Yamato Okunitama

{{Further|Mount Miwa|Ōmononushi|Saiō}}Yamato Okunitama is prominent in the Nihon Shoki{{'}}s myths set during reign of Emperor Sujin.File:Hibara-jinja, torii closeup.jpg in Sakurai, Nara, identified as the place where the Yata-no-Kagami and the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi were first enshrined after their removal from the imperial palace.]]

In the Nihon Shoki, Amaterasu, via the Yata-no-Kagami and the Kusanagi sword, and Yamato Okunitama were originally worshiped in the imperial palace's great hall.{{cite wikisource|year=1896|plaintitle=Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697|wslink=Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697|wspages=151-154|chapter=Book I|publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.|author-first=William George|author-last=Aston}} Similar events also covered by the Kogo Shūi.{{cite book |title=Kogoshūi: Gleanings from Ancient Stories. Translated with an introduction and notes |date=1925 |publisher=Meiji Japan Society |pages=29–30 |translator1-last=Katō |translator1-first=Genchi |translator2-last=Hoshino |translator2-first=Hikoshirō}}

The narrative relates that pestilence struck during the 5th year of Sujin's rule, and ultimately killed half of the Japanese population. Peasants abandoned their fields in the following year, and rebellion became rampant.{{cite book |author=Aston, William George. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oEfAAAAYAAJ |title=Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Volume 2 |date=1896 |publisher=The Japan Society London |isbn=9780524053478 |pages=150–164 |author-link=William George Aston}} To relieve the suffering of his people, the emperor turned his attention towards the gods. At the time both Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and Yamato Okunitama were enshrined at the imperial residence. Sujin became overwhelmed with having to cohabit with these two powerful deities, and set up separate housings for them. Amaterasu was moved to a village named Kasanui in Yamato Province, where a himorogi altar was built out of solid stone.{{efn|During the reign of Sujin's successor Suinin, custody of the sacred treasures were transferred from Toyosukiirihime to Suinin's daughter Yamatohime, who took them first to "Sasahata in Uda" to the east of Miwa. Heading north to Ōmi Province, she then traveled eastwards to Mino, then south to Ise, where she received a revelation from Amaterasu:

{{blockquote|Now Ama-terasu no Oho-kami instructed Yamato-hime no Mikoto, saying:—"The province of Ise, of the divine wind, is the land whither repair the waves from the eternal world, the successive waves. It is a secluded and pleasant land. In this land I wish to dwell." In compliance, therefore, with the instruction of the Great Goddess, a shrine was erected to her in the province of Ise. Accordingly an Abstinence Palace was built at Kaha-kami in Isuzu. This was called the palace of Iso. It was there that Ama-terasu no Oho-kami first descended from Heaven.{{cite wikisource |author-first= William George |author-last= Aston |chapter= Book I |wslink= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |plaintitle= Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |year= 1896 |publisher= Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.|wspages=176}}}}

This account serves as the origin myth of the Grand Shrine of Ise, Amaterasu's chief place of worship.}} Sujin placed his daughter Toyosukiiri-hime in charge of the new shrine, where she would become the first Saiō,https://d-museum.kokugakuin.ac.jp/eos/detail/?id=8608 entrusted with her the mirror and sword, she brought them to the village of Kasanuhi. Meanwhile, Yamato Okunitama was entrusted to another daughter named {{Ill|Nunaki-iri-hime|ja|渟名城入姫命}}, but shortly afterwards, her health began to fail. It is recorded that she became emaciated and lost all of her hair, which rendered her unable to perform her duties. These efforts still did not alleviate the ongoing plague, so Sujin decreed that a divination be performed sometime during the 7th year of his reign, that would involve him making a trip to the plain of Kami-asaji, and invoking the eighty myriad deities. This mode of worship is seen as being potentially linked to a social order of greater complexity, and the organization of the deities of the many clans across the region.{{Citation |title=Contents |date=2017-12-31 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780824862848-001 |work=Himiko and Japan's Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai |pages=189–191 |access-date=2023-10-24 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |doi=10.1515/9780824862848-001 |isbn=978-0-8248-6284-8}}

After these events, the Nihon Shoki narrative continues that Sujin's aunt {{Nihongo|Yamatototohimomoso-hime|倭迹迹日百襲媛命}}, the daughter of the seventh emperor Kōrei, acted as a shrine maiden, and was possessed by a god who identified himself as Ōmononushi, possibly the same entity as Yamato Okunitama. {{ill|Ichishi no Nagaochi|ja|市磯長尾市}} would conduct the rites pertaining to Okunitama, replacing the emaciated Nunaki-iri-hime. {{ill|Ichishi no Nagaochi|ja|市磯長尾市}} would be the ancestor of the Yamato clan.{{Cite web |title=Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/208 - Wikisource, the free online library |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Nihongi_by_Aston.djvu/208 |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=en.wikisource.org |language=en}} This replacement is taken as a shift towards a more patriarchal religion. This god claimed responsibility for the plague, announcing that it would not stop until he was venerated. Although the emperor propitiated to the god, the effects were not immediate. Sujin was later given guidance in the form of a dream to seek out a man named {{ill|Ōtataneko|ja|大田田根子命}} and appoint him as head priest. He eventually found him in Izumo Province. When he was found and installed, the pestilence eventually subsided, allowing five cereal crops to ripen. Out of an abundance of caution, the Emperor also appointed {{Nihongo|Ikagashikoo|伊香色雄}} as {{Nihongo|kami-no-mono-akatsu-hito|神班物者}}, the 'one who sorts the offerings to the gods'. To this day the Miwa sect of the Kamo clan still claims descent from Ōtataneko, while Ikagashikoo was a claimed ancestor of the now extinct Mononobe clan.{{cite book |author=Chamberlain, Basil |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/kj072.htm |title=[SECT. LXV.—EMPEROR SŪ-JIN (PART III: STORY OF OHO-TATA-NE-KO'S BIRTH)] (The Kojiki) |publisher=Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on April 12, May 10, and June 21, 1882, reprinted in 1919 |page=219 |quote=His Augustness Oho-tata-ne-ko ... was the ancestor of the Dukes of Miwa and of the Dukes of Kamo. |author-link=Basil Chamberlain}}

File:Yamato Takeru by Takahashi Yuichi (Geidai Museum).jpg]]

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{{reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

See the references under {{Lang|ja-latn|Nihon Shoki}} for an extended bibliography

• {{cite book |last=Aston |first=William George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1IJrNAKBpycC&pg=PA299 |title=Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner (for the Japan Society of London) |year=1896 |isbn=9780524053478 |volume=1 |place=London |oclc=448337491 |author-link=William George Aston}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_oEfAAAAYAAJ alt-link] English translation
• {{cite web |author=JHTI |year=2002 |title=Nihon Shoki |url=https://jhti.berkeley.edu/Nihon%20shoki.html |access-date=2019-08-23 |work=Japanese Historical Text Initiative (JHTI) |publisher=UC Berkeley}}, searchtext resource to retrieve kanbun text vs. English tr. (Aston) in blocs.
• {{cite book |last=Ujiya |first=Tsutomu (宇治谷孟) |title=Nihon shoki (日本書紀) |publisher=Kodansha |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-8021-5058-5 |volume=上}}, modern Japanese translation.
• {{cite book |last=Chamberlain |first=Basil Hall |title=The Kojiki |publisher=Kadokawa |year=1919 |oclc=1882339 |author-link=Basil Hall Chamberlain}} [http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/index.htm sacred texts]
• {{cite book |last=Takeda |first=Yukichi (武田祐吉) |title=Shintei Kojiki (新訂 古事記) |publisher=Kadokawa |year=1977 |isbn=4-04-400101-4}}, annotated Japanese.

• Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). [https://books.google.com/books?id=w4f5FrmIJKIC&q=Gukansho Gukanshō: The Future and the Past.] Berkeley: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-03460-0}}; {{OCLC|251325323}}
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC Japan encyclopedia.] Cambridge: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-01753-5}}; {{OCLC|58053128}}
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLAeAAAAMAAJ&q=The+Imperial+House+of+Japan The Imperial House of Japan.] Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. {{OCLC|194887}}
• Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Ōdai Ichiran; ou, [https://books.google.com/books?id=18oNAAAAIAAJ&q=nipon+o+dai+itsi+ran Annales des empereurs du Japon.] Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. {{OCLC|5850691}}
• Varley, H. Paul. (1980). [https://books.google.com/books?id=tVv6OAAACAAJ Jinnō Shōtōki: A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns.] New York: Columbia University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-231-04940-5}}; {{OCLC|59145842}}

{{Refend}}

{{Miwa and Yamato Faith}}

Category:Japanese deities

Category:Yamato Province

Category:Yamato clan