GAMA-SENNIN
“Toad sage,” also known as Kosensei. An elderly man with a warty hairless skin, he is said to live forever, able to change himself into…
Category: Japanese Mythology
FUTSUNUSHI-NO-KAMI
A sword or warrior kami dispatched with Takemikazuchi to subdue the Central Land of the Reed Plains (as told in the Nihonshπki). He is one…
FUKUROKUJU
Member of the Shichi Fukujin, he represents longevity, wisdom, and occasionally, carnal pleasure. He is represented as a small-statured man, almost a dwarf, whose bald,…
FUJIN
The wind god. He has a demon’s staring, horned, and fanged head, and claws on his hands and feet. He grasps a bag from whose…
FUGEN-BOSATSU
The boddhisattva of good practice. He is represented riding on one of the elephants that support the world (a borrowing from Indian cosmology). Fugen represents…
FUDO MYO-O
One of the most popular deities in Japan, and the most commonly depicted of the heavenly kings, Fudπ, whose name means “Immovable,” represents resolute and…
FU-DAISHI
The protector of libraries and collections. Fu Xi (497–569) was a learned abbot and philosopher in Liang, a Chinese kingdom of the period of the…
FII NU KANG (RYUKYUAN)
The deity of the hearth. In the very diffuse system of Ryukyuan beliefs is generally considered a female and the point of access to the…
EN-NO-GYOJA
Mythical founder of the Shugendπ order of syncretic practice in the seventh century and a powerful wizard. Also known as En-no-Ozunu and En-no-Ubasoku (an ubasoku…
EARTHLY KAMI (KUNITSU-KAMI)
Deities who inhabited and ruled the earth before the descent of the heavenly grandson. The vast category of kunitsu-kami is usually opposed to the concept…