Mitama
Mitama (Japanese御 魂or御 霊, dt as: " Honorable soul " ) is an esoteric concept in Shinto and referred to the spirit or soul of a Kami. As a rule, only the adored and revered in Shinto shrines Mitama a Kami, not the Kami themselves
Mi is a Honorativpräfix and indicated the affiliation of the tama or tamashii (魂, see also Yamato damashii ) to a Kami. Tama turn, is not identical with the Christian concept of the soul, it is also a concept that is much older than the Shinto itself. Tama can basically get every object in the world, can be Mitama although not each to one.
The British japanologist WG Aston (1841-1911) compared the Mitama with the Jewish Shekinah.
Parts
Tama or Mitama be seen formed in different concepts of several parts.
A popular approach states that a part of the Mitama the kuni - Mitama is that controls the unconscious movements of the body and begins at conception to exist. The other part is the wake- Mitama, the tama of the parents, their entry into the body of the child completes the tama and the death again triggers of this.
Aspects
After Ichirei - shikon concept (一 霊 四 魂, " a spirit, four souls " ) exists in each and every man a spirit Kami ( ichi rei ) of four souls / Tama ( shikon ):
- Ara- Mitama (荒 御 霊or荒 御 魂; ferocity, brutality, rage, evil destructive, building good rule qua authority )
- Nigi - Mitama (和 御 霊or和 御 魂, gentleness, silence, peace, precious, harmony and unity Tailoring )
- Saki - Mitama or sachi - Mitama (幸 御 霊or幸 御 魂, happiness, flourishing, both a blessing and distributing as well as bestowing love and creation )
- Kushi - Mitama or kushibi - Mitama (奇 御 霊or奇 御 魂; Wundersamkeit, concealment and ugliness, wisdom, invention and discovery, mysterious transformations effecting )
The exact determination of their meanings and relationships to each other are very complicated and depend heavily on various doctrines from.
A Kami can simultaneously an aspect of Mitama of another Kami (it should be according to the Nihongi Ō- mono- nushi saki - Mitama and kushi - Mitama of Ō- kuni - nushi ) are worshiped or as a separate Kami. Since the Meiji period, however, no new shrine for the worship of a single aspect was more built.
The aspects can also be stored separately, and in different places and shintai ( even multiple times ). There are, for example, in Ise jingū a side shrine ( bessha or betsugu ) called Ara -matsuri -no- miya for the ara- Mitama of Amaterasu. In Atsuta- jingū is a sessha, the Ichi -no- misaki -jinja, for Amaterasu ara- Mitama and a massha, the Toosu -no- yashiro, for their nigi - Mitama.
According to legend, Jingū - Kogo was joined in its campaign to Korea from the ara- Mitama the Sumiyoshi -no- kami, while the remained nigi - Mitama in Japan. Another version of this legend has it that the ara- Mitama protected the army, while the nigi - Mitama the Empress consort protect themselves.