Note 21 — NOTES, AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Reading edition
Footnote 21:
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Mr. Takahashi Gorō, in his Shintō Shin-ron, or New Discussion of Shintō, accepts the derivation of the word kami from kabé, mould, mildew, which, on its appearance, excites wonder. For Hirata's discussion, see T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 48. In a striking paper on the Early Gods of Japan, in a recent number of the Philosophical Magazine, published in Tōkiō, a Japanese writer, Mr. Kenjirō Hiradé, states also that the term kami does not necessarily denote a spiritual being, but is only a relative term meaning above or high, but this respect toward something high or above has created many imaginary deities as well as those having a human history. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I., p. 55, note.