WORLD RELIGIONS

Detailed explanation-1: -In the ancient animistic religions, kami were understood as simply the divine forces of nature. Worshippers in ancient Japan revered creations of nature which exhibited a particular beauty and power such as waterfalls, mountains, boulders, animals, trees, grasses, and even rice paddies.

Detailed explanation-2: -Kami are spiritual beings believed to inhabit particular places and elements of nature, such as the sea, mountains, waterfalls or trees. They can also be the spirits of historic personages who have been granted this status.

Detailed explanation-3: -Shinto is based on belief in, and worship of, kami. The best English translation of kami is ‘spirits’, but this is an over-simplification of a complex concept-kami can be elements of the landscape or forces of nature.

Detailed explanation-4: -"Shinto gods” are called kami. They are sacred spirits which take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami.

Detailed explanation-5: -Celestial bodies, for example, the sun, the moon, and the stars, were often worshiped as the kami itself. Natural phenomena such as thunder or wind were mostly considered as the workings of kami.