#Minor Divinities Within Japan

Contents

Canon — Minor Divinity classification. This document covers divinities that are within the Japanese archipelago yet do not belong to the mainstream Shinto lineage. Material to give variety to a campaign's backdrop and for use in scenarios at the margins.

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#Scent — The Threads Beneath the Mainstream

Unfold a map and Japan looks like a single mass. But within its inner small folds live different religions. In the mountains of Hokkaido the bear kamuy walks; beyond the sea off Okinawa comes the ship of Nirai Kanai. In the storehouses of Kyushu a cross is hidden; in an old shrine of the Kinai the name of a god who crossed over from Joseon is carved.

These are not the mainstream. Their numbers are few, those who serve them are few, and in some cases they must stay hidden. Yet they are not nonexistent — the name "Japan" is woven from these many threads.

"There is not only one god on one mountain. Nor is there only one religion in one country." — A Japanese folk saying

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#Law — The Five-Category Division (Canon)

The "minor divinities" this document covers fall into the following five categories:

1. Ainu kamuy — The divinities of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurils.
2. Ryukyu divinities — The native divinities of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands.
3. The "god" classification of Buddhist divinities — Those among the divinities brought by Buddhism that can be reclassified as "gods."
4. Kirishitan saints — The saints who entered with the transmission of Christianity in the late Sengoku period.
5. Peninsular immigrant deities (渡来神) — Gods who crossed over from the Korean Peninsula.

Each category either does not overlap in domain with the mainstream Japanese gods, or, where it does, operates in a different context.

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#1. Ainu Kamuy

#Scent

The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. Their religion is the kamuy faith — an animism (animism, the belief that all things hold spirit) in which every thing (wind, bear, fire, tools, the house) holds a spirit. It resembles the "eight million gods" of Japanese Shinto, but direct negotiation with nature is far more emphasized.

By the standards of the Sengoku period, Hokkaido was culturally independent of the Wajin (the people of the mainland). Appears in Hokkaido scenarios.

"The kamuy leaves us its own hide as a gift and returns to its own world. That is why we prize that hide." — Ainu tradition

#Law — 3 Representative Kamuy

#Shimafukuro Kamuy

Scent: The Blakiston's fish owl kamuy. Guardian of the village. It perches at the top of a tree above the village and watches over the threats of the night.

Law:

• Divinity: 3, Middle God / Domain: "Village Protection - Night Watch - Carrying Word to Humans"
• Divine Authority:
• Village Protection → automatically detects threats outside the village.
• Night Watch → automatically succeeds night checks.
• Carrying Word → delivers a single sentence to someone far away.

#Kimun Kamuy

Scent: The kamuy of the mountain. Appears in the form of a bear. To the Ainu, a bear is not an animal but a god — a hunted bear is regarded as a kamuy that gave its own form to humans as a gift.

Law:

• Divinity: 4, Great God / Domain: "Mountain - Bear - Vow of the Hunt"
• Divine Authority:
• Mountain → automatic checks on mountain terrain.
• Bear → communion with bears, (temporary) transformation, summoning bears.
• Vow of the Hunt → hands the kamuy over through Iyomante (the bear-sending rite) (Greater Divine Authority).

#Repun Kamuy

Scent: The kamuy of the sea. In the form of an orca. It guards the Ainu who set out on the ocean and assures a bountiful catch.

Law:

• Divinity: 4, Great God / Domain: "Sea - Fishing - Navigation"
• Divine Authority:
• Sea → automatic checks on ocean weather.
• Fishing → automatically succeeds the catch.
• Navigation → a pod of orcas opens the sea route.

#Scent — The Iyomante (熊送り) Rite

The Ainu bear-sending rite. A cub is raised in the village, and once grown, at a shrine its soul is sent back to the world of the kamuy. It takes the form of the living seeing off the dead, but to the Ainu it is "sending a guest back home."

#Law — The Game Effect of Iyomante

Without this rite, kamuy of the Kimun Kamuy lineage cannot fully recover their power. Scenario hook: restoring the rite of an Ainu village suppressed by mainland culture is the condition for Kimun Kamuy's return.

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#2. Ryukyu Divinities

#Scent

The native religion of the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa) is the Nirai Kanai faith. From an ideal land and paradise to the east beyond the sea — Nirai Kanai — the gods come, and every village has a sacred site called an utaki (御嶽). This faith is a system in which the miko (yuta and noro) commune directly with the gods.

By the standards of the Sengoku period, the Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent state — paying tribute to both Japan and China.

"What comes from beyond the sea is a god; what departs beyond the sea is a soul." — A Ryukyuan proverb

#Law — 2 Representative Divinities

#The Gods of Nirai Kanai (Collective)

Scent: The collective divinity of the paradise beyond the sea. Each year they return to the village during a festival resembling Obon.

Law:

• Divinity: 4, Great God (collective divinity) / Domain: "Beyond the Sea - The Coming of Abundance - The Otherworld"
• Divine Authority:
• Beyond the Sea → automatically detects approach from the ocean direction.
• The Coming of Abundance → automatically succeeds one island's harvest and catch.
• The Otherworld → opens the gate of the otherworld and paradise for a set time (Greater Divine Authority).

#The Gods of the Utaki (Individual)

Scent: The principal god of a sacred site, one to each village or island. An utaki is usually a small clearing in the forest or a rock — there is no building. Only the god is there.

Law:

• Divinity: 2, Minor God / Domain: "The utaki + the character of that island/village"
• Divine Authority: differs for each utaki. GM's discretion.
• Base: miko (noro) dan 5–7 + Divinity 2.

#GM Note

The gods of Ryukyu are sensitive to the ocean, the currents, and the relationships between island and island. They move to a different rhythm from the mainland. The otherworld-and-paradise element is strong, so tones like the ideal land, visits from the dead, and oral narrative suit them well.

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#3. The "God" Classification of Buddhist Divinities

#Scent

Japanese Buddhism holds countless Buddhas (佛, hotoke), Bodhisattvas (菩薩, those who walk toward enlightenment), Deva (天), and Wisdom Kings (明王).

• Deva (天) — originally Indian divinities absorbed into Buddhism as guardians. Brahma, Indra, the Four Heavenly Kings, and so on.
• Wisdom Kings (明王) — Buddhist guardians with a face of wrath. Fudo Myoo and others.

Some of these can be classified as "gods" in this supplement. However, by Buddhist doctrine they are not "gods" but a single state within the cycle of rebirth — "Divinity" can be granted to them only under the shinbutsu-shugo (Shinto-Buddhist syncretism) tradition.

"What the one with a face of wrath guards is serenity." — Fudo Myoo tradition

#Law — 4 Representative Divinities

#Fudo Myoo (不動明王) — Acalanatha

Scent: A face of wrath, a sword and rope, flames all around. The Buddhist guardian who destroys evil. Fearsome in appearance, but in deed on the side of the ascetic.

Law:

• Divinity: 3, Middle God / Domain: "Repelling Evil - Conversion of Wrath - Blessing of Ascesis"
• Divine Authority:
• Repelling Evil → drives off 1 tatari or demonic obstacle.
• Conversion of Wrath → converts another's anger into the energy of ascesis.
• Blessing of Ascesis → automatically succeeds 1 ascetic's check (1 per day).

#Bishamonten (毘沙門天) — Vaishravana

Name note: Here the entry treats the Buddhist deva/Four Heavenly Kings aspect. In the Japanese Seven Lucky Gods context, the same being is called Bishamonten.

Already appeared in the Seven Lucky Gods section — this is the same being, so use the data in fc01-02-03-chushin.md.

#Taishakuten (帝釈天) — Indra

Scent: King of the heavenly realm. The supreme Deva (天) of Buddhist protection. Depicted wielding the thunderbolt.

Law:

• Divinity: 4, Great God / Domain: "Heavenly Order - Lightning - Protection of the Dharma"
• Divine Authority:
• Heavenly Order → automatic checks to set a corrupt order right.
• Lightning → 1 lightning strike.
• Protection of the Dharma → protects Buddhist temples and monks.

#Bonten (梵天) — Brahma

Scent: The Deva at the root of the cosmos. The creating Deva above the Four Heavenly Kings and Indra. Four faces, four arms, a holy voice.

Law:

• Divinity: 5, Imperial God (within the Buddhist system) / Domain: "Cosmos - Creation (Buddhist style) - Voice"
• Divine Authority:
• Cosmos → intervenes once in a macroscopic check (on the scale of a nation or an era).
• Creation → 1 act of lesser making (a mimicry of creation) at the divine grade.
• Voice → decisive persuasion through holy words (automatic success).

#Law — Boundary Rules (Canon)

• Even when a Buddhist divinity is used as a "god," it can appear in the same scenario simultaneously with Shinto gods. This is an extension of shinbutsu-shugo.
• However, when a Shinto god and a Buddhist divinity intervene in each other's Domain, the GM must go through the conflict-resolution procedure (see fc01-01-02-domains.md).

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#4. Kirishitan Saints (Catholic Saints)

#Scent

In 1549, as Francisco Xavier transmitted Christianity to Japan, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, and various saints "entered" Japan. In the Kyushu region especially there were converts of daimyo (大名, lord) rank. After the 1587 expulsion edict and the total ban of 1614, they went underground and became the Kakure Kirishitan (隠れ切支丹, hidden Christians).

"We hide the cross and show the Kannon statue. But we know the Mary behind the Kannon." — Kakure Kirishitan tradition

#Law — 2 Representative Saints

#The Virgin Mary (Maria)

Scent: Among the Kirishitan of Japan, worshipped in disguise as "Maria Kannon (Maria 観音)." Behind the form of Kannon Bodhisattva a statue of Mary is hidden. The figure of a woman holding a child is common to both religions — and so it could be concealed.

Law:

• Divinity: 4, Great God / Domain: "Mercy - Motherhood - Refuge"
• Divine Authority:
• Mercy → draws out the other's forgiveness and reconciliation.
• Motherhood → protection of the child and of childbirth.
• Refuge → conceals 1 Kirishitan community (a heavy penalty to Perception checks).
• Base: a Kakure Kirishitan leader, dan 5–8 + Divinity 3.

#Francisco Xavier (St. Francisco Xavier)

Scent: A Jesuit priest. The founder of Japan's Kirishitan. His very name is the starting point of the transmission of Christianity to Japan.

Law:

• Divinity: 3, Middle God (a deified human saint) / Domain: "Preaching - Cross-Cultural Negotiation - Pilgrimage"
• Divine Authority:
• Preaching → automatically succeeds checks to negotiate with crowds.
• Cross-Cultural Negotiation → automatic checks for communication across different languages and cultures.
• Pilgrimage → minimizes the depletion of stamina while traveling.

#Law — Boundary Rules

• Kirishitan saints are divinities who must stay hidden within Japan. Invoking Divine Authority in a public place invites the suppression of the shogunate and the daimyo.
• They are not in an adversarial relationship with the Shinto gods, but neither do they acknowledge one another. Set this differently according to the campaign's tone.

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#5. Peninsular Immigrant Deities (渡来神)

#Scent

From ancient times many gods crossed over to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. In particular, gods who came from Baekje and Silla established their main shrines in western Japan, northern Kyushu, and the Kinai region. They are collectively called "immigrant deities (渡来神)."

Some have already been syncretized into mainstream Japanese Shinto, but some still keep the identity of immigrant deities.

"A god who comes from a far place brings the wind of that far place along with it." — Immigrant-deity tradition

#Law — 2 Representative Divinities

#Amenohiboko (天日槍, Heavenly Sun Spear)

Scent: A god who, born a prince of Silla, crossed over to Japan. He is said to have brought eight treasures — a sword, a jewel, a mirror, and more. Within Japan he settled as "the god of foreign technology and treasure."

Law:

• Divinity: 3, Middle God / Domain: "God Who Crossed the Sea - Treasure - Foreign Technology"
• Divine Authority:
• God Who Crossed the Sea → automatic movement checks in the ocean direction.
• Treasure → temporarily grants 1 Divine Treasure (神器) to a single check.
• Foreign Technology → automatically succeeds checks in one field of technology (Greater Divine Authority).
• Head shrine: Izushi Shrine (出石神社) (Hyogo Prefecture).

#Himekoso (比売許曽)

Scent: A goddess who followed Amenohiboko. The counterpart of a married pair of immigrant deities.

Law:

• Divinity: 2, Minor God / Domain: "The Bond of Husband and Wife - Protection of Foreign Women Migrants"
• Divine Authority:
• The Bond of Husband and Wife → a bonus to checks concerning bonds and ties.
• Protection of Foreign Women → a blessing upon female characters of foreign origin.

#GM Note

Immigrant deities are beings who reveal the "multi-layered nature" of Japanese Shinto. The very fact that they survived without being forgotten is itself drama. As a scenario, a hook in the style of "an immigrant-deity shrine is damaged and an old secret comes to light" works well.

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#Law — Minor Divinities at a Glance

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#Scent — In One Sentence

"The divinity of Japan is not just one. Beneath the mainstream, countless threads flow."