The kami are not moral exemplars and the tradition does not pretend otherwise. Susanoo destroys his sister's rice paddies, fills in the irrigation ditches, defecates in her hall and throws a flayed horse through the roof of her weaving room, killing one of her women — this is in the canonical text, not a suppressed variant. Kami are described as having a rough aspect and a gentle aspect, aramitama and nigimitama, and some shrines enshrine the two separately. A kami that is properly attended brings good harvests and safe childbirth; one that is neglected or wronged brings epidemic and fire. The relationship is therefore closer to diplomacy than to obedience: you maintain it, you make offerings, you keep the place clean, and you take the local one seriously because it is the one whose territory you live in. Ethical monotheism's central question — how can a good God permit this — has no purchase here, because nobody claimed the kami were uniformly good or in charge.