Ontology

An ontology of the Japanese understanding of gods,
melding native traditions with that of the deva-dharma
refracting through the prism of the saugata doctrines.

There are what in biology we would call “distant paralogs” –
ancient Eurasiatic cognates going back very deep in time.
While Susanoo has a very distinct character in the Japanese tradition,
he still retains some features of a very ancient ancestor
that also gave rise to the Thunderer among the Indo-Europeans.

Similarly, we see such cognancy between Amaterasu and the Indo-Aryan ushas of PIE vintage.
The same deity filtered through the bauddha lens reappeared as marIchI.

Pampering

Source: TW

When one is pampered by the luxuries of studying the evolution of IE religion and approaches the Japanese religion one is left flattened by the enormity of the questions. While one might sight a Koreanic or Sinitic element one is often left without a clue of its ancestral state.

The contributions from the Jomon, the NE Asian Ainu-like peoples, and the Yayoi all seem too tangled as a Gordian knot to untangle.
Then there is the nAstika patina
beneath which peer dimly lit tropes –
familiar yet too divergent to grasp.

Thus, a man trying to understand to evolutionary history of Japanese religion might feel rather inadequate.

Zokushin

Source: TW

The Japanese tradition holds that the human body has 84 thousand pores, in each of which dwells a deity known as a zokushin. These gods are also said to control each “moment” of the 360 days of an year. This “moment” would be approximately 6 minutes. This reminds one of the raumya-s – gaNa-s emanated by rudra from the roma-kUpa-s. The raumya-s are invoked in a secret ritual relating to the mantra known as the vIrabhadrAstra.