Kami

"Kami" (神^?) is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term.^[1]

Kami are the central objects of worship for the Shinto faith. The nature of what can be called kami is very general and encompasses many different concepts and phenomena.

Some of the objects or phenomena designated as kami are qualities of growth, fertility, and production; natural phenomena like wind and thunder; natural objects like the sun, mountains, rivers, trees, and rocks; some animals; and ancestral spirits. Included within the designation of ancestral spirits are spirits of the ancestors of the Imperial House of Japan, but also ancestors of noble families as well as the spirits of the ancestors of all people.

Notable kami:

• Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess
• Hachiman, the god of war
• Inari Okami, god of rice and agriculture
• Izanagi-no-Mikoto, the first man
• Izanami-no-Mikoto, the first woman
• Kotoamatsukami, the primary kami trinity
• Omoikane, the deity of wisdom
• Sarutahiko Okami, kami of earth
• Susanoo-no-mikoto, the sea and storms god
• Tsukuyomi, the moon god