Talk:Kami
From Academic Kids
May someone explain me exactly Tanuki Z changed in this article and why? Seems to me that it would be advantageous to keep the previous version, but I guess I am failing to notice something important. Thanks! Luis Dantas 15:21, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)
- I've rolled it back, that's only if you're linking from the meta, quote, or textbook Wikipedias to Wikipedia English version itself. Otherwise the w: is useless. -- user:zanimum
Is "god" really a good translation for "Kami"? It is my understanding that many are, but nature spirits and very ancient and/or revered ancestors are also considered Kami. For that matter so is the Buddha, who made it a point of stating that he was not a god. Luis Dantas 03:15, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
No, but it's certainly the most common usage of the word. No language's words can be translated into another without losing shades of meaning. A translator must determine what word to use. "Divine spirit" might be preferred in many uses of the word 神. -- Myria 17:24, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Japanese does have a plural form of 神: 神々 (kamigami). Japanese doesn't have plurals in the normal sense, but for some words, it does; in this case, 神々 is to "god" what "people" is to "person". In fact, Japanese has this same pattern for "people": 人 (person) -> 人々 (people). The symbol 々 means "repeat last kanji"; 神々 can also be written 神神, though it is rarely done. -- Myria 17:24, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Could we get a list of kami on this page? There really needs to be one.
