In the Buddhist pantheon, we distinguish between four great groups of deities: Ritual Dances for the Japanese Gods, Kagura Dance　神楽 The Road to Izumo, where the Deities meet.įestivals for the Japanese Gods (matsuri) In haiku, we even have to note a months where Shrine, Shinto Shrine (jinja, miya, guu) Japan Haniyasu and his female counterpart were produced from Izanami's feces. Omodaru, Ayakashikone and Dairoku Tenma O 第六天魔王 Waterfalls and Fudo Myo-o 不動滝 worshipped as the deity himself, a Buddhist Deity in an animistic setting, Fudo Myo-O is a borderline case, where the mountain asceticism has developed its own view of the divine. God of Water, Mizu no Kamisama 水の神様, Suijin-sama 水神様ĭeities of the Fields and Mountains. This whole Saijiki is devoted to the many ceremonies and festivals around these various deities.ĭainichi Nyorai 大日如来 The Great Sun, Center of the Universeīimbogami, Binboo Gami 貧乏神 God of Povertyįor the rice planting society of old, these two where most important: Hotoke　仏，佛 does not only refer to a Buddhist deity, but also to the dead body of a person.ĭead body, deceased person, corpse (hotoke) Japan Death Poems, Death Haiku Weddings often take place at a Christian church, although the participants are not Christian believers at all, but they love the ceremony that goes with it. To complicate matters, many Buddhist deities have their Japanese counterpart, or vice versa.Įven now, many traditional homes have a special shelf for the kami (kamidana　神棚) and an alcove for Buddhist souls of the ancestors (butsudan　仏壇). Yet, just reading ' face of God', would not a good Christian imagine the old man with a beard? This is a problem of translations, having been disucssed. To distinguish the Christian God, with a capital letter, from the other gods of other religions, we can use the capital G ! In German, we can distinguish between Gott and Gottheiten, deities.īut in the haiku above, would the last line be poetically translated as: (the pronounciacion GODDO ゴッド is seldom used when talking about God.) In Japan, a variety of deities are known, usually peacefully side by side, starting with ancient animistic believes of 'Gods of Mountains, Waterfalls, Rocks' and so on, leading to the concept of KAMI in Shintoism and later the influence of Buddhism with its manyfold HOTOKE.Ĭhristianity came with the Portugese Missionaries, so we have Mihotoke ni shirimuke oreba tsuki suzushi Suzushisa ya kami to hotoke no tonaridooshi Shinbutsu shūgō 神仏習合 syncretism - shinbutsu bunri 神仏分離 separation The discussion started with a translation of

Haniyasu kami shinto