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Thread: Ujigami

  1. #1
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    Question Ujigami

    Hi,
    While talking about Ujigami (ancestral deity) to one of the World Mate members, he also told me that there are also Ubusunagami and Chinjugami and all these Kami play a simular role. Please can anybody elaborate on the roles of these kami?


    yours
    World Mate Wales Shibu
    Brian Carpenter

    Haruchi Umuchi Tsuzuchi !

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Ujigami

    Originally posted by Moriki
    Hi,
    While talking about Ujigami (ancestral deity) to one of the World Mate members, he also told me that there are also Ubusunagami and Chinjugami and all these Kami play a simular role. Please can anybody elaborate on the roles of these kami?


    yours
    World Mate Wales Shibu
    Ubusunagami are the kami of the ubusuna (birth place), which is perhaps a more specific designation than uji-gami (ancestral deities of a family or clan).
    Chinju (chin = garrison for peace-preservation; ju, also read as mamoru, = to obey/preserve) are guardian (not ancestral) deities and chinju-no-kami received a rather wider meaning.

    Ujigami arose as a result of the concentration of central power with the ritsuryo system and the increasing role role of clans.
    Chinju were protactive deities of private estates (shoen) in the early medieval period, following the decline of the ritsuryo system. However, with the decline of the shoen, the name was transferred to other deities of autonomous village communites and even larger administrative units, as chinjugami or chinju-no-kami.
    Ubusuna-gami became more important in the Edo period, but gradually all these nuances of meaning were subsumed under the general name of uji-gami, the deities at the centre of the villlage community.

    Best regards,
    Peter Goldsbury,
    Forum Administrator,
    Hiroshima, Japan

  3. #3
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    Default

    Dear professor Goldsbury,

    Thank you for your Explanation, E-Budo is very lucky to have such a knoweledgeable person as yourself on board.

    yours
    Brian Carpenter

    Haruchi Umuchi Tsuzuchi !

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