Kunitama (å½éÂÂ) is a type of kami or god who acts as a tutelary deity or guardian of a province of Japan or sometimes other areas in Shinto.
The term is sometimes treated as a specific deity itself especially with Hokkaidà  Shrine, and other colonial shrines, a or as an epithet in the case of Okunitama Shrine or a part of a deity's name in the case of Yamato Okunitama, whose name is also sometimes interpreted as an epithet.
In ancient times it was believed that every province had a kunitama.
Yamato Okunitama is the Kunitama of Yamato Province. He is sometimes identified with à Âmononushi.
As the Yamato court grew in power shrines were made in more and more places outside of the Yamato region.
of the Musashi Province was traditionally identified as à Âkuninushi.
Hirata Atsutane said in his morning prayers that the deities to worship in Yamato Province were à Âmononushi, Okunitama, and Kotoshironushi.
Motoori Norinaga discussed the concept.
A generic "Kunitama" was among the , Ã Âkuninushi, and Sukunabikona used in Japanese colonial shrines. They are all Kunitsukami or earthly kami representing the land.
This started in the Matsumae Domain during haibutsu kishaku where many shrines in Hokkaido were forced to adopt such deities in that group. There was very little worship of such deities there at that time and as a result not much objection to it. This came to be later used in many overseas shrines to justify colonialism.
In Korea, Kunitama and Amaterasu were enshrined together. as a pair at all nationally ranked shrines. The colonization of Korea marked the beginning of a shift from a meiji era "pioneer theology" to a universal theology and Amaterasu became more prominent and was generally paired with Kunitama.
Some people identified Dangun with Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the government not wanting to take a stand on this enshrined the generic Okunitama at Chà Âsen Jingu so believers could have their own interpretations. was a strong advocate of these positions and his advocacy was associated with the enshrinement of Okunitama at both Chà Âsen Jingu, and Keijà  Shrine. He advocated enshrining of Dangun at Chà Âsen Shrine, and others argued that in Korea Kunitama was Dangun and should be called Chosen Kunitama.
In 1936 Keijà  Shrine released a memo saying that Okunitama was in fact a generic title for any Korean deity and not Dangun. The name was also changed to Kunitama-no-Okami as a parallel to Amaterasu Omikami
An ethnic Korean group proposed to take over Okunitama worship after the war but was denied.
State authorities at Chà Âsen Jingu however never allowed for Okunitama to be called "Chosen kunitama" and indigenous Dangun traditions were suppressed in favor of worshipping Amaterasu in the shrine.
In Manchukuo there were proposals to identify Kunitama with Nurhaci but they were not accepted.
At Mà Âkyà  Jinja Genghis Khan was venerated as Kunitama.
In Brazil in a Japanese settlement a shrine named Bogure Jinja was created and worshipped Kunitama, identified with indigenous people of the area in a burial mound.