsory Buddhist registration and forced renunciation of Christianity during the two-century sakoku ('closed country') period to re-emerge as distinctive religious communities in the mid-nineteenth century. In some cases the kakure kirishitan adopted Shinto tendencies, partly as camouflage and partly to perpetuate indigenous ancestor-veneration, for example identifying the toyo-tama-hime with the virgin Mary, and enshrining martyrs and ancestors as kami. The Karemitsu in Sotome, Nagasaki is the grave of an early European priest known as San Juan-sama |
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| Kakuriyo |
The hidden world. In contemporary Shinto theology a term used for the invisible world of kami and spirits, in contrast to the manifest or human world utsushiyo. It may also be interpreted as the world after death |
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| Kamado no kami |
The kami of the kamado, the cooking-stove or fire, who protects the home and family. He is widely worshipped throughout Japan with a miniature shrine in the kitchen. This kami is variously identified with named kami including okitsuhiko and okitsuhime, i.e. the prince and princess of indoors, who are also agricultural kami. Kamadogami is also identified with kojin and referred to as o-kama-sama |
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| Kamadogami |
The kami of the kamado, the cooking-stove or fire, who protects the home and family. He is widely worshipped throughout Japan with a miniature shrine in the kitchen. This kami is variously identified with named kami including okitsuhiko and okitsuhime, i.e. the prince and princess of indoors, who are also agricultural kami. Kamadogami is also identified with kojin and referred to as o-kama-sama |
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| Kamakura |
The Kamakura period |
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| Kamakura |
A type of igloo made of snow, common in the "snow country" parts of northern Japan. Kamakura are built in mid-February and occupied by children who cook and eat o-mochi and drink amazake, a sweet drink made from fermented rice. Offerings of are made at a small altar in the igloo dedicated to -sama the kami of water |
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| Kamakura period |
The period after Nara and before Ashikaga during which the first bakufu ('tent-government'; military government) was established by the Minamoto shogunate at Kamakura in Eastern Japan. Most of the new medieval Buddhist movements such as Zen, Pure Land and Nichiren developed during this time, and neo-Confucianism was introduced by Zen monks from Sung China. The second attempted Mongol invasion of Japan was thwarted at the eleventh hour by a in August 1281. The period ended with a brief three-year recovery of power by the emperor Go-Daigo after which rulership passed to the Ashikaga shogunate |
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| Kamen |
Masks, widely used in festivals to represent visitors or characters from the other world and from legend. They tend to have grotesque features such as horns, sharp teeth, unkempt hair, round eyes or other unsettling deformities. Most common are the masks of various kinds and masks used by performers in kagura, bugaku and See also |
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| Kami |
Kami. A term best left untranslated. In Japanese it usually qualifies a name or object rather than standing alone, indicating that the object or entity has kami-quality. Kami may refer to the divine, sacred, spiritual and numinous quality or energy of places and things, deities of imperial and local mythology, spirits of nature and place, divinized heroes, ancestors, rulers and statesmen. Virtually any object, place or creature may embody or possess the quality or characteristic of kami, but it may be helpful to think of kami as first and foremost a quality of a physical place, usually a shrine, or in pre-Meiji times either a shrine or a Buddhist temple and often both together. Either the place itself is kami or a particular named mythological kami (perhaps in the form of its "divided spirit' bunrei) is enshrined in such-and-such a place. Hence shrines tend to be named after the place— Iwashimizu Hachiman, Kanda jinja Ise, (not Amaterasu) etc., though there are modern exceptions such as the jingu Numerous interesting etymologies have been suggested for the term kami, but its meaning lies in its use within the different periods and dimensions of Japanese religion. Although Shinto purists like to reserve the term kami for Shinto (rather than Buddhist) use, most ordinary Japanese make no clear conceptual distinction between kami and Buddhist divinities, though practices surrounding kami and Buddhas may vary according to custom. This accommodating attitude is a legacy of the thorough integration of the notion of kami into the Buddhist world-view which predominated in Japanese religion before the reforms of the Meiji period and has been to some extent revived since 1945, often through the new religions. This is despite the 'separation of kami and Buddhas' (shinbutsu bunri) of 1868, when deities enshrined both as Buddhist divinities and as kami of a certain location (see Honji-suijaku) had to be re-labelled as either Buddha/ or kami. In understanding Japanese religion, to think of kami as constituting a separate category of "Shinto" divine beings leads only to confusion. The "shin" of "Shinto" is written with the same Chinese character as kami. See |
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| Kami-arizuki |
The 'month without kami', from October 11 when all the kami (except those who are deaf and do not hear the summons, such as Ebisu) having completed their work protecting the harvest are seen off from their shrines and make a tour to Izumo. In Izumo, this period is consequently known as kami-arizuki or 'the month of kami'. The period may correspond to the month known as saigetsu, the precarious month of abstinence before the harvest was secured when according to the Engi-shiki burial and reburial and other practices were tabooed and the Taoist custom of worshipping the North star as the Heavenly Emperor was prohibited |
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| Kami-gakari |
Descent of the kami. Sudden or gradual possession by a kami, who is revealed and speaks through the possessed person. Several "new" religions including Tenrikyo, Omoto-kyo and Konkokyo were founded by shamanic men or women as a result of kami-gakari |
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| Kami-kaze |
'Divine wind'. Typhoons, which in the thirteenth century providentially foiled attempts by the Mongols under Khubilai Khan to invade Japan. The name was later applied to suicide pilots trained to dive with planes full of explosives into enemy ships late in the second world war |
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