ABSTRACT
In ancient Japan the Emperor and Empress are Kami or deities even in their lifetimes. So, for instance, the Emperor Jimmu was called the Ame-no-Oshigami or ConqueringDeity of Heaven, as Aston put it in English (E.T.N., Vol. I, p. 125), and the Empress Jingō was also a Goddess to the eye of a poet of the Manyōshū, when he says:—
In the Kojiki she is called a deity by one of her warriors at the time of the conquest of Korea. The learned Moto-ori thinks that she is thus spoken of because, being possessed of the deities, she is a deity herself (E.T.K., p. 230).
