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The Month When the Gods Leave Japan
Japan has a month when the gods are said to disappear.

 

The traditional Japanese name for the tenth lunar month is 神無月 (Kannazuki). The characters can be read literally as “the month without gods.”

 

But where do the gods go?

 

According to a famous Japanese tradition, the countless kami from across Japan leave their local shrines and gather in Izumo, in present-day Shimane Prefecture. There, they are said to hold an important meeting at Izumo Taisha, one of Japan’s oldest and most important Shinto shrines.

 

That creates an interesting contradiction.

 

While much of Japan traditionally calls this month Kannazuki, “the month without gods,” the Izumo region calls it 神在月 (Kamiarizuki), meaning “the month when the gods are present.”

 

Of course, this is folklore rather than a literal description of Shinto belief. There are also linguistic theories suggesting that Kannazuki did not originally mean “without gods.”

 

Still, the story has survived for centuries because it reflects something fascinating about Japanese culture.

 

Japan does not imagine kami as one single God. There can be countless kami associated with mountains, rivers, places, nature, ancestors, and human life.

 

And once a year, according to tradition, even the gods have a meeting to attend. Izumo might be one place you might want to visit.