Myōjin (明神 'shining deity', 'illuminating deity', or 'apparent deity') or Daimyōjin (大明神 'great shining/apparent deity') was a title historically applied to Japanese (

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 ''Shintoist ...

) deities (''kami'') and, by

metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name ...

, their

shrines A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

. The term is thought to have been derived from ''myōjin'' (名神 'notable deity'), a title once granted by the imperial court to ''kami'' deemed to have particularly impressive power and virtue and/or have eminent, well-established shrines and cults. This term is first attested in the ''

Shoku Nihongi The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the '' Six National Histories'', coming directly after the '' Nihon Shoki'' and followed by '' Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Ma ...

'', where offerings from the kingdom of Bohai (

Balhae Balhae ( ko, 발해, zh, c=渤海, p=Bóhǎi, russian: Бохай, translit=Bokhay, ), also rendered as Bohai, was a multi-ethnic kingdom whose land extends to what is today Northeast China, the Korean Peninsula and the Russian Far East. It wa ...

) are stated to have been offered to "the eminent shrines (名神社 ''myōjin-sha'') in each

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

" in the year 730 ( Tenpyō 2). An epithet

homophonous A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

with this imperially bestowed title, "shining/apparent ''kami''" (written with different

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as '' kan ...

), was in popular usage from around the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

up until the end of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, coexisting with titles with more explicit Buddhist overtones such as ''

gongen A , literally "incarnation", was believed to be the manifestation of a buddha in the form of an indigenous kami, an entity who had come to guide the people to salvation, during the era of shinbutsu-shūgō in premodern Japan.Encyclopedia of Shint ...

'' (権現 'incarnation')Encyclopedia of Shinto
''Gongen''
/ref> or ''daibosatsu'' (大菩薩 'great

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schoo ...

').

The earliest recorded usages of 'shining/apparent deity' are found in sources such as in the ''Sumiyoshi-taisha Jindaiki'' (住吉大社神代記, "The Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine's Records of the Age of the Gods", supposedly compiled in the year 731 but thought to actually be of a much later date), which refers to the three Sumiyoshi deities as 'Sumiyoshi Daimyōjin' (住吉大明神),Nakamura (2009), p. 74. and the ''

Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku , abbreviated as Sandai Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 901, it is the sixth and final text in the Six National Histories series. It covers the years 858–887. Background Following the earlier natio ...

'' (completed in 901), which refers to ' Matsuo Daimyōjin' (松尾大明神). While at first this title did not yet seem to have the Buddhist connotations that would later be associated with it, the connection between ''daimyōjin'' with the concept of ''

honji suijaku The term in Japanese religious terminology refers to a theory widely accepted until the Meiji period according to which Indian Buddhist deities choose to appear in Japan as native '' kami'' to more easily convert and save the Japanese.Breen and ...

'' (i.e. that the native ''kami'' are actually manifestations of Buddhist deities) was reinforced by an apocryphal utterance of

the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

often claimed to be derived from the ''Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka-sūtra'' (悲華經 "Compassionate Lotus

Sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an a ...

"; Japanese: ''Hikekyō'') quoted and alluded to in various medieval works, but which is not in the actual sutra's text: "After I have passed into ''nirvana'', during the

Latter Day of the Law The Three Ages of Buddhism, also known as the Three Ages of the Dharma (), are three divisions of time following Shakyamuni Buddha's death and passing into Nirvana in East Asian Buddhism. Three Ages The Three Ages of Buddhism are three divis ...

, I shall appear as a great shining/apparent deity (大明神) and save all sentient beings." Up until the early modern period, use of titles such as ''myōjin'' or ''gongen'' for many deities and their shrines were so widespread that these gods were rarely referred to by their proper names. For instance, both the god of

Kashima Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Kashima, Ibaraki in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It is dedicated to , one of the patron deities of martial arts. Various dōjō of ''kenjutsu'' and '' kendō'' often display a hanging scroll emblazoned wit ...

and the shrine itself were known as 'Kashima Daimyōjin' (鹿島大明神); the deity enshrined in Suwa Grand Shrine was called 'Suwa Daimyōjin' (諏訪(大)明神), and so on. (cf. Hachiman-daibosatsu (八幡大菩薩) or Kumano Gongen (熊野権現)). After his death,

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and '' daimyō'' ( feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the C ...

was deified under the name ' Toyokuni Daimyōjin' (豊国大明神). Under

Yoshida Shintō , also frequently referred to as , was a prominent sect of Shintō that arose during the Sengoku period through the teachings and work of Yoshida Kanetomo. The sect was originally an effort to organize Shintō teachings into a coherent structure ...

, the conferral of ranks and titles like ''myōjin'' was institutionalized, with the sect issuing out authorization certificates to shrines for a fee. The sect considered the title to be higher than the overtly Buddhist ''gongen'' as part of the sect's inversion of ''honji suijaku'', an issue which became a point of contention with the Sannō Ichijitsu Shintō (山王一実神道) sect spearheaded by the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese ...

monk

Tenkai was a Japanese Tendai Buddhist monk of the Azuchi-Momoyama and early Edo periods. He achieved the rank of ''Daisōjō'', the highest rank of the priesthood. His Buddhist name was first , which he changed to Tenkai in 1590. Also known as , he ...

.Encyclopedia of Shinto
''Sannō Shintō''
/ref> When the Meiji government officially separated Shinto from Buddhism, official use of titles and terminology perceived as having Buddhist connotations such as ''(dai)myōjin'', ''(dai)gongen'' or ''daibosatsu'' by shrines were legally abolished and discouraged. However, a few deities/shrines are still often referred to as ''(dai)myōjin'' in popular usage even today. (E.g. Kanda Myōjin in

Chiyoda, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English language, English.

, enshrining the deified

vengeful spirit In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or cr ...

Taira no Masakado was a Heian period provincial magnate ('' gōzoku'') and samurai based in eastern Japan, notable for leading the first recorded uprising against the central government in Kyōto. Early life Masakado was one of the sons of Taira no Yoshima ...

Notes

References

{{jmyth navbox long Buddhism in Japan Shinbutsu shūgō Shinto in Japan

See also

Notes

References