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The Concept of Kami
In order to understand the concept of Kami of the Japanese, it is importantto wipe off a preconception caused by the word, god, an English translationwhich is often used for the word Kami. In Shinto, there is no faith in theconcept of the absolute one god who is the creator of both nature and humanbeings. The ancient Japanese had never divided material and spiritual existence,but considered that the both were inseparable, seeing everything to be spiritual.In other word, they did not draw a border between a certain object and thework of that object. According to the Shinto myth, there was one thing inthe beginning of this universe. Later that thing was divided into two things:Heaven and Earth. From Heaven, Kami appeared and a couple of Kami who weremale and female appeared last gave birth to the various Kami, the land ofJapan and her nature as well as people. The Shinto faith starts with a beliefin this mythology. Therefore, Shinto does not acknowledge the existenceof the substantial difference or discontinuation between Kami and man, natureand human beings. It can be said that Shinto is basically the faith in thelife-giving power.
However, Shinto is not pantheism which sees all the existence on thisworld as Kami itself. If it is necessary to define its concept, it mightbe the best to refer to the opinion of Motoori Norinaga, a scholar in thelate 18th century, which is now widely accepted. He wrote, »Whateverseemed strikingly impressive, possessed the quality of excellence and virtue,and inspired a feeling of awe was called Kami«. Here »the qualityof excellence« means an enormous power which gives great influenceon many things. It is beyond the human power or human works. It brings agood luck and happiness to man but at the same time it could bring a misfortuneor an evil as well. On the other hand, both natural elements (or phenomenon)and man are given a possibility to become Kami, because both the land andthe people of Japan were given birth by Kami. So, they are all childrenof Kami.
Nevertheless, all of them are not Kami by themselves. The principle ofthe polytheism is reflecting here that the only thing that has a great influenceon human life could be Kami. For instance, relating to natural phenomenon,Kami of Rain, Kami of Wind, Kami of Mountains, Kami of Seas, Kami of Rivers,Kami of Thunders are worshipped. Thus, objects of worship are limited tothose which are closely associated and have great influences on human life.In the case of human beings, all people are revered after their death attheir home as ancestral Kami. However, people whose spirits are enshrinedafter death are limited to those who have had a great contribution to acommunity or the state. People who are enshrined during their lifetime areespecially limited to those who have enormous spiritual power over humanlife.
Occidental theologians have long regarded the human attitude of havingan awe towards the mystical power of nature as 'Nature Worship'. Shinto,however, does not impersonate nor divinize nature itself, which is the physicalexistence that works according to its own system. Shinto considers thatpeople feel awe to some natural elements which have especially great influenceto human life, and worship their spirituality and pray for their blessing.In the case of animals, their spirits are called 'mono', a kind of spirit.Because they were considered sometimes to do mischievous to human beings,people performed rites in order to console animal spirits. This faith isstill observed nowadays. In a medical faculties of some universities, forinstance, Shinto or Buddhism rites are performed in order to console thespirits of animals which were killed for experimental purposes. There areanother cases of performing a rite:to console the spirits of some toolswhich were made and utilized by men in everyday life such as needles, knives,shoes; or to purify buildings before inaugurating them including even nuclearpower stations or factories of computer machines, wishing that all the labourworks and productions involved in there would be done properly and safely.The same attitude is applied to Shinrei (or divine spirits). Since peopleworship divine spirits as they have great influences to their life, thespirit which brings evils to human beings called 'Magatsuhi Kami' is alsoawed as Kami. According to Shinto, Kami in general also gets angry and bringssome misfortunes to people although Kami usually guards and blesses people.Accordingly, it is very important to practice the faith by performing ritesfor Kami.
It is necessary to call attention to a fact that Shinto is polytheismin order to understand the concept of Kami. At the same time, it might beuseful to shift the question of the Kami concept to the question of theJapanese value system, so that we could be able to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding.In the case of Monotheism, which worships one absolute god, it seems thatthe concept of the absolute truth is dominating. If there is any conflictbetween two people or groups, one of them is considered to be right andthe other is wrong and untrue. On the other hand, polytheism which is basedon pluralism does not consider the existence of the absolute truth, andaccordingly there is distinctive difference between the two. If there aretwo things which contradict each other or cause a conflict between the two,both of them are wrong and right at the same time. Any quarrels or disputesare not judged by the one-value orientation. As the result, both sides willbe punished equally. Also it can be said that people who believe the absolutetruth tend to think that coexistence is posslble only among those who sharethe same value. People who stand on the pluralism, on the other hand, considerthat coexistence is possible even among those who have different opinionsor ideas because each individual has a truth in its individuality, so theyhave to give tribute to each other. It is coexistence by harmony. Shintobased on the pluralism takes up the plural-value orientation, It can besaid that Shinto - in this case, the Japanese had accepted foreign religionssuch as Buddhism, Confucianism and Yin-Yang thought, as the Japanese alwayshave followed according to this plural-value orientation. In fact, the Shintomythology does not mention about the omniscient and omnipotent Kami. Kamiwho gave bith to this land had failed at first, and they requested otherKami in heaven to show them the right way. Then, Kami in heaven respondedthat one may search the answer through practicing divination. Even the supremeKami, Amaterasu Ohmikami, once failed at judging her brother's inner mind.In the case of Kami called Kuebiko who is believed to have an exceptionallygreat power, for example, he knows everything happening in the world, yet,he can not move even a step because he has no leg. Thus, according to Shinto,there is no Kami who has no defect.
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