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2019年06月30日
カテゴリ：思想・宗教
I’d like to speak about the difference between KAMI in Japanese
and God in English. The term KAMI is usually translated as "God" in English. But in my opinion, it is an unfortunate mistranslation which has caused misunderstanding of Japanese people all over the world. We Japanese think a great deal of the historical family of TENNOU, not because they are god’s family, but they are the family who carries the mystical tradition of Japanese native spirit. God in English has its own definition and also KAMI in Japanese, because the concept of God is different in both cultures, the Christian and the Japanese. God for Christians is the Creator of the universe who cannot be replaced by any other being. God is some kind of being with some mysterious power, while ordinary human beings don't have. KAMI in Japanese, can be originally defined as any kind of "mysterious phenomenon" which could not be understood in ancient times. For example, “UMASHI-ASHUKABI-HIKOJI-no-KAMI which is found in the first chapter of KOJIKI can be thought as “mold”. In a few words, the clearest difference between the two could be as this; "GOD is a being who exists by itself" and "KAMI is the being which comes out from the mysterious phenomenon". Later, in the middle age, a Portuguese ship was casted ashore at Tanegashima, they began to send catholic missionaries to Japan. They noticed the difference between Kami and God. They studied many religious words in Japanese and they published the dictionary called “NIPPO-JITEN”. They understood that there was no suitable translation for God, so they dared not translate that word. They used “DEUS” which is GOD in Portuguese. Later they made a new word in Japanese , TENSHU(天主)sama. This word was used in the Japanese Catholic community until the Council of Vatican in 1962 to 1965. After that in the name of the movement of agreement, The Catholic church of Japan began to use KAMISAMA as the translation for God. It is not good for all Japanese people, because Kami in Yasukuni is translated as “gods”, and then all Japanese people are misunderstood in all over the world that we all adore the soldiers who are worshipped in Yasukuni not as Kami but as Gods. Usually foreigners cannot understand that Japanese people have had a custom to make shrines even for the defeated people as TAIRANO MASAKADO, SUGAWARA MICHIZANE, the family of HEIKE, etc. They are called KAMI but not god. The soldiers who are in YASUKUNI are not worshipped as gods but dedicated as Kami, as the spirit of soldiers killed in the war. When they are translated as gods caused the hatred towards the Japanese people by the Koreans and the Chinese for more than 70 years after the war . But I think all the Japanese people can have a right not to worship but to thank the soldiers who contributed their lives for their fatherland although Japan was defeated in the second world war.
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最終更新日
2019年06月30日 09時38分24秒
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