A gentle reminder that all the people on Tumblr should consider when dealing with religious content (esp. Shinto)
Any post that talks about, depicts, or otherwise refers to Inari-sama (a Shinto deity that resides over matters concerning rice, sake (rice wine) childbirth and knowledge within the written word (the last one is my personal UPG, I think) among other things) should be tagged with the proper reverential honorifics attached to the end of His (the aspect of Inari-sama presents Themselves as male) name. The 2 examples I know of are -sama and -no-kami. I use the former when talking to or about Him in a personal capacity, and I use the latter to discuss Him in a scholarly context. (I.e. when talking about Inari-sama in relation to Japanese mythology, rather than my own encounters with Him.)
I believe that any post that discusses Inari-sama through even a vaguely religious lens, under any and every circumstance, should not be lumped together with any post of anything or anyone that shares His name if they're just someone's pet, for example. Truly devout Shinto people do not want one of the most well-known Kami reduced to a simple name for someone who does not know the meaning of it. It is extremely disrespectful to the Shinto religion. The same goes for any post discussing religions of any kind.
I’m glad they’re bringing back some fun elements from past games and new ones too! Like Woofio as a bachelor (like Kappa, Gourmet, and Won as ‘secret’ bachelors) and Inari being genderfluid like Jamie (which I know isn’t really what they intended but who cares). Also thank goddess, they are bringing back the shipping bin! The trade depot could be fun but the shipping bin is classic and it’s nice to be able to ship something everyday. I’m really excited about the new game!
The best bit about working with deities from non-Christian faiths is that They seem more human than the God of any Abrahamic religion. They actually care about our feelings and our thoughts, They have their own feelings and thoughts and They can be traumatised just like us ;They can reflect our trauma, and we can reflect Theirs.
Here are 2 prime examples from my personal experience of how apparently infallible divine beings can feel grief, a primarily human notion…
I was a Lokean for a very long time once, and worked very closely with Loki's 2 youngest, the Twins. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with Them, and before long, I was knee deep in Vali's grief for Narfi.. (I will be grateful always for Vali allowing me to be let in, to see Him at His most vulnerable.) You could see it in everything He did; the way He walked, how gaunt He was, even in the way He communicated with me. (The 2nd time we met, He used a chess match as a opportunity to compare Himself to Ciel (because the real twin had died, and he blames himself for it.)) The minute that I proposed He deserved something better than His self-imposed isolation, He exploded like a volcano, screaming at me about how He does deserve it because He is the perpetrator of His brother's death and He deserves this cycle of self-inflicted punishment. Even in the York dream, He very clearly did not want to be anywhere near His brother, and I got the distinct impression that He felt He’d been dragged into it, rather than having the choice to do so willingly.
"Come on! Aren't twins supposed to do everything together?"
"Not if they 're-"
"Shush! You'll ruin all the fun!"
"Just listen. I don't think this is a good idea."
"Think positively!"
"She knows I-"
"that doesn't matter to her. You know that."
"It should do. I'm dangerous. And she doesn't even know that York is-
"we can't tell her that!"
I've also recently done a bit of toe dipping into Shinto, and the aspect of Inari-sama that I've ended up with hates absolutely anything to do with America and World War II. I began talking about America by accident when we first met, and then He proceeded to have a mini breakdown. I apologised for it though. He is also terrified of planes-something triggered him in our fifth nocturnal encounter, and He wailed (it looked like He was saying it in Japanese, but I heard it as English) "IT WAS NEVER JUST A PLANE!" I think it goes without saying which plane He was talking about. Inari-sama also messed up my school's computer servers when we had to talk about the ABs in the lesson.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if deities can have Their very real trauma and its responses, so too can we normal humans, and that we should still respect Whoever we worship, but we should also allow Them the space to be vulnerable.
A moodboard made for a boy I met in my dreams, Kuro Kemuri-sama.
I now feel that I have enough evidence to prove that He is Inari-no-kami in the flesh. (The golden eyes and white kimono were a dead giveaway) and the fact that He visited me during the two nights in the run-up to writing about Serizawa-hakase’s death is enough for me.
Before the first dream, I didn’t wan’t to write about him because I feared no one would read it, but then Kuro-sama sort of commanded me to do it anyway, so I considered it my Kami-given duty to do so. I ended up not doing it until two nights later, because I’d had the first vaccine, and Dad wanted to monitor me just in case..I was tempted to tell him that I was technically disobeying Inari-no-kami’s orders if didn’t the write the post ASAP, but I knew for certain that he would never believe me if I told the truth.
I managed to get guilt-tripped into writing it after I experienced but a fraction of Kuro-sama’s true power in my second dream, and I realized with quite a shock that He was not a Kami you wanted to be on the bad side of.
If I didn’t heed Kuro-sama’s orders, my refusal would haunt me until I was dead.
(Honorific suffix added because any Japanese person reading this post would probably skin me alive (or worse; people know exactly what I’m talking about if they know what the Japanese equate with dishonor. (Hint: it begins with a S and ends with a U.) for not addressing Inari-no-kami with all due respect.)
I had a tiny burst of energy and thought a woven band might be nice as an offering for Kami-sama. I have one across my Kemetic shrine and it's really lovely there.
I have been looking for ones that give me vibes of growing rice, and modifying them in a draft editor to see if they work.
This one is based on this pattern. I like it, but it has no direction changes, so I'd have to suddenly reverse the pattern when the twist got too intense. I don't think I'd like that but it's a nice pattern.
And then there's this one (based on this pattern), which would have less of a twist issue, but looks a lot more complicated than any I've tried in the past.
It also might be too wide for my current loom, which would certainly help my decision or make me buy a new loom oh ho ho
Days of Devotion - Day 7 (Part 1): What's in a Name?
(Admittedly, I can't be bothered to do His names and epithets together because I've just done 1000 words on a report for schoolwork, so you're getting it in a two parts instead of one.)
Names
1) Kuro Kemuri (roughly translates to "Black Smoke") - This is the "personal name" Inari-sama gave me to call Him by when we first met. I have this sneaking suspicion that this has something to do with His relation to swordsmiths and blacksmithing (like the smoke that comes from a forge) or subterfuge, veiling and trickery (as in smokescreen) which also makes sense because He kept His identity hidden in the beginning through obscuring His eyes. It also might have something to do with smoke that comes from disasters, be they natural or caused by man (i.e the destruction of paddy fields because of mud slides, or The Month That Shall Not Be Named) because Kuro-sama cares very much in general about peoples' wellbeing and their livelihoods.
2) Kyo - This is a diminutive of Kuro-sama's name which came to me shortly after I established that I was actually talking to a Kami. I think that He's letting me keep it because He thinks it's very cute that I've came up with a nickname for Him - it's a telling marker of an intimate relationship. In terms of etymology (shoot me, I'm a linguistics nerd) it either comes from the Buddhist version of Him (which is Dajin-kyo) or a shortening of Kyoto - His main city of worship.
