Kamo clan

Kamo clan (賀茂氏 Kamo-shi) is a Japanese sacerdotal kin group^[1] which traces its roots from a Yayoi period shrine in the vicinity of northeastern Kyoto.^[2] The clan rose to prominence during the Asuka and Heian periods when the Kamo are identified with the 7th-century founding of the Kamo Shrine.^[3]

Kamo Shrine

The Kamo Shrine's name references the area's early inhabitants, many of whom continue to live near the shrine their ancestors traditionally served.^[4] The formal names of corollary jinja memorialize vital clan roots in a history which pre-dates the founding of Japan's ancient capital.^[5]

The Kamo Shrine encompasses what are now independent but traditionally associated jinja or shrines—the Kamo-wakeikazuchi Shrine (賀茂別雷神社 Kamo-wakeikazuchi jinja) in Kyoto's Kita Ward and; and the "Kamo-mioya Shrine'" (賀茂御祖神社 Kamo-mioya jinja) in Sakyo Ward. The jinja names identify the various kami or deities who are venerated; and the name also refers to the ambit of shrine's nearby woods.^[6]

A wild vista unfolds at Tadasu no Mori.

Although now incorporated within boundaries of the city, the location was once Tadasu no Mori (糺の森),^[7] the wild forest home of the exclusive caretakers of the shrine from prehistoric times.^[8]

Notable clan members

• Kamo no Chōmei (1155–1216)
• Kamo no Mabuchi (1697–1769)

Although Ieyasu Tokugawa never used the surname Matsudaira before 1566, his appointment as shogun was contingent on his claim to Matsudaira kinship and a link to the Seiwa Genji. Modern scholarship has revealed that the genealogy proffered to the emperor contained falsified information; however, since the Matsudaira used the same crest as the Kamo clan,^[9] some academics suggest that he was likely a descendant of the Kamo clan."^[10]

Notes

1. Breen, John and Mark Teeuwen. (2000). Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami, p. 86.
2. Shimogamo-jinja web site: history.
3. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric et al. (2002). Japan Encyclopedia, p. 586.
4. Nelson, John K. (2000). Enduring Identities: The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan, pp. 92-99.
5. Miyazaki, Makoto. "Lens on Japan: Defending Heiankyo from Demons," Daily Yomiuri. December 20, 2005.
6. Kamigamo-jinja web site: about the shrine.
7. Terry, Philip. (1914). Terry's Japanese empire, p. 479.
8. Nelson, p. pp. 67-69.
9. Nussbaum, Japan Encyclopedia, p. 34.
10. Plutschow, Herbert. (1995). "Japan's Name Culture: The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context, p. 158.

References

• Breen, John and Mark Teeuwen. (2000). Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2363-4
• Iwao, Seiichi, Teizō Iyanaga, Susumu Ishii, Shōichirō Yoshida, et al. (2002). Dictionnaire historique du Japon. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose. ISBN 978-2-7068-1632-1; OCLC 51096469
• Nelson, John K. (2000). Enduring Identities: The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2259-0
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00770-3 (cloth) -- ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5 (paper)
• Plutschow, Herbert. (1995). "Japan's Name Culture: The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-873410-42-4 (cloth)
• Terry, Thomas Philip. (1914). Terry's Japanese empire: including Korea and Formosa, with chapters on Manchuria, the Trans-Siberian railway, and the chief ocean routes to Japan; a guidebook for travelers. New York: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 2832259