is a Japanese

sacerdotal Sacerdotalism (from Latin ''sacerdos'', priest, literally one who presents sacred offerings, ''sacer'', sacred, and ''dare'', to give) is the belief in some Christian churches that priests are meant to be mediators between God and humankind. The und ...

kin group which traces its roots from a

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

shrine in the vicinity of northeastern Kyoto. The clan rose to prominence during the

Asuka Asuka may refer to: People * Asuka (name), a list of people * Asuka (wrestler), professional wrestler * Asuka (wrestler, born 1998), professional wrestler also known as Veny outside of Japan Places In Japan * , an area in Yamato Province (now ...

and Heian periods when the Kamo are identified with the 7th-century founding of the Kamo Shrine.

Kamo Shrine

The Kamo Shrine's name references the area's early inhabitants, many of whom continue to live near the shrine their ancestors traditionally served. The formal names of corollary ''jinja'' memorialize vital clan roots in a history which pre-dates the founding of Japan's ancient capital.Miyazaki, Makoto
"Lens on Japan: Defending Heiankyo from Demons,"
''Daily Yomiuri.'' December 20, 2005. The Kamo Shrine encompasses what are now independent but traditionally associated '' jinja'' or shrines—the in Kyoto's Kita Ward and; and the in Sakyo Ward. The ''jinja'' names identify the various ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' or deities who are venerated; and the name also refers to the ambit of shrine's nearby woods. Tadasu no mori 200906a

Although now incorporated within boundaries of the city, the location was once ''

Tadasu no Mori , which literally means "Forest of Correction", is a sacred grove associated with an important Shinto sanctuary complex known in Japanese as the Kamo-''jinja'', situated near the banks of the Kamo River just north of where the Takano River joins ...

'' (糺の森), the wild forest home of the exclusive caretakers of the shrine from prehistoric times.

Notable clan members

Kamo no Chōmei was a Japanese author, poet (in the waka form), and essayist. He witnessed a series of natural and social disasters, and, having lost his political backing, was passed over for promotion within the Shinto shrine associated with his family. H ...

(1155–1216) *

Kamo no Mabuchi was a ''kokugaku'' scholar, poet and philologist during mid-Edo period Japan. Along with Kada no Azumamaro, Motoori Norinaga, and Hirata Atsutane, he was regarded as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku, and through his research into the spiri ...

(1697–1769) Although

Ieyasu Tokugawa was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fell ...

never used the surname Tokugawa before 1566, his appointment as shōgun was contingent on his claim to Matsudaira kinship and a link to the

Seiwa Genji The is a line of the Japanese Minamoto clan that is descended from Emperor Seiwa, which is the most successful and powerful line of the clan. Many of the most famous Minamoto warriors, including Minamoto no Yoshiie, Minamoto no Yoritomo, the foun ...

. Modern scholarship has revealed that the genealogy proffered to the emperor contained falsified information; however, since the

Matsudaira The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of th ...

used the same crest as the Kamo clan, some academics suggest that he was likely a descendant of the Kamo clan."Plutschow, Herbert. (1995)
"Japan's Name Culture: The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context,'' p. 158.
/ref>

Notes

References

* Breen, John and

Mark Teeuwen Mark J. Teeuwen (Marcus Jacobus Teeuwen, born 9 February 1966, Eindhoven) is a Dutch academic and Japanologist. He is an expert in Japanese religious practices, and he is a professor at the University of Oslo.University of Oslo faculty CV/ref> In a ...

. (2000)
''Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami.''
Honolulu:

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. * Iwao, Seiichi, Teizō Iyanaga, Susumu Ishii, Shōichirō Yoshida, ''et al.'' (2002)
''Dictionnaire historique du Japon.''
Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose.
OCLC 51096469
* Nelson, John K. (2000)
''Enduring Identities: The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan.''
Honolulu:

. * Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2002)
''Japan Encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

. (cloth) -- (paper) * Plutschow, Herbert. (1995)
"Japan's Name Culture: The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context.''
London:

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. (cloth) * Terry, Thomas Philip. (1914)
''Terry's Japanese empire: including Korea and Formosa, with chapters on Manchuria, the Trans-Siberian railway, and the chief ocean routes to Japan; a guidebook for travelers.''
New York:

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

. {{OCLC, 2832259 Japanese clans Meiji Restoration