Ujigami

Ujigami (Japanese氏 神) are in the Shinto faith local Kami, who watch over the place where they are worshiped.

Originally Ujigami were usually the spirits of ancestors who descended from a certain clan ( uji ), whose leaders ( uji no kami ) and members ( ujibito ) were worshiped, and who protected the respective communities. Throughout the history of Japan, this concept, however, changed to the now common geographically defined by the protection Kami. Particularly significant this development were the sedentarization of the clans and their increased influence on the Shoen and on the other hand, the state " Temple verification system " (寺 受 制度, terauke seido ), an introduced after the Shimabara Rebellion of the Tokugawa shogunate system for registration and monitoring of the faithful of the land, which, inter alia, that caused the many Shinto shrines had to register at the nearest Buddhist temples, which usually resulted in protection shrines of the temple district to upgrade the shrines.

Ujigami in this sense also include various subgroups of Kami, who had been conceived separately from the Ujigami before the above- mentioned shift in meaning, such as the Ubusunagami (产 土 神, also ubusuna ), protective deities each specific birthplaces, or even the Chinjugami, purely geographically specific deities, the first does not necessarily exert a protective power in the imagination.

Currently, the Ujigami can be roughly classified into three general types:

• Village Ujigami - in this system, each local residents in the vicinity of the shrine as a clan member (氏 子, ujiko ) understand and participate as such in the worship of their deity.

• Yashiki - Ujigami or ie- Ujigami - these are Kami, which ( hokora ) are worshiped on the real property of individual families in smaller shrines.

• Ikke - Ujigami or maki - Ujigami - a sort of hybrid of the other two types, because the multitude of believers of a particular deity forms from distant relatives ( ikke ) or wider neighborhood groups ( maki ).