Arahitogami
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| Kojiki · Nihon Shoki · Fudoki · Rikkokushi · Shoku Nihongi · Jinnō Shōtōki · Kujiki | |
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| Religion in Japan · Glossary of Shinto · List of Shinto divinities · Sacred objects · Japanese Buddhism · Mythical creatures | |
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Shinto Portal |
Arahitogami (現人神) is a Japanese word meaning a kami (deity) who is a human being. It first appears in Kojiki (c. 680), but is assumed to have been used before this book.
The best-known usage of this word would be in the United States before the end of the Second World War in 1945; Christian missionaries such as D.C. Holtom used the word to claim that the Emperor was viewed as a god in Japan. It was not used in any Japanese government publication.
In 1946, at the request of the GHQ, Emperor Hirohito proclaimed in the Ningen-sengen that he had never been an akitsumikami (現御神), divinity in human form, and claimed his relation to the people did not rely on such a mythological idea but on a historically developed family-like reliance.
Some Western academics, such as John W. Dower and Herbert Bix, consider however that the Ningen-sengen can be interpreted in a way which, while renouncing his claim to be an akitsumikami (現御神), Hirohito did not actually deny his divine descent from Amaterasu Omikami.[citation needed] However, this claim is made exclusively by Westerners, not Japanese.
Some Japanese[who?] equate the divine being of the Emperor to Buddhist beliefs about the Dalai Lama and historical figures.[citation needed][dubious ]
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