“Yaoyorozu no kami” (the myriad gods) captures the Japanese view of the sacred. It names the countless deities believed to dwell in mountains and rivers, trees and stones, wind and rain — and even in human emotion.
Literally “eight million,” yaoyorozu here is not a real number but an idiom for “countless.” From early times Japan nurtured a polytheistic worldview in which many gods of varied character stand side by side, rather than one absolute deity.
Tellingly, the English word myriad also began in ancient Greek as a specific number — 10,000 — before coming to mean “innumerable.” Yaoyorozu = myriad: two civilizations independently coined the same idea.
The stories of the myriad gods are recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), compiled in the Nara period — from the beginning of the world to the hiding in the Heavenly Rock Cave, the slaying of Yamata-no-Orochi, and the transfer of the land.
At the heart of the idea lies a sensitivity that finds sacred power in everything in nature. It is why a great rock or an ancient tree may be enshrined as a goshintai (sacred body). The gods are many-sided, not reducible to simple good and evil.
From the gods of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Kamitype features twelve, with their myths, symbolism and blessings.