Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 4. Jinja (Shrines)
カテゴリー2： Objects of Worship and Shrine Treasures
Title
Kamidana
Text
A household Shinto altar, a facility for the conduct of family rites at home, in which amulets of the kami, an "apportioned spirit" (bunrei) of the kami, and similar items may be enshrined. The place chosen for installation of the kamidana should be clean, bright, and quiet, in a location convenient for worship and placement of offerings. An eastern or southern orientation is generally considered to be desirable. While kamidana have today become important sites for daily devotion to the kami, the institution of the kamidana itself is not particularly old. Toward the end of the Heian period, rites for ancestral spirits (sorei) were entrusted to Buddhism, and it became customary to enshrine ancestral tablets (ihai) in household Buddhist altars (butsudan), which was accompanied by a movement to conduct rituals in each household. From the medieval period, the spread of the Ise and other cults led to the custom of installing kamidana for the enshrinement of kami that had been "dedicated" (kanjō) in other locales. In the early modern period, priests called oshi helped spread the Ise cult to the populace, and it became customary throughout the country to construct special Ise altars (Daijingūdana) to enshrine an amulet (taima or ofuda) from the Grand Shrines (Jingū). The institution of kamidana thus spread to individual households from around the mid-Edo period. In addition to the kamidana used within Shrine Shinto (Jinja Shintō), other kamidana may be found with specific names and varying locations in accordance with the kami enshrined, including Ebisu-dana, Kōjin-dana, Toshitoku-dana, and Kadogami-dana. Kamidana may also be dedicated to tutelaries of craftsmen with special artisan skills, or to other tutelaries of specific trades. Other kamidana are devoted to success in business and good fortune.
— Okada Yoshiyuki

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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Kamidana_Ōsawa Kōji___2007****_Saitama Prefecture