Religious Words in Japanese

In this article, we will talk a little about religious words in Japanese, including the name of god and other gods in Japanese. We know that in Japan the predominant religion is Shintoism and Buddhism. This results in several interesting words and explanations that we are not used to.

When studying the scriptures in Japanese or any sacred book of your religion, you will learn that the way of thinking and the origin of the words used in the Japanese language gives a new idea and an additional meaning to each word you learn.

In Portuguese, we are used to learning words, but without knowing the meaning behind them. Thanks to the Japanese ideograms, you will have a greater understanding and knowledge about each religious word you learn.

God in Japanese - Religious words in Japanese

Table of Contents

How to write and say God in Japanese?

Let’s start by talking about the divine being, about god in Japanese. God in Japanese is written with the ideogram [神] which is pronounced kami. This ideogram can be used in words related to gods, deities, and spirits, and is also slightly related to mind and soul.

It is common to use the expression kami-sama [神様] to refer to god, where sama [様] is a suffix of great respect used only with deities or royal people. Another reading of the ideogram [神] is shin, which is often used in words related to divinities.

Kami are also spirits or phenomena that are worshiped in the Shinto religion. Things like elements and forces of nature, animals, spirits of deceased people, etc.

Below we will list other words related to god in Japanese:

Portuguese	Japanese	Romaji
Goddess	女神	megami
YHWH – Jave – Jehovah – Yeshua	エホバ	ehoba
God in archaic, great god	大神	ookami
God in the Ainu language	カムイ	kamui (kamuy)
From English God	ゴッド	goddo
Heavenly Father	天父	tenpu
God of death	死神	shinigami
Supreme being	至上者	shijyousha
Gods (can be used only kami)	神々	kamigami

How to write Jesus in Japanese?

Christianity is not very popular in Japan, but there is even a Japanese word to refer to Christ which is [基督] and by some miracle is pronounced like a foreign word kurisuto [クリスト]. Thus, Jesus in Japanese is iesu kurisuto [イエスクリスト]. The ideograms of Christ mean foundations [基] and leadership [督].

Gods of Shintoism

In Shintoism, the gods are manifestations of musubi [結び] the interconnected energy of the universe. To conclude the part about gods in Japanese, we will leave below a list of some popular gods in Shintoism:

Amaterasu Omikami, the goddess of the sun;
Ebisu, one of the seven gods of fortune;
Fūjin, the god of wind;
Hachiman, the god of war;
Inari Okami, the god of rice and agriculture;
Izanagi-no-Mikoto, the first man;
Izanami-no-Mikoto, the first woman;
Omoikane, the deity of wisdom;
Sarutahiko Okami, the god of the earth;
Susanoo-no-mikoto, the god of the sea and storms;
Tenjin, the god of poetry;
Tsukuyomi, the god of the moon;
Raijin, the god of lightning, thunder, and storms;
Ryūjin, the Japanese dragon god of the sea and storms;