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Concept
Kanjō
Summary
Kanjō in Shinto terminology indicates a propagation process through which a kami, previously divided through a process called bunrei, is invited to another location and there re-enshrined.
Kanjō was originally a Buddhist term and later entered Shinto vocabulary. A kanjō was the request of the Buddha's sermon with a sincere heart, and later came to mean the urging of a buddha or bodhisattva to remain in this world to preach and save other human beings. The concept then evolved further to mean the act (and the actual words) of asking buddhas or bodhisattvas to descend to the altar during a Buddhist service. In Japan, the word gradually assumed the present meaning of enshrinement of a buddha or kami in a building for the first time.
Before it can be transferred to its new location the kami must be divided. The division sub-process and the divided spirit itself are called bunrei, go-bunrei or wakemitama.
The process of propagation, described by Shinto priests as akin to the lighting of a candle from another already lit, leaves the original kami intact in its original place and therefore does not alter any of its properties. The resultant wakemitama has all the qualities of the original and is therefore both living and permanent. The process is used often, for example during Matsuri (Shinto festivals) to animate temporary shrines called mikisho and their portable versions, called mikoshi.
Inari is the kami that has been subjected to kanjō more often than any other, and is therefore a good illustration of the process.
The transfer does not necessarily take place from a shrine to another: the new location can be a privately owned object or a kamidana ("god-shelf", or altar) within an individual house. The case is recorded of Inari being re-enshrined in a fox hole In fact, the first recorded Inari kanjō, in 842, involved the kami'''s transfer to Ono no Takamura's scepter. The kami was then transported to Mutsu no Kuni (Aomori) by its owner. Some years later, he returned to Kyoto, and Aomori's people asked him to leave the kami behind, which he did in what would become Takekoma Inari.
Official source
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