| Tama (life force in individual
living beings) |
Ujigami (communal life force, clan deity; combination of kami and tama/shiryô)
e.g. Amaterasu (ancestor deity of Yamato clan) |
Kami (awe-inspiring sacred power in natural objects & phenomena)
e.g. waterfall, thunder |
| Subcategories of Tama: | Subcategory of Kami: | |
| Ikiryô (tama that leaves a living body and possesses others)
e.g. Rokujô |
Shiryô (tama that hangs around on earth after death)
|
Ekijin (illness/epidemic kami) |
| Other Heian Terms: | ||
| Mononoke (general term for possessing tama, often female; can be living/ikiryô
or dead/shiryô)
e.g. Rokujô |
Onryô, Goryô (vengeful, angry shiryô, usually male;
rather than cause possession illness, causes natural disasters; sometimes merged with ekijin;
if very powerful may be pacified/deified as beneficent kami)
e.g. Sugawara no Michizane |
|
| Heian/Medieval Buddhist Terms: | ||
| Muenbotoke (tama with no "link" [en] to the living; needs rituals to achieve peace/ enlightenment) | Hungry Ghosts/Gaki (tama understood to be reincarnated as gaki because of desire for worldly pleasures such as food, money, sex etc.) | Jôbutsu (after death, with proper rituals the tama becomes a Buddha) |