Category: Japanese Mythology

The kami of an extended family cluster. Families in some areas of Japan, particularly the Northeast and mountain areas where land was scarce, would organize…

Deity of crossroads and of fecundity. Dosπjin is often represented by a wooden or stone phallus, and offerings of wooden phalloi are made at Dosπjin…

A child endowed by the thunder deity with supernormal strength. One day, the story tells, a man was working his fields when the thunder kami…

The Japanese rendition of the name Boddhidarma, a Buddhist sage who brought a form of Buddhism to South China and became the founding saint of…

A Buddhist deity who is often conflated with Inari. Dakiniten is the Japanese transformation of a type of female Indian demon called dakini, attendants of…

One of the heavenly kings, he is the defier of death. He carries weapons of war,including a lightning-hilted sword and a spear. His face is…

Buddha represented as the sun. Dainichi is the Japanese translation of the Sanskrit Maha-Vairocana (Great Illumination), the central emanation of the universe. Dainichi is often…

Zen protector of monasteries and Buddhist Law, and protector of seafarers. Tradition has it that he was one of the sons of Asoka, an Indian…

A form of witchcraft in which a nobleman, warrior, or priest puts a spell on a fox or snake in order to obtain power over…

The Chushingura (Treasury of Loyal Retainers) tells the tale of the forty-seven retainers of the lord of Akπ who were loyal beyond death. In the…