The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1224 page)

 
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(Jap.). Sacred powers venerated by the Japanese, described in the
Shinto
mythologies, and enshrined in Shinto shrines (
jinja
) as objects of worship. The etymology of kami is uncertain; the word is at once singular and plural, and while it often refers to personified beings, it also retains the sense of awesome sacred power. The kami are numerous, even innumerable, according to the traditional phrase
yaoyorozu no kami
(‘vast myriads of kami’), implying that the cosmos is replete with divine powers in which all forms of existence participate. The kami are commonly divided into heavenly kami (
amatsukami
) and earthly kami (
kunitsukami
). But any form of existence that possesses some extraordinary, awe-inspiring quality could be called kami: mountains, seas, rivers, rocks, trees, birds, animals. Humans who have some extraordinary quality—people like emperors, family ancestors, heroes—could be referred to as kami.
The kami who are worshipped in the thousands of shrines in Japan are predominantly those mentioned in the Shinto mythologies.
Amaterasu-
-Mikami is usually recognized at the head of the kami, but her position is not absolute or exclusive, for she pays her respects to the other kami, and ordinary people worship other kami as well as Amaterasu. There are also, of course, kami with negative, destructive powers (e.g.
magatsuhi-no-kami
) who are the source of sin and uncleanness and who inflict calamities. But ultimately they too are manifestations of a power of life which requires reverence and worship.

 
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(Jap., ‘kami-shelf’). In
Shinto
, an altar or high shelf for enshrining a
kami
in a quiet place in the house of a Shinto believer.

 
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(Jap.). A state of trance in which a spiritual being (
kami
) possesses (
kakaru
) the human body by entering and speaking through it. Kamigakari may be experienced spontaneously or induced through ascetic practices. Women experience kamigakari more often than men. Kamigakari has been a common feature of Japanese folk religion since ancient times.

 
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(Jap., ‘Divine Wind’, so-called from the strong winds and storms which dispersed two Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281). Japanese pilots during the Second World War who volunteered, from 1944 onward, to undertake missions against enemy targets in which they were ‘flying bombs’, and from which, therefore, they could not expect to return alive. Related to kamikaze were the
kaiten
(turning of the heaven), human torpedoes. They wore white scarves and also round their foreheads a white cloth, taken from the
hachimaki
, the cloths worn by
samurai
warriors. In a Zen perspective (often referred to by volunteers who survived), death is of no greater importance (or less) than any other event or manifestation. In a wider Japanese perspective, the spirits of warriors who die in obedience to the emperor return in any case to Japan, and in particular to the Shinto Yasukuni (Country of Peace) shrine in Tokyo. This shrine was founded in 1879 as the Tokyo Shokon Jinja (shrine).

 
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