Dōzoku-shin

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Dōzoku-shin (Sino-Jap., dozoku, ‘family’, + shin, ‘deity’). A class of native Japanese deities, belief in whom combines social, geographical, and consanguinary relationships. Dōzoku is the extended family in traditional Japan, always consisting of a honge, or main family, and a number of branch families reckoned through the male line of descent. Traditionally all members of the dōzoku live in the same village, so that family rituals can be carried out in a spirit of mutual co-operation. Thus dōzoku-shin may be said to combine ancestor reverence with a sense of the sacredness of locality.