[Japanese, = ‘superior, lord.’]
1. A title given by the Japanese to daimios and governors, = ‘lord.’
2. In the Shinto or native religion of Japan, A divinity, a god (used by Protestant missionaries and their converts as the name of the Supreme Being, God). Also attrib., as kami-religion.
1727. Scheuchzer, trans. Kæmpfer’s Japan, I. 206. Superstition at last was carried so far, that the Mikaddo’s … are looked upon … as true and living images of their Kami’s or Gods, as Kami’s themselves.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., xvii. II. 317. The Japanese … have … kept up … the religion of their former barbarism. This is the Kami-religion, Spirit-religion.
1886. Huxley, in 19th Cent., XIX. 494. The state-theology of China and the Kami-theology of Japan. note, ‘Kami’ is used in the sense of Elohim, but is also, like our word ‘Lord,’ employed as a title of respect among men.
