Mikami Daimyōjin

Mikami devotion, with Mount Mikami as the sacred mountain

Mikami Jinja enshrines Ame no Mikage no Mikoto and regards Mount Mikami, also called Ōmi Fuji, as its sacred mountain (shintaizan). Mikami Daimyōjin of the Thirty Guardian Kami corresponds to this devotion. Revering the mountain as the place where the kami dwells is at the heart of the devotion.

Source: 御上神社・日蓮宗 光瑞山本立寺

Enshrining a kami who descended onto the mountain

The history of Mikami Jinja relates that Ame no Mikage no Mikoto descended onto Mount Mikami, and that for a long time the mountain was worshipped as a pure sacred precinct. It introduces how shrine buildings were later built at the foot of the mountain. Dates going back to ancient times are to be read as shrine tradition.

Source: 御上神社

Thirty kami taking turns, one day each

The Thirty Guardian Kami (Sanjū Banjin) are a belief from the fusion of kami and buddhas in which thirty kami share the days among themselves to protect the country and the Buddhist teaching. In Shōhōin's list, each kami is assigned a day from the first to the thirtieth. It is a grouping handed down in the Tendai, Nichiren and other lineages, and the present-day explanations of the enshrined kami at shrines of the same name need to be distinguished from historical theories about honji-butsu.

Source: 飛不動尊 正宝院

Kami who come to listen to the sutra: the origin story told by Shinjō-ji

Shinjō-ji, a temple of the Nichiren school, introduces a tradition that while Saint Nichiren was reading the Lotus Sutra on Mount Hiei, a different person visited him each day and revealed that they were the Thirty Guardian Kami. This is the origin story of the "Thirty Guardian Kami who protect the Lotus Sutra" taught by that temple. It is not treated as a historical event common to all devotion to the Thirty Guardian Kami.

Source: 日蓮宗 玉蓮山真成寺

Guardians taking turns, supporting daily faith

Shinjō-ji introduces the Thirty Guardian Kami as protective deities of the fusion of kami and buddhas who divide their duty by day. What the temple values is the belief that they protect the Lotus Sutra and those who believe in its teaching. This explanation is for learning their role as the Thirty Guardian Kami, in addition to the divine virtues handed down at each shrine.

Source: 日蓮宗 玉蓮山真成寺

Related kami and buddhas

• Senju Kannon千手観音
• Rushana Butsu盧遮那仏
• Sanjū Banjin三十番神