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人物神

Human Kami

Sacred Tokyo 40 Shinto Shrines

A Human Kam is a person who has been deified after death.

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To once more quote the 17th century Nativist (Kokugaku lit. National Learning) scholar Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801):

"...any being whatsoever which possesses some eminent quality out of the ordinary, and is awe-inspiring, is called Kami.”

普通の外にいくつかの著名な品質を持っている、と畏敬の念を起こさせるあるいかなるビーイングは、カミと呼ばれています。

"Any being whatsoever" casts a very wide net, but the number of people who have been thus elevated is quite small. I am not sure what the exact number is. The Shinto Dai Jiten has no entries under the category:  on its Japanese Web site, Wikipedia gives a list of 304, the Japanese dictionary website Weblio lists 157. I have begun making a list of the Human Kami at the bottom of this page, but it will be a slow process. 

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Perhaps the most well-known of the Human Kami are Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Oda Nobunaga, Shotoku Taishi, and Sugawara Michizane. While Sugawara is the least well known  as a historical personality he is the only one of the five to be worshipped at any of the largest shrine groupings.

 

Shrines described in this site where Human Kami are enshrined as the Main Kami

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Shōin Jinja:            Tōkyō-to, Setagaya-ku, Wakabayashi 4-35-1

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​Shiba Tōshō-gū:    Tōkyō-to, Minato-ku, Shibakōen4-8-10

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Sugawara Michizane    Twelve

Fujiwara Kagekiyo (?)　　 藤原 景清 　　Ikime Jinja: Miyazaki-ken, Miyazaki-shi Ikime 345　

                                                                        生目神社     宮崎県宮崎市生目345

Honda Toshiaki                  本多利明

HoshinaMasayuki　　　   保科正之 

Iida Shohaku　　　　　　飯田正伯 

Kidotakayoshi Kidokoin    木戸孝允

Kikuchi Takemitsu               菊池武光

Kusunoki Masashige           楠木正成　　Minatogawa  Shrine Hyogo-ken, Kobe-shi, Chuo-ku Tamondori 3-1−1　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  湊川 神社     兵庫県神戸市中央区多聞通3-1−1

Kusunoki Masatsura           楠木正行

Kojima Takanori                  児島高徳 

Mamiya Rinzo                     間宮林蔵 

Motoori Norinaga               本居宣長         Motoori Norinaga-no-Miya   Mie-ken, Matsusaka-shi Tonomachi 1533−2    

                                                                        本居宣長ノ宮   三重県松阪市殿町1533−2

Nanbu Nobumasa              南部 信政        

Nomi Sukune                      野見宿禰

Nomura Kiyoshi                  野村靖  

Oominakuchi Tsukune      大水口宿禰 

Ozaka Yukio                         尾崎行雄

Sato Nobuhiro                     佐藤信淵 

Shinagawa  Yajiro                品川弥二郎 

Sosuke Kun                          i宗助国

Tachibana Hayanari             橘逸勢

Tokugawa Mitsukuni           徳川光圀 

Tsunenaga Shino                 恒良親王

Tsuzuki Toyo                         i続 豊治勢

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Motoori
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