are

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

shamans Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

. The term has a few different writings, one is the

巫 ''Wu'' () is a Chinese term translating to "shaman" or "sorcerer", originally the practitioners of Chinese shamanism or "Wuism" (巫教 ''wū jiào''). Terminology The glyph ancestral to modern is first recorded in bronze script, where it coul ...

, character in common with

Miko A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained to perfor ...

, however the term is gender neutral and linked to the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Wu shamans.

Overview

A kannagi represents the act of communicating with a devotee of a deity, or a possession of a deity, or a

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

, or a person who serves in that role. For more information, see

Shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

(Fu, Kan-nagi). Kumagusu Minakata, in his book "Ichiko ni kansuru koto", refers to Priestesss serving shrines as "kannagi", and to walking priestesses as "miko". Depending on the shrine, the word "kannagi" is used to refer to a

miko A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained to perfor ...

who serves the shrine, and the word "miko" is used to refer to a walking miko. (

Ōmiwa Shrine , also known as , is a Shinto shrine located in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is noted because it contains no sacred images or objects because it is believed to serve Mount Miwa, the mountain on which it stands. For the same re ...

), Waka ( Shiogama Shrine), Tamayorihime, Osame (

Katori Shrine The is a Shintō shrine in the city of Katori in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is the ''ichinomiya'' of former Shimōsa Province, and is the head shrine of the approximately 400 Katori shrines around the country (located primarily in the Kantō ...

), Osome (

Kibitsu Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the Kibitsu neighborhood of Kita-ku, Okayama in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. It is the ''ichinomiya'' of former Bitchū Province. The main festivals of the shrine is held annually on the second Sunday of May and on October 1 ...

), Itsukiko (

Matsuo Shrine , formerly , is a Shinto shrine located at the far western end of Shijō Street, approximately 1.3 kilometers south of the Arashiyama district of Kyoto. It is home to a Spring (hydrosphere), spring at the base of the mountain, Arashiyama, that is ...

) Suwa-taisha,

Kunio Yanagita Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

says that these two types of maidens were originally the same person, but were later separated, because there are other names for walking maidens, such as Oichi of Suwa Shrine, Sou-no-ichi of Atatsuta Shrine, and Waka of Shiogama Shrine.柳田國男　『定本　柳田國男集　第９巻』223頁

Etymology

The word Kannagi is derived from and the word nagi meaning a calm state, which has many readings # is a peaceful and calm state, and is mainly used for emotions and circumstances. # is synonymous with calming, but nowadays it often refers to the state of the sea where there is no wind and there are no calm waves . In addition, it is one of the few and represents the state where the wind has stopped. # {{Nihongo, Nagi, 薙ぎ refers to a state in which a mountain is collapsing and becoming flat, or a flat field where vegetation is cut, but it also means to drive it sideways (to remove it). From that , it means cleansing as a Shinto ritual . In addition, there are Nagi Shinto rituals all over Japan, and it is said to be an act of calming storms and winds in the inland regions . A rare character is "𡵢 (Nagi)", which is an Ateji character for Nagi because it means collapse. There are various kanji notations for "Nagi", and it is often used as a homonym for

Tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

, mountain, or

place name Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Often ...

. Most of them relate to places of

Belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...

in Japanese

, Myth and Koshinto, and are used as part of the names of

Shinto shrines A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

and Japanese

Gods A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

. It is also used in the name of Izanagi and the sword

Kusanagi no Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called , but its name was later changed to the more popular ("Grass-Cutting Sword"). In folklore, the sword represents the virtue of valor. Legends ...

. It is used in the name of the tree

Nageia nagi ''Nageia nagi'', the Asian bayberry, is plant species in the family Podocarpaceae named by Carl Peter Thunberg. ''Nageia nagi'' is native to China, Japan, and Taiwan. It was formerly called ''Podocarpus nagi''. Description ''Nageia nagi'' is ...

References

Japanese folk religion Miko Shinto shrines Shinto

Overview

Etymology

See Also

References