Takeminakata

Etymology

The god is named Takeminakata-no-kami (建御名方神) in both the Kojiki and the Kujiki. Variants of the name found in other literary sources include Minakatatomi-no-kami (南方刀美神), Minakatatomi-no-mikoto-no-kami (御名方富命神) or Takeminakatatomi-no-mikoto(-gami) (建御名方富命神).

The name's etymology is unclear. While most commentators seem to agree that take- (and probably -tomi) are honorifics, they differ in how to interpret the other components of the name. Some of the proposed solutions are as follows.

Suwa-myōjin

A common epithet for the god enshrined in Suwa Grand Shrine since the Middle Ages is Suwa-myōjin (諏訪明神) or Suwa-daimyōjin (諏訪大明神), a name also applied via metonymy to the shrine itself. A variant associated with the syncretic Ryōbu Shintō sect, Suwa (Nangū) Hosshō (Kamishimo) Daimyōjin (諏訪(南宮)法性(上下)大明神), "Dharma-Nature Daimyōjin of (the Upper and Lower) Suwa (Nangū)," was most famously employed by Sengoku daimyō Takeda Shingen (a notable devotee of the god) on some of his war banners.

Takeminakata has been explicitly identified as the god worshipped in Suwa since at least the 9th century, as is attested to by works from the period such as the Kujiki and the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, the latter referring to the shrine of Suwa as 'Takeminakatatomi-no-mikoto Shrine' (建御名方富命神社). Somewhat complicating this picture, however, are legends and hagiographies of medieval provenance which instead identify Suwa-myōjin with such figures as the folkloric figure Kōga Saburō (甲賀三郎), a man who returned from a journey into the underworld to find himself transformed into a serpent or dragon, and the nature of religious beliefs and practices of the Suwa region which seemingly point either to 'Suwa-myōjin' being an amalgamation of a foreign deity (Takeminakata?) with a god worshipped in Suwa since time immemorial, or to 'Takeminakata' being a literary creation based on this indigenous deity (see 'Mishaguji' below).

To reflect this subtle distinction, this article shall use the name 'Takeminakata' mostly in reference to the god as he is described in the Kojiki and other sources which use the name or some variant thereof, and 'Suwa-myōjin' in the context of the god as the deity of Suwa.

Parentage

Takeminakata appears in both the Kojiki and the Kujiki (aka Sendai Kuji Hongi) as a son of Ōkuninushi, the earthly deity (kunitsukami) of Izumo Province and a younger brother of Kotoshironushi. The Kujiki specifies his mother to be one of Ōkuninushi's wives, Nunakawa-hime of Koshi (高志沼河姫 Koshi-no-Nunakawa-hime).

Takeminakata and Takemikazuchi

Takeminakata's sole appearance in the Kojiki occurs in the context of Ōkuninushi's "transfer of the land" (kuni-yuzuri) to the amatsukami, the gods of heaven (Takamagahara). When the gods of Takamagahara sent Takemikazuchi and another messenger to demand that Ōkuninushi relinquish his authority over the Ashihara no Nakatsukuni to the progeny of the sun goddess Amaterasu, he asked to confer with his son Kotoshironushi first before giving his decision. Kotoshironushi immediately accepted their demands and advised his father to do likewise before making himself disappear.

A second son, Takeminakata, carrying an enormous rock on the fingertips of one hand, then appeared, insisting on a test of strength with Takemikazuchi. When he tried to seize Takemikazuchi's arm, the latter turned his arm into an icicle and then a sword blade, preventing Takeminakata from grabbing it, but when Takemikazuchi grasped Takeminakata's arm in return, he easily crushed it like a reed. This contest is regarded as the first example of sumo. Pursued by Takemikazuchi, the injured Takeminakata fled to "the sea of Suwa in the province of Shinano" (科野国州羽海), where he finally surrendered and agreed not to leave Shinano at any pretext.

With Kotoshironushi's counsel and Takeminakata's surrender, Ōkuninushi finally agreed to cede the land to Amaterasu's descendants.

Suwa-myōjin and Moreya

Local legends speak of a certain god (most often identified with Suwa-myōjin/Takeminakata) who came to dwell in Suwa, only to face resistance from the local deities. One of these, Moreya, fought this foreign god armed with an iron weapon (variously identified as a ring or a hook-like implement), only to be defeated by the latter's wisteria vine. With the defeat and submission of Moreya and others who resisted him, Suwa-myōjin became the chief god of the region.

Analysis

The Izumo kuni-yuzuri story as recorded in the official chronicles has often been interpreted as a mythic retelling of the rise to power of the Yamato court (which claimed descent from Amaterasu via her grandson Ninigi) and its subjugation of other clans and tribes, such as those of Izumo (represented by its deities). It is perhaps no coincidence that Takeminakata in the myth was defeated by Takemikazuchi, a god worshipped by the influential Nakatomi clan, which oversaw the religious rituals of the Yamato court, and its offshoot, the Fujiwara clan.

In a similar vein, it has also been suggested that the local tale about Takeminakata's battle with Moreya is the mythicization of a historical conflict between either the indigenous (Jōmon) hunter-gatherers of the region and an agrarian (Yayoi) society who migrated to the area, or the resistance against the expansion of the Yamato state's authority in the region by local clans.

Despite being portrayed as Ōkuninushi's son in the Kojiki's kuni-yuzuri myth (and its derivative in the Kujiki), Takeminakata is not found in the genealogy of Ōkuninushi's progeny that precedes the narrative, as well as altogether being absent from the Nihon Shoki's version of the same story, where only Ōkuninushi (here given the name Ōnamuchi-no-kami (大己貴神)) and Kotoshironushi appear. He is also nowhere to be found in any myth or legend contained in the Fudoki of Izumo Province; rather than 'Takeminakata', Nunakawahime's offspring in the Izumo Fudoki is instead named Mihosusumi (御穂須須美).

This curious silence about Takeminakata in Izumo-related contexts outside of the Kojiki and his sole, rather abrupt appearance in the narrative itself has led a number of authors to suggest that Takeminakata was artificially grafted to the Izumo kuni-yuzuri myth by the Kojiki's compilers, and/or that the god himself was invented by said compilers.

The scholar Mitsuaki Miyasaka theorized that the chief compiler of the Kojiki, Ō no Yasumaro, might have created Takeminakata inspired by myths in the region about a local resistance against an outsider deity (cf. the story of Moreya above). Yasumaro's clan, the Ō (太氏; also written variously as 多, 大, or 意富) is said to be distantly related to the clan of the kuni-no-miyatsuko or provincial governor of Shinano (the Yamato state's representatives in the region) via a common ancestor, Kamu-yaimimi-no-mikoto (神八井耳命), a son of the Emperor Jimmu. In addition, Yasumaro's father, Ō no Honji (多品治) participated in the Jinshin War of 672, fighting on the side of Prince Ōama (the future Emperor Tenmu); Miyasaka claims that Honji's positive experience with warriors from Shinano and Kai – among whom were members of the Kanasashi (金刺氏), a branch of the Shinano miyatsuko clan who later also became priests of the Suwa Shimosha – at the time might have contributed to his son inserting a reference to local folklore in the official chronicles.

Iwao Ōwa claims further that 'Takeminakata' was the product of the indigenous (pre-Yamato) worship of Mishaguji being assimilated into the belief system of the Yamato state, with the newly-invented deity then being inserted into the Kojiki's myths to give his cultus an air of legitimacy. He explains Takemikazuchi's defeat of Takeminakata as being based on the curtailment of the authority of the Moriya clan (a prominent local clan descended from Moreya that worshipped Mishaguji; cf. 'Claimed descendants' section below) by the local kuni-no-miyatsuko.

An alternate way of explaining Takeminakata's absence outside of the Kojiki is to identify him with gods recorded in other sources that share similar traits. (cf. 'Identification with other gods' section below.)

Other legends

In addition to the above myths, there are also a number of stories involving the god surviving either in folktales or in medieval written sources. A few of these are:

Suwa-myōjin and Kannazuki

Suwa-myōjin is reputed to be one of the few kami who do not leave their shrines during the month of Kannazuki, when most gods are thought to gather at Izumo Province.

According to a folktale, Suwa-myōjin once came to Izumo in the form of a dragon so gigantic that only his head can be seen; his tail was still at Suwa, caught in a tall pine tree by the shores of the lake. The other gods, upon seeing him, were so astounded and frightened at his enormous size that they exempted him from attending their yearly meetings. The supposed tree where the dragon's tail was caught (currently reduced to a stump) is locally known as Okakematsu (尾掛松).

Suwa-myōjin as Indian king

Two medieval sources, the Suwa-daimyōjin ekotoba (hereafter, the Ekotoba) and the Suwa kamisha butsukirei no koto (諏訪上社物忌令之事, 1238; hereafter the Butsukirei) contain an alternative story about the origins of Suwa-myōjin with Buddhist overtones.

In the story, Takeminakata/Suwa-myōjin was originally a king of Hatthipura (波堤国 Hadai-koku) in India. Once, a rebel – named as 'Moriya' (守屋) in the Butsukirei and 'Mikyō(?)' (美教) in the Ekotoba – took advantage of the king's absence during a deer hunting trip to stage a military coup. The king prayed to Brahma, who sent the Four Heavenly Kings to quell the rebellion.

The Butsukirei adds that the king later went to Persia to defeat an evil dragon that terrorized the land, becoming emperor of Persia (with the regnal name of 'Suwa') before retiring to attain enlightenment. He then traveled eastward to Japan – being seen in various places such as in Settsu Province or Nishinomiya along the way – before arriving in Suwa.

Appearance to Sakanoue no Tamuramaro

The association of Suwa-myōjin with warfare and hunting is most apparent in another legend – recorded in both the Ekotoba and the Shintoshu – about his appearance to the general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro during the latter's campaign to subjugate the Emishi of northeastern Japan.

During the reign of Emperor Kanmu, an Emishi chief named Abe no Takamaru (安倍高丸; also known as 悪事高丸 'Akuji no Takamaru') staged a rebellion against the imperial court. The emperor, in response, appointed Sakanoue no Tamuramaro as Sei-i Taishōgun, sending him to Ōshū to quell the Emishi threat. Tamuramaro, knowing that Takamaru cannot be defeated without divine aid, prayed to either Suwa-myōjin, the foremost among the war gods of the eastern provinces (Ekotoba) or to Avalokiteśvara, who ordered Tamuramaro to go to Mount Kurama, where the god Vaiśravaṇa (Bishamonten) appeared to him and gave him a sword. (Shintōshū)

Either way, Tamuramaro's prayer was answered: when he passed by the Ina and Suwa districts of Shinano Province with his soldiers, a warrior on horseback – Suwa-myōjin in disguise – came to Tamuramaro, offering him his services. (The Shintōshū adds that another warrior – the god of Sumiyoshi shrine – also appeared and joined Tamuramaro's army.)

At length Tamuramaro's army, accompanied by the mysterious warrior(s), eventually reach Takamaru's stronghold by the sea and lay siege to it, only to find it strategically situated and so well built as to be virtually impregnable. In the Ekotoba, the warrior, riding out alone towards the fortress during a stalemate, miraculously splits into five identical warriors (explained as the manifestations of Suwa-myōjin's thirteen divine children), while twenty men dressed in yellow (the god's attendants) appear from out of nowhere. The warrior, his five clones, and the twenty men in yellow then begin to hold a yabusame (mounted archery) competition over the surface of the sea. (The Shintōshū instead has Tamuramarō and his army holding the competition on boats.)

Takamaru, who until then had been hiding deep inside his fortress, was lulled into a false sense of security and came out, to be hit in the eye(s) by an arrow shot by the warrior(s) from Shinano. He was then beheaded either by the men in yellow with their spears (Ekotoba), or by Tamuramarō himself, using the sword granted to him by Vaiśravaṇa (Shintōshū).

On the return journey, the first warrior finally reveals to Tamuramaro that he is the god of Suwa, the manifestation of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Avalokiteśvara, and expresses his wish that a hunting festival be instituted in his honor. Tamuramaro questions why, if he is actually a bodhisattva, does he revel in such an activity that involves taking the lives of sentient beings. The god explains that hunting for the purpose of offering the victim to a deity and the intention of doing so are actually both meritorious acts, because the only way for sinful and ignorant animals to reach enlightenment is by being killed and sacrificed to a buddha manifest as a kami (Ekotoba, Shintōshū). Then, producing a written dhāraṇī that can absolve the sin of killing and giving it to Tamuramaro, the god disappears. (Ekotoba) Finally, the second warrior also disappears after revealing his true identity. (Shintōshū)

In accordance with Suwa-myōjin's request, Tamuramaro then instituted the shrine's religious festivals, in particular the Misayama festival (御射山祭) originally held during the 27th of seventh month in the old calendar (currently held in August), which is said to be the day Takamaru was defeated. (Cf. the story of the Indian king above, which also serves as another etiological myth for the same festival.)

The Misogi-no-hōri

According to legend, a boy by the age of eight – either Otoei (乙頴, also 'Otsuei'), also known as Kumako (神子 or 熊子), who supposedly lived around the time of Emperor Yōmei (585–587) or the later Arikazu (有員), thought to have lived during the reign of Emperor Kanmu and sometimes even considered to be the latter's son – saw the god of Suwa in a vision. The god, declaring that since he has no physical body his priest (祝 hōri) shall be worshipped instead as his embodiment, took off his robe and made the boy wear it, thus conferring both priesthood and divinity to him. Since then, Otoei (or Arikazu) and his descendants, the Suwa or Miwa clan, served the god as misogi-no-hōri (御衣着祝 'priest wearing the sacred garment'), and later, as ōhōri (大祝 'great priest').

The Shintōshū connects this story with that of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro above by portraying the ōhōri as descended from Takamaru's daughter (the only one of his children to survive the siege, her eight brothers being killed by the imperial troops), who was taken hostage by Suwa-myōjin as the warrior from Shinano. Out of pity, the god gave her a son and made him his own priest.

Identification with other gods

Takeminakata has been associated or conflated with various other gods, either as a result of the syncretic nature of local beliefs in Suwa or as an attempt to find further literary evidence for the god outside of the Kojiki.

Mishaguji

Mishaguji (also Mishakuji or Mishaguchi among other variants) is a god or group of gods worshipped in Suwa since antiquity, with their worship possibly originating from as far as the Jōmon period, well before the arrival of the agriculturalist Yayoi culture in the region. Usually thought to be some kind of nature spirit(s) who mainly abide in trees or rocks and who is/are associated with snakes, Mishaguji is/are also considered to be, among other things, the presiding kami of boundaries. The Moriya clan, claimed descendants of the god Moreya, historically worshipped Mishaguji as their patron deity.

While Takeminakata is officially identified as being synonymous with Suwa-myōjin, the god of Suwa-taisha, in actuality 'Suwa-myōjin' as an entity seems to be more of a fusion of Takeminakata and Mishaguji, with the native Mishaguji having a much more prominent role in the religious ceremonies of the Kamisha, specifically that of the Maemiya (前宮 'Old Shrine'). For instance, it is Mishaguji who is held to possess individuals such as the chief priest of the Upper Shrine, the ōhōri, or inhabit inanimate objects during ceremonies at the beck and call of a priest from the Moriya clan, the jinchōkan. It has thus been suggested that either the syncretism of the imported deity Takeminakata with the indigenous Mishaguji was so thorough, or (as per Iwao Ōwa) that 'Takeminakata' is actually just Mishaguji introduced into the Yamato pantheon and renamed.

Isetsuhiko

Since the Edo period, a number of authors – among them Motoori Norinaga – have identified Takeminakata with the god Isetsuhiko-no-mikoto, who is briefly mentioned in the Fudoki of Ise Province (surviving only in the form of excerpts found in other writings), the Fudoki of Harima Province, and the Kujiki, due to perceived parallels between the two gods.

Kagaseo

Takeminakata has also been identified with the star god Amatsu-Mikaboshi or Kagaseo (香香背男), who appears only in the Nihon Shoki but not in the Kojiki. According to an alternative version of the kuni-yuzuri myth recorded in the Nihon Shoki, Kagaseo was the only god who refused to submit to Takemikazuchi and Futsunushi.

Mihosusumi

Mihosusumi, Nunakawahime's child in the Izumo Fudoki has also been identified as Takeminakata himself or as a sibling of his due to the two gods sharing the same parentage.

Yasakatome

Takeminakata's spouse is the goddess Yasakatome-no-kami (八坂刀売神). A local goddess, she is never mentioned in both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, with what little is known of her – diverse and often contradictory – only circulating in folk tales and legends. Her father is variously identified as Ame-no-yasaka-hiko (天八坂彦命), a god who in one legend is one of those who accompanied Nigihayahi-no-mikoto in his descent from heaven, or Watatsumi, god of the sea.

A natural ice phenomenon of Lake Suwa during winter is explained in folklore as being caused by Takeminakata leaving the shrine and crossing the lake to visit Yasakatome, who is enshrined in the Lower Suwa Shrine (Shimosha) at the northern side of Lake Suwa. Also within the precincts of the Shimosha is a mound claimed to be her tomb.

Children

In Suwa, a number of local deities are considered to be the children of Suwa-myōjin and Yasakatome, of which thirteen are considered to have assisted their father in developing the region. These thirteen gods are sometimes worshipped as a group; at other times they are grouped together with their divine parents, for a total of fifteen gods. One version of these thirteen deities are as follows:

Other deities claimed to be Suwa-myōjin's children include:

Note that the fluid and syncretic nature of local beliefs can lead to some confusion as to whose child is whom. For instance, Katakurabe's son Kodamahiko is instead identified in the genealogy of the Moriya clan (see 'Claimed descendants' below) as the son of Chikatō (千鹿頭神), Moreya's grandson by Morita (守宅神 or 守田神 Morita-no-kami). Katakurabe himself is in some genealogies of the Suwa clan apparently listed as Izuhayao's son (and thus Takeminakata's grandson), with his son in turn being Enatakemimi. To further add to the confusion, at least one source identifies 'Katakurabe' as an alternate name for Takeminakata himself.

Suwa clan

Takeminakata/Suwa-myōjin is – directly or indirectly – considered to be the ancestor of the Suwa clan (諏訪氏), who once served as priests of the Suwa Kamisha, one of a number of such candidates. A member of the clan who was chosen to become the ōhōri (大祝 'great priest'; also rendered as ōhafuri) of the Kamisha was considered to be the visible embodiment of Suwa-myōjin himself and as such, a living deity and an object of worship in his own right.

The Suwa ōhōri – who traditionally assumed the office during childhood – was assisted by five priests headed by the kan-no-osa (神長, also read as jinchō) or jinchōkan (神長官). The jinchōkan, a member of the Moriya clan (descendants of the god Moreya), was responsible for overseeing and conducting the Kamisha's religious rites (the full knowledge of which were closely guarded secrets handed down only to the heir to the position), as well as summoning Mishaguji to possess individuals or objects during certain special occasions, being the only one who was considered to be able to call upon the god.

Though officially the Suwa ōhōri was the chief priest of the upper shrine, he had little, if any, actual power; in reality the upper shrine of Suwa was effectively in the hands of the jinchōkan, with his unique ability to call upon the god(s) of the shrine and his knowledge of various rituals.

The establishment of State Shinto in the Meiji period abolished the tradition of hereditary succession among Shinto priesthood, including that of Suwa-taisha; the Moriya and the Suwa were stripped of their priestly offices (which in turn became defunct) as government appointees began to manage the shrine, which passed under state control.

Other clans

Other families claiming descent from Suwa-myōjin and the occupants of three of the five assistant positions in earlier times – members of the Moriya clan occupying the position of jinchōkan and, originally, also that of the soi-no-hōri (副祝; later passed on to the Nagasaka (長坂氏) clan) – are the Koide (小出氏), which claimed descent from the god Yakine and originally held the priestly offices of negi-dayū (禰宜大夫) and gi-no-hōri (擬祝) before both positions passed on to the Moriya (守屋氏; not directly related to the jinchōkan Moriya) and the Itō (伊藤氏) families by the early modern period, and the Yajima (矢島氏), which considered the god Ikeno'o to be their ancestor and which served as gon-no-hōri (権祝).

Shrines

As the gods of Suwa-taisha, Takeminakata/Suwa-myōjin and Yasakatome also serve as the deities of shrines belonging to the Suwa shrine network (諏訪神社 Suwa-jinja) all over Japan. There are also a number of Minamikata shrines (南方神社 Minamikata-jinja) dedicated to both deities within Kagoshima Prefecture.

Other shrines that worship Takeminakata or are related to him include:

As war god

Takeminakata is also considered to be a god of war, one of a number of such deities in the Japanese pantheon. A medieval legend claimed that the god appeared to the 8th century general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro and assisted him in his campaign against the Emishi of northeastern Japan. At the very least, the Ryōjin Hishō compiled in 1179 (the late Heian period) already attest to the worship of the god of Suwa in the capacity of god of warfare at the time of its compilation, naming Suwa-taisha among famous shrines to martial deities in the eastern half of the country.

During the Kamakura period, the Suwa clan's association with the shogunate and the Hōjō clan helped further cement Suwa-myōjin's reputation as a martial deity; Suwa branch shrines became particularly common in lands held by the Hōjō. He has also been credited (along with other deities) with repelling the attempted Mongol invasions of Japan under Kublai Khan.

The Takeda clan of Kai Province (modern Yamanashi Prefecture) were devotees of Suwa-myōjin, its most famous member, the Sengoku daimyō Takeda Shingen being no exception. His devotion is visibly evident in some of his war banners, which bore the god's name and invocations such as Namu Suwa-nangū hosshō-kamishimo-daimyōjin (南無諏方南宮法性上下大明神 'Namo Dharma-Nature Daimyōjin of the Suwa Upper and Lower Shrines'). The iconic horned helmet with the flowing white hair commonly associated with Shingen, popularly known as the Suwa-hosshō helmet (諏訪法性兜 Suwa-hosshō-(no)-kabuto), came to be reputed in some popular culture retellings to have been blessed by the god, guaranteeing success in battle to its wearer.

Under shinbutsu-shūgō

During the Middle Ages, under the then-prevalent synthesis of Buddhism and Shinto, Suwa-myōjin (as deity of the Kamisha) was identified with the bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Fugen), with Yasakatome (as deity of the Shimosha) being associated with the thousand-armed form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Senju Kannon).

Association with snakes

In Suwa, Suwa-myōjin is often associated with the snake or the dragon, a trait shared by the god(s) Mishaguji, with whom he is apparently conflated with. In addition to the legends recounted above which connect the god in some way to snakes or dragons, still another story claims that during the time of the Mongol invasions, a dragon appeared and assisted the Japanese armies by bringing heavy winds and storms – the kamikaze – against the invading Mongol fleet. This dragon was considered to be an incarnation of Suwa-myōjin.

This association of Suwa-myōjin with snakes is also apparent in a ritual of the upper Suwa shrine performed every New Year's Day, the 'frog hunting ritual' (蛙狩神事 kawazu-gari shinji), which involves capturing a hibernating frog and offering it as a sacrifice to Suwa-myōjin by piercing or skewering it with an arrow. Traditionally performed publicly, the ceremony has in recent years come under severe criticism from local activists and animal rights groups for its perceived cruelty.

In popular culture