This question is specifically for people who know Shintoism, I have a feeling that maybe kami don’t need translation but just in case when I ask for something I translate it before I enter the shrine.
Shinto gods only listen to Japan-born, ethnically pure, Japanese people no matter the language.
this question is adorable. thank you.
Cutest question 2022?
For a personal prayer, no. Likely kami respond to “feeling” and not human words.
Think about it. Do you think the Japanese people speak today would have been the “Japanese” in the time of the gods (if we assume there was actually one)? Linguistics would tell us “no” as Japanese has evolved and changed within recorded history.
Kami would have been around in Jomon. Jomon people most certainly did not speak “Japanese”.
If you want to impress the shrine girls, yes.
No.
If a god can only speak Japanese, then are they really a god lol
You get a pass if you show that your name is in Katakana. The kami might even send you back a message that your japanese is jouzu
If there are any deities hanging about, Im sure their powers of comprehension transcend mere language barriers.
It depends on the kami in question. Most only understand Old Japanese, so lay off the wasei eigo and LINE lingo, or else you might get a thunderbolt put in your backside.
Atheistic lil ole me thinks a lot about this… however, I’ll let William Blake do the talking:
>The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive.
>And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity.
>Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood.
>Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
>And at length they pronounced that the Gods had orderd such things.
>***Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.***
You might get jyouzu’d by a god.
They won’t listen to you if you don’t have the holy yamato blood running through your veins anyway.
Yes, Japanese only. Alternatively, you can fax your prayer in any language to the shrine. They’ll send you a reference code which you just have to say at the shrine when making your donation.
Someone once said the gods don’t care how much you put in the offering, they were around before money was invented. Likewise, they might not be too fussed about language either, as they’ve been around longer than languages have existed.
You’ll see prayers written in English in some Shinto shrines like Meiji, even by native Japanese.
16 comments
Shinto gods only listen to Japan-born, ethnically pure, Japanese people no matter the language.
this question is adorable. thank you.
Cutest question 2022?
For a personal prayer, no. Likely kami respond to “feeling” and not human words.
Think about it. Do you think the Japanese people speak today would have been the “Japanese” in the time of the gods (if we assume there was actually one)? Linguistics would tell us “no” as Japanese has evolved and changed within recorded history.
Kami would have been around in Jomon. Jomon people most certainly did not speak “Japanese”.
If you want to impress the shrine girls, yes.
No.
If a god can only speak Japanese, then are they really a god lol
You get a pass if you show that your name is in Katakana. The kami might even send you back a message that your japanese is jouzu
If there are any deities hanging about, Im sure their powers of comprehension transcend mere language barriers.
It depends on the kami in question. Most only understand Old Japanese, so lay off the wasei eigo and LINE lingo, or else you might get a thunderbolt put in your backside.
Atheistic lil ole me thinks a lot about this… however, I’ll let William Blake do the talking:
>The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive.
>And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity.
>Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood.
>Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
>And at length they pronounced that the Gods had orderd such things.
>***Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.***
You might get jyouzu’d by a god.
They won’t listen to you if you don’t have the holy yamato blood running through your veins anyway.
Yes, Japanese only. Alternatively, you can fax your prayer in any language to the shrine. They’ll send you a reference code which you just have to say at the shrine when making your donation.
Someone once said the gods don’t care how much you put in the offering, they were around before money was invented. Likewise, they might not be too fussed about language either, as they’ve been around longer than languages have existed.
You’ll see prayers written in English in some Shinto shrines like Meiji, even by native Japanese.