Encyclopedia of Shinto
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詳細表示 (Complete Article)
| カテゴリー1： | 7. Concepts and Doctrines |
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| カテゴリー2： | Basic Terms |
| Title | Kami |
| Text | This "kami," which is written 神人, is not to be confused with kami in general (神, see kami, § Definitions and Typology). The kami here is considered to mean a kami with a human nature, but it is also used to refer to "kami and human beings." There is no fixed interpretation of the term. In Confucian Shinto (Juka Shintō) it was regarded as important as a term expressing the principle of unity between kami and human beings. Proof of this was found in an alternative passage in Nihongi: "When Heaven and Earth were in a state of chaos, there was first of all a kami ("kami-man" 神人) whose name was Umashi ashikabi hikoji no mikoto." The Edo period Shinto scholar Yoshikawa Koretari said that "chaos" was when heaven and earth opened up and the forms of heaven, earth and human beings were accomplished. He commented that 神人was read as kami , "showing that it was the principle of unity between heaven, earth and human beings" (Nihonshoki monsho). In another reading in Nihongi (section 5-1), "human being" is read as "kami" and Koretari pointed this out as being "the principle of unity between kami and human beings," and that because in the Age of the Kami (kamiyo) humans were called kami this meant that they were beings endowed as receptacles of the kami (shintai) (Jindai no maki Koretarishō). In this way, beginning with Koretari, Confucian Shintoists asserted "the principle of unity of kami and human beings" by using the Chinese cosmological view (uchūkan) of the unity of heaven, earth and humanity (天地人三才) to elucidate the myths of Nihongi. + This kami (神人) is also not to be confused with jinin , which referred to a certain class of shrine priests in late antiquity and the medieval period, but is written with the same characters. — Nishioka Kazuhiko |
Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声
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