TYPE: God of War and peace
ORIGIN: Shinto [Japan]
INFORMATION: A deity whose origins are confused. The name does not appear in either of the sacred text of Shintoism, but such a deity was probably worshiped in the distant past with the alternative title of Hime-Gami or Hime-O-Kami. The cult center was on the southern island of Kyushu at Usa. In modern Shintoism. Hachiman originates as a member of the imperial dynasty. Named Ojin-Tenno and born in CE 200 to the empress Jingu-Kogo, he greatly improved the living standards and culture of Japan during his remarkable reign. The place of his birth was marked by a sanctuary and several centuries after his death, a vision of a child Kami appeared there to a priest. The kami identified himself by the Chinese ideogram representing the name Hachiman, and thus the link developed. The site is, today, the location of a magnificent shrine, the Umi-Hachiman-Gu, where Hachiman has been percieved as a god of war. Soldiers departing for battle once took with them relics from the shrine.
Hachiman is also a deity of peace and a guardian of human life and, when pacifism dominated Japan during the post-war era, he became more strongly identified in the latter context.