![]() The name 'Amaterasu Ōmikami' has been translated into English in different ways. ĭuring the medieval and early modern periods, the deity was also referred to as 'Tenshō Daijin' (the on'yomi of 天照大神) or 'Amateru Ongami' (an alternate reading of the same). "great imperial deity" also read as 'Kōtaijin' ) is also applied to Amaterasu in names such as 'Amaterasu Sume(ra) Ō(mi)kami' ( 天照皇大神, also read as 'Tenshō Kōtaijin') and 'Amaterashimasu-Sume(ra)-Ōmikami' ( 天照坐皇大御神). To this name is appended the honorific muchi, which is also seen in a few other theonyms such as ' Ō(a)namuchi' or 'Michinushi-no-Muchi' (an epithet of the three Munakata goddesses ).Īs the ancestress of the imperial line, the epithet 'Sume(ra)-Ō(mi)kami' ( 皇大神, lit. A possible connection with the name Hiruko (the child rejected by the gods Izanagi and Izanami and one of Amaterasu's siblings) has also been suggested. hiru "day(time), noon", from hi "sun, day" + me "woman, lady"), though alternative etymologies such as "great spirit woman" (taking hi to mean "spirit") or "wife of the sun" (suggested by Orikuchi Shinobu, who put forward the theory that Amaterasu was originally conceived of as the consort or priestess of a male solar deity) had been proposed. Her other name, 'Ōhirume', is usually understood as meaning "great woman of the sun / daytime" (cf. There are, still, certain verb forms that are treated as proper names, such as the terminal negative fukiaezu in ' Ugayafukiaezu no Mikoto' (鸕鷀草葺不合尊, "His Augustness, Incompletely-Thatched-with-Comoran-Feathers") This is further exemplified by (1) an alternative epithet, 'Amateru Kami' (天照神, "The Goddess Who Shines in Heaven"), which is a plain, non-honorific version of 'Amaterasu Ōmikami', (2) alternative forms of the verb amaterasu used elsewhere, for example its continuative form amaterashi ( 天 ( あま ) 照 ( てら ) 之 ( し )) in the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, and (3) similar uses of attributive verb forms in certain epithets, such as Emperor Jinmu's Hatsu Kunishirasu Sumeramikoto (始馭天下之天皇, "His Majesty Who First Rules the Land"). ![]() ![]() This usage is analogous to the use of relative clauses in English, only different in that Japanese clauses are placed in front of the noun they modify. This epithet is therefore, much more semantically transparent than most names recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, in that it means exactly what it means, without allusion, inference or etymological opacity, literally "The Great August Goddess Who Augustly Shines in Heaven". Amaterasu is an attributive verb form that modifies the noun after it, ōmikami. Notably, 'Amaterasu' in 'Amaterasu Ōmikami' is not technically a name the same way 'Susanoo' in ' Susa no O no Mikoto' or 'Ōkuninushi' in 'Ōkuninushi no Kami' are. 'Amaterasu' is thought to derive from the verb amateru "to illuminate / shine in the sky" ( ama "sky, heaven" + teru "to shine") combined with the honorific auxiliary verb -su, while 'Ōmikami' means "great august deity" ( ō "great" + honorific prefix mi- + kami).
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