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Kannagi (巫 or 神和ぎ or 神薙ぎ or 神凪) areshamans inShinto. Unlike the similar termmiko, the term is gender neutral. The term has a few different writing styles, one being 巫, which is a sharedkanji character as used for theChineseWu shaman.

Akannagi represents the act of communicating with ayorishiro of akami, or apossession of akami, or a person who serves in that role.

Kumagusu Minakata, in his bookIchiko ni kansuru koto, refers tomiko serving shrines askannagi, and towanderingmiko asmiko.

Depending on the shrine, the word "kannagi" is used to refer to amiko who serves the shrine, and the wordmiko is used to refer to a wanderingmiko. (Ōmiwa Shrine), Waka (Shiogama Shrine), Tamayorihime, Osame (Katori Shrine), Osome (Kibitsu Shrine), Itsukiko (Matsuo Shrine)Suwa-taisha,Kibitsu Shrine,

Kunio Yanagita says that these two types of maidens were originally the same person, but were later separated, because there are other names for wanderingmiko, such as Oichi ofSuwa Shrine, Sou-no-ichi ofAtsuta Shrine, and Waka ofShiogama Shrine.^[1]

The wordkannagi is derived fromkami (神,kan) and the wordnagi meaning a calm state, which has many readings

1. Nagi (和ぎ) is a peaceful and calm state, and is mainly used for emotions and circumstances.
2. Nagi (凪) is synonymous with calming, but nowadays it often refers to the state of the sea where there is no wind and there are no calm waves . In addition, it is one of the fewKanji originating in Japan and represents the state where the wind has stopped.
3. Nagi (薙ぎ) refers to a state in which a mountain is collapsing and becoming flat, or a flat field where vegetation is cut, but it also means to drive it sideways (to remove it). From that , it means cleansing as a Shinto ritual . In addition, there are Nagi Shinto rituals all over Japan, and it is said to be an act of calming storms and winds in the inland regions . A rare character is "𡵢 (Nagi)", which is an Ateji character for Nagi because it means collapse.

There are various kanji notations for "Nagi", and it is often used as a homonym forTree, mountain, orplace name. Most of them relate to places ofBelief in JapaneseShinto,Myth andKoshinto, and are used as part of the names ofShinto shrines and Japanese deities. It is also used in the name ofIzanagi and the swordKusanagi no Tsurugi. It is used in the name of the treeNageia nagi.

• Japanese folk religion
• Miko
• Shinto

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