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Food offered up could range from their staple of rice to seafood, food foraged from the mountains, seasonal foods, local specialties, or food connected to the enshrined kami. At the end of the ritual, the offered food is eaten together to gain a sense of unity with the kami, and to gain their blessing and protection. The rite is known as naorai.
Ta-no-Kami (田の神) is a kami who is believed to observe the harvest of rice plants or to bring a good harvest, by Japanese farmers. Ta in Japanese means "rice fields". Ta-no-Kami is also called Noushin (kami of agriculture) or kami of peasants.
Inari Ōkami (Japanese: 稲荷大神), also called Ō-Inari (大稲荷), is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea, sake, agriculture and industry, and general prosperity and worldly success, [1] and is one of the principal kami of Shinto.
Kami may, at its root, simply mean spirit, or an aspect of spirituality. It is written with the kanji 神, Sino-Japanese reading shin or jin. In Chinese, the character means deity or spirit. [8] In the Ainu language, the word kamuy refers to an animistic concept very similar to Japanese kami.
The Kojiki identifies Ukanomitama (宇迦之御魂神 Ukanomitama-no-Kami) as the child of Susanoo by his second wife Kamu-Ōichihime (神大市比売), who was a daughter of Ōyamatsumi (大山津見神), the god of mountains. This text portrays Ukanomitama as the younger sibling of the harvest deity Ōtoshi-no-Kami. [2] [3]
This is normally read as kami, but in certain compounds it is read as mi, as we also see in the derivation of the word miko (巫女, "shrine maiden"). The third character (酒) is read as sake when used alone, but in certain compounds of ancient derivation it is read as ki. The compound omiki is very old and dates back to Old Japanese.
Kamameshi (釜飯 "kettle rice") is a Japanese rice dish traditionally cooked in an iron pot called a kama. Many varieties exist, but most consist of rice seasoned with soy sauce or mirin, and cooked with meats and vegetables. In modern times, it is often considered a type of takikomi gohan (mixed rice dish).
Archeological research in Japan confirms these sects to be ancient. [7] In shrines, even today stones considered to be related to the shrine's kami are used to make food offerings to the kami. [7] Similarly an iwasaka (磐境) is a stone altar or mound erected as a yorishiro to call a kami for worship. [8]