Arahitogami

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Arahitogami (現人神) is a Japanese word meaning a kami (or "deity") who is a human being. It first appears in the Nihon Shoki (c. 720) as a words of Yamato Takeru saying "I am a son of Arahitokami".^[1]

In 1946, at the request of the GHQ, the Shōwa Emperor (Hirohito) proclaimed in the Humanity Declaration that he had never been an akitsumikami (現御神), divinity in human form, and claimed his relation to the people did not rely on such a mythological idea but on a historically developed family-like reliance.

See also

• Avatar
• Divine right of kings
• Mandate of Heaven
• Imperial cult
• Incarnation

Note