Arahitogami

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Arahitogami ( Japanese 現 人 神 or 荒 人 神 ) is a Japanese term with the literal meaning " Kami who appears as a person." The first evidence for the term is in Kojiki from the 8th century.

In Shinto, the souls of the dead are worshiped as kami. In contrast, a person who is still alive is worshiped as a kami. In the state Shinto established in the Meiji period , this name was used for the Tenno (emperor) to underline his divinity.

The divinity of the Japanese emperor was rejected by the Shōwa-tennō in his New Year's declaration 1946, also known as Ningen-sengen ( 人間 宣言 "Declaration of Humanity") and declared that the bonds between him and his people had always been based on trust and affection and not on Legends and myths based. Instead of arahitogami , however, the less common expression Akitsumikami ( 現 御 神 , but also 現 神 , 現 為 明 神 , 明 神 or 明 御 神 ) was used:

「朕 ト 爾等 國民 ト ノ 間 ノ 紐 帯 ハ, 終始 相互 ノ 信 頼 ト 敬愛 ト ニ 依 リ テ 結 バ レ, 單 ナ ル 神話 ト 傳説 ト ニ 依 リ テ 生 ゼ ル モ ノ ニ 非 ズ. 天皇 ヲ 以 テ 現 御 神 ト シ, 且 日本 國民 ヲ 以 テ他 ノ 民族 ニ 優越 セ ル 民族 ニ シ テ 、 延 テ 世界 ヲ 支配 ス ベ キ 運 命 ヲ 有 ス ス ト ノ 架空 ナ ル 觀念 ニ 基 ク モ ノ ニ モ 非 ズ。 」

“The ties between Us and Our People have always been based on mutual trust and mutual admiration and are by no means products of pure myths and legends. They are not based on the delusion that the Tennô is a present god [akitsumikami] and that the Japanese people are superior to others, or that they have the task of ruling the world. "

Some critics are of the opinion that the Tennō only denied a supernatural quality for himself with this rejection, which he actually never possessed, even according to Shinto ideas, in order to satisfy the Christian ideas of a god , of which it was assumed that the occupiers had them meant in their call for the rejection of the divine status. Another position of critics is that it was not at all in the power of the Tennō to reject his divinity in the sense of a kami nature ( 神格 性 , shinkaku-sei ) qua descent from Amaterasu , since this is a historical fact .

In the Japanese constitution of 1947, the tennō only has the role of a symbol of the state. He is still the chief priest in Shinto. In the privately held Dajiō-sai ( 大 嘗 祭 ; earlier also Ōnihe-no-matsuri ) a named Tennō - after the (secular and state) accession to the throne ( 即位 の 礼 , sokui no rei ) - really becomes a Tennō, in which he tastes rice together with Amaterasu and embodies her spirit. He becomes an Akitsumikami, among other things. However, since the end of the war, this ceremony is no longer a state ( 国事 行為 , kokuji kōi ), but only has a religious function. Radical Tennoists and nationalists (such as the extreme right-wing Uyoku , but also conservative politicians and Shintoists), however, are calling for the renewed nationalization of Dajiō-sai. Articles 20 and 89 of the Constitution speak against this at the moment.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Ernst Lokowandt: On the relationship between the state and Shintô in Japan today: a collection of materials . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1981, p. 69; quoted there from Herbert Zachert : "The Japanese Constitution", in: Das Parlament (supplement) of September 30, 1964, p. 23f.