Why Are Real People Worshipped as Kami in Japan?
Oyama Shrine in Kanazawa tells the story of Maeda Toshiie, a samurai lord remembered as the guardian of the region.
Did you know that in Japan, some shrines enshrine not an unseen deity, but a person who actually lived in this world?
Japan has countless shrines, and many different deities are worshipped there. In Spiritual Japan Journal, I have often written about shrines connected to Japanese mythology and ancient forms of faith. These are places that enshrine deities passed down through Japanese mythology and belief, such as Amaterasu Ōmikami（天照大神）, Izanagi no Mikoto（伊弉諾尊）, and Munakata Sanjojin（宗像三女神）.
These deities have long been spoken of within Japanese culture and cherished as objects of prayer.
But the kami enshrined at Japanese shrines do not take only one form. Some shrines enshrine real historical figures as deities.
For example, Tenmangū（天満宮）shrines enshrine Sugawara no Michizane（菅原道真）, who is known as the deity of learning. Tōshōgū（東照宮）shrines enshrine Tokugawa Ieyasu（徳川家康）, the founder of the Edo shogunate.
Both are widely known shrines in Japan. But for readers overseas, the idea that a person who was born as a human being, lived through history, and eventually died could later be enshrined at a shrine may feel a little unfamiliar.
Oyama Shrine（尾山神社）, the place I visited this time, is one of those shrines that enshrine real historical figures.
The deities enshrined at Oyama Shrine are Maeda Toshiie（前田利家）, the first lord of the Kaga Domain, and his wife, Omatsu no Kata（お松の方）. The Kaga Domain was a large domain that ruled over the region centered on what is now Ishikawa Prefecture during the Edo period. A domain was a unit of regional rule in the Edo period, different from today’s prefectures. The daimyō who governed such a domain was called a domain lord.
Maeda Toshiie was not a god from mythology. He was a real person deeply connected to the history of the city of Kanazawa.
So why did a human being who actually lived become someone enshrined at a shrine? Who is remembered in this way?
As we walk through Oyama Shrine, we will look at that question.
