Heaven in Japanese


I have found that there are a number of words in Japanese that correspond to
"heaven" in English. By heaven I mean the concept of a paradisiacal afterlife.
The two most frequent in my limited and flawed personal experience are

> 天国 (as well as just 天) and 極楽 which I often find is useful to translate as
> "paradise"

Offhand, and in my own (again flawed) way of thinking, I see 天国 see as a bit
more austere, while 極楽 maybe has a more sensual feel. I associate 天国 more with
native Japanese myths and religion (shintoism) while 極楽 has more of a buddhist
feel (and thus not purely Japanese) as it is from the Pure Land school of
Buddhism.

I am wondering if there are any other terms for heaven in wide use, and also
about the different feel and nuance each word possesses. I am also interested
in which word Japanese Christians use for Christian heaven, and indeed if
practitioners of specific faiths discriminate in their vocabulary for heaven.




I cannot post comments so I link it here:

[http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/天国](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A9%E5%9B%BD)

This tells you what religion uses what term.

Also note the figurative term 楽園{らくえん} and パラダイス

