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Sacred Correspondences
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Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

This page groups deities by whether their existence in belief is considered fully mythological, debated, or grounded in a historical cult that can be traced. Wikipedia defines historicity as "the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction." Browsing this way helps a visitor separate gods with a documented historical cult from ones known only through later literary retelling.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
The kami of Shinto together with the buddhas and bodhisattvas long worshipped alongside them. Kami are not a fixed pantheon: the word covers sacred powers in nature, places, ancestors and exceptional people, held to be innumerable, and the named great kami of the eighth-century chronicles are a small and deliberately organised part of what is venerated at shrines. 2
Attestation
Era of Attestation
The named kami first appear as an ordered corpus in the Kojiki of 712 and the Nihon Shoki of 720, compiled to serve the claims of the imperial court. Shrine worship continues today. 2
Veneration Today
Venerated today at shrines throughout Japan and in the Japanese diaspora. 2
Directory
Category
Deities 1
Origins
Origin of the Name
Kami is the tradition's own word and is not a translation of god. It names a quality of awe-commanding power that may belong to a deity, a place, a natural force, an ancestor or a living person, and it takes no plural. 2
Learn More
The kami of Japan

This group holds the deities of Shinto, the indigenous tradition of Japan, together with figures shared with Japanese Buddhism. The Shinto divine is the kami (sacred powers present in nature, ancestors, places and exceptional beings), understood as innumerable rather than as a fixed pantheon.

The browser will find the great kami of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki: the sun-goddess Amaterasu, from whom the imperial line is traced; her brother the storm-god Susanoo; the moon-god Tsukuyomi; the creator pair Izanagi and Izanami; and popular figures such as Inari and the Seven Lucky Gods. The entries note the long entanglement of Shinto and Buddhist worship in Japanese history.

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being
Filter Results25 entries

Ame-no-Minakanushi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Ame-no-Uzume

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Benzaiten

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Hoori

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Inari

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Izanagi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Izanami

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Kagu-tsuchi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Konohanasakuya-hime

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Kunado

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Kuninotokotachi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Ninigi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Omoikane

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Oyamakui no Kami

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Sarutahiko

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Sukunabikona

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Susanoo

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Toyotama-hime

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Toyouke Omikami

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Tsukuyomi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Ugajin

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Uke Mochi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Watatsumi

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Yachimata-hiko

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being

Yachimata-hime

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Shinto: A History
Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press, 2017ch. 1View the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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