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'Arahitogami' (現人神) is a Japanese word, meaning 'a god who is a human being'.
This word appears first in Kojiki, but is assumed to have been used before this book.
The most well-known usage of this word would be in Japan before 1945, until the end of the Second World War. In those days State Shinto (Kokka Shintō) applied this word to the Emperor and required the Japanese people to obey absolutely and have loyalty to the Emperor as a god.
In 1946, emperor Showa was forced in the Ningen-sengen to renounce to the conception of ''akitsumikami'', divinity in human form, and claimed his relation to the people did not rely on such a mythological idea but on a historically developed family-like reliance.
Many authors, such as John W. Dower and Herbert Bix, consider however that the Ningen-sengen can be interpreted in a way which, while renouncing to be an ''akitsumikami'', Hirohito didn't actually deny his divine ascendance to goddess Amaterasu Omikami.

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See also

See also

★ Ningen-sengen

★ Divine Right of Kings

★ Imperial cult