Kegare

Common card · No. 447126

Kegare (穢れ・汚れ, uncleanness, defilement) is the Japanese term for a state of pollution and defilement, important particularly in Shinto as a religious term. Typical causes of kegare are the contact with any form of death, childbirth (for both parents), disease, and menstruation. In Shintoism this condition is believed to be remedied through purification rites called misogi and harae. Kegare is seen to have an adverse impact not only on the person directly affected, but also on the community they belong to. Kegare is related, but not a form of tsumi (taboo violation, such as, among others, rape), which needs to be remedied by the person responsible. Kegare is not a form of moral judgment, but rather a spontaneous reaction to amoral natural forces. Whether the defiling was caused by a deliberate act, as for example in the case of a crime, or by an external event, such as illness or death, is secondary. It is therefore not an equivalent of sin.

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