Kinmamon

Kinmamon (also Kimimamon, Kinmanmon; written 君真物) is described in the earliest systematic account of Ryukyuan religion, the monk Taichū's Ryūkyū Shintō-ki of 1605, as the highest deity, dwelling in the otherworld of Nirai Kanai beyond and beneath the sea. It manifests in two complementary aspects: a heavenly form named Kiraikanai no Kinmanmon, descending from the celestial Obotsu-Kagura, and a sea-borne form named Ōtsukakeraku no Kinmanmon, rising as a visiting deity from the ocean. On fixed ritual cycles Kinmamon was believed to come to the islands and to possess the supreme royal priestess, the kikoe-ōgimi, and lesser priestesses, delivering oracles and conferring the blessings, fertility and ordering authority that legitimated the kingdom's rituals. The deity thus anchors the broader Ryukyuan cult of Nirai Kanai and of visiting gods, and is today also revered as the central deity of the modern Okinawan new religion Ijun.

Domains

• otherworld nirai kanai
• oracular blessing and fertility

Powers

• to visit the islands from the otherworld in sky-form and sea-form
• to possess the high priestess and deliver oracles

Epithets

• きらいかないの君真物"Okinawan Religion," in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., ed. Lindsay Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2005). (secondary)
• おぼつかぐらの君真物"Okinawan Religion," in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., ed. Lindsay Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2005). (secondary)

Sources

• Kinmamon is the supreme deity of Ryukyuan religion dwelling in the otherworld Nirai Kanai, who visits the islands in heavenly and sea-borne forms and possesses the high priestess to give oracles.: "Okinawan Religion," in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., ed. Lindsay Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2005). (secondary); William P. Lebra, Okinawan Religion: Belief, Ritual, and Social Structure (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1966). (secondary)