World Mythology

In Japanese cosmology of creation, the male element. It is equivalent to the Chinese yang.

A Japanese beggar. Sometimes such a beggar is Inari in disguise. A woman who wants a child should give generously to a Yeta so she may have a son. A priest of a Buddhist sage can see who is human and who only resembles a human.

A vampire-bat from Japanese mythology. It is believed that it is the spirit of a woman whose anger lowered her status in rebirth.

The eighty myriads of kami, also interpreted as “the ever-increasing myriad kami.” It is a term for all the kami in Japan.

A Japanese prince and a famous hero, son of King Keiko. He is accredited with the slaying of many brigands as well as the dangerous serpent of Omi.

The soul of Japan, the Japanese spirit. It is the very core and essence of the Japanese nation before its real history began.

A protective spirit in Japanese myth.

The Japanese goddess of the hunt, forest, agriculture, and vegetation.

Literally, ‘the master of remedies’. One of the six Buddhas of meditation in Japan, and the Buddha of healing. He is much revered as the saviour who promised to cure all sickness and to obtain for mankind the remedies it needs.
In Sanskrit he is Bhaishajya.

An old Japanese house god.