Founding Territorial Cults in Early Japan

Gaudenz Domenig is an architect and researcher in anthropology of space who has mainly published on Japanese and Indonesian topics. His last book is Religion and Architecture in Premodern Indonesia (Brill, 2014).

Contents


Preface


List of Figures





Introduction


 The Problem of the Pre-Shinto Cults


 Territorial Cults


 The Focus on Early Japan


 Japan’s Protohistory


 Innovations Introduced by the Taika Reform


 Different Versions of the Same Story in Nihon Shoki


 The God Age Mythology


 The Fudoki Mythology


 The Method of Interpretation


 The Theoretical Model


 The Structure of the Book


 Various Notes





1 Divination


 Divining with Things Thrown and Falling Down


 Divining the Place for Founding a Shrine


 Absurd Uses of the Falling Motif


 Realistic Methods Exaggerated


 Land Divination Typically Performed in Front


 Divining with Things Cast Overboard


 Floating a Wisteria Twig to Find the Right Place


 Letting a Cooking Set Float to Enemy Land


 Susanoo and the Floating Chopsticks


 Kisakahime and the Lost Bow and Arrow


 Articles to Play on the Sea


 Floats Used for Divining


 Divining in Boats


 Later Survivals: The Religious Use of Wood Drifted Ashore


 Conclusion





2 The Story of Yato no Kami


 The Topography


 The Mountain Entrance


 The Lacking First Part of the Story


 The Yashiro at the Upper Boundary


 Matachi’s Ritual Procedure Reconstructed


 Mibu no Muraji Maro and the Divine Snakes


 Moving a Shrine to Another Site


 The Location of the Ancient Pond


 The New Conditions in the Ritsuryō State


 Conclusions





3 Making a Large Territory in Harima


 Ame no Hiboko and Iwa no Ōkami


 Ame no Hiboko’s Arrival


 The Claiming Ceremony on Iibo Hill


 Other Claiming Stories


 The Iibo Hill and Its Special Relation to the Iwa Jinja


 Hardening the Land


 A Model of the Grand-Scale Land-Making Myth?


 The Two Foundations of the Iwa Shrine


 Conclusions





4 Making and Ceding the Land in the God Age


 The God Age Mythology: An Overview according to Kojiki


 The Land-Making Myth


 Sukunabikona


 Ōnamuchi as a Beginner in Land-Making


 The Land-Ceding Myth according to Kojiki


 The Land-Ceding Myth according to Nihon Shoki


 Kojiki and Nihon Shoki: Two Different Doctrines


 Consequences of the Land-Ceding Myth


 Conclusion





5 Ninigi’s Descent and His Territory in Kyushu


 The Title Sentence Pattern


 The Two Main Versions of the Myth


 Cape Kasasa as a Place on the Way to Takachiho


 Ninigi’s Arrival at the Coast


 Ninigi Questions the Master of the Land at Cape Kasasa


 Ninigi at Cape Kasasa


 Takama no Hara as a Horizontally Distant Heaven


 Ninigi’s Descendants Living in Kyushu


 The Conquest of Yamato


 Conclusion





6 The Foundation of the Izumo Shrine


 Ōkuninushi’s Place of Hiding and Waiting


 Prince Homuchiwake Worships the Great God of Izumo


 Ashihara no Shikoo and the Worship at Iwakuma


 Mt. Kannabi and the Sokinoya Shrine


 A Suitable Site at the Foot of Mt. Kannabi


 The Political Aspect


 The Foundation of the Shrine at Kizuki


 The Land-Pulling Myth and the Four Kannabi of Izumo


 Summing Up





7 The Foundation of the Ise Shrine


 The Later Version of the Foundation Story


 Name-Asking as a Form of Claiming


 Pillow Words Alluding to Land-Making Myths


 The Topography of the Isuzu Valley


 Sarutahiko and a Heaven in the Mountains


 The Precinct of the Inner Shrine (Naikū)


 From Simple to Complex Cult Systems


 Sarutahiko’s Destiny


 Summing Up





8 Characteristics of Territorial Cults


 Divination as the Primary Rite


 Variants of the Cult Contract


 The Cult Contract and the State Ritual after the Taika Reform


 Founder Worship


 Shrine and Tomb


 The Guardian Deity Is Excluded from the Land Opened Up


 Nature Spirits Can Become Manifest in Wild Animals


 The Guardian Deity Is Believed to Control the Local Weather


 Calamities Blamed on Some Mistake in the Ritual


 Cult Places Could Be Moved to Enlarge the Agricultural Land


 The Mountain God as a Multifunctional Deity


 The Mountain Entrance and the Torii


 Boundary Marks


 Tabooed Mountain Areas


 The Bipolar Structure of Territories


 The Chigi Cross as a Symbol


 The Name of the Kami Land


 The Age of the Yorishiro Concept


 The Land-Making Motif in Creation Myths


 Conclusion





9 Sacred Groves and Cult Marks


 Yashikigami Worship


 A Sacred Grove on Hirado Island


 The Garō Yama of Tanegashima


 The Sacred Forest of the Ōmiwa Shrine


 The Matsushita Shrine and the Somin Sanctuary


 Cult Marks Replaced by Shrine Buildings


 Yorishiro and Ogishiro


 The Shimenawa and the Straw Snake


 Claiming Signs Made by Binding or Knotting Growing Plants


 Pacifying the Site


 Ancient Land-Claiming and the Rural Gathering Economy


 Sign-Making Dealt with in Ethnographic Studies





10 Comparative Notes


 The Settlement of Iceland


 Founding Sacred Groves and Colonies in Ancient Greece


 The Vedic Tradition


 Opening Up Land in Shifting Cultivation


 From Terrestrial Heavens to the Heaven in the Sky


Bibliography


Index