DOZOKU-SHIN

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 themselves into family clusters. These consisted of a main house—the honke—and several branch houses originating either from the main house or from other branch houses, called bunke. The houses’ relations were hierarchical, each one owing obligations directly or indirectly to the honke. These obligations were financial, political, and, most important, ritual. Each branch house was obligated to support, in worship and offerings, the shrine of the main house. The kami worshiped by the main house thus became the dπzoku-shin of the entire cluster.

Often the dπzoku-shin was viewed as the ancestor of the main house, and thus of all members of the branch houses as well. Dπzoku that have the dragonkami Ryujin as their deity often accept that the dragon-kami or a magical snake was the ancestor (sometimes ancestress) and founder of the main house. In a broader context, the Japanese people as a whole constitute a dπzoku. The Imperial House is the honke, and all other Japanese households are bunke related and differentiated by their closeness to the imperial house. The dπzokushin in this case would be Amaterasu-π-mikami, tutelary deity and ancestress of the imperial household.

SEE ALSO:

• Japanese Mythology

REFERENCES:

• Shimizu, A. 1987. “Ie and Dπzoku—Family and Descent in Japan.” Current Anthropology 28: 85–90.

SOURCE:

Handbook of Japanese Mythology written by Michael Ashkenazi – Copyright © 2003 by Michael Ashkenazi

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