or is a mountain located in the city of Sakurai,

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

, Japan. It has been an important religious and historical mountain in Japan, especially during its early history, and serves as a holy site in

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoist ...

. The entire mountain is considered sacred, and is home to one of the earliest

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more '' kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, mean ...

Ōmiwa Shrine , also known as , is a Shinto shrine located in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is noted because it contains no sacred images or objects because it is believed to serve Mount Miwa, the mountain on which it stands. For the same re ...

. Several

burial mounds A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a ...

from the Kofun period can be found around the mountain. The

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the ...

(spirit) generally associated with Mount Miwa is

Ōmononushi Ōmononushi ( ja, 大物主神, Ōmononushi-no-Kami; historical orthography: ''Ohomononushi'') is a '' kami'' in Japanese mythology associated with Mount Miwa (also known as Mount Mimoro) in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. He is closely linked in t ...

(''Ōmono-nushi-no-kami''), a rain kami. However, the '' Nihon Shoki'' notes that there was a degree of uncertainly when it came to naming the principal kami of Mount Miwa, but he is often linked to

Ōkuninushi Ōkuninushi ( historical orthography: ''Ohokuninushi''), also known as Ō(a)namuchi (''Oho(a)namuchi'') or Ō(a)namochi (''Oho(a)namochi'') among other variants, is a ''kami'' in Japanese mythology. He is one of the central deities in the cycle ...

Name

Mount Miwa was first described in the

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperi ...

as Mount Mimoro (). Both names were in common use until the reign of

Emperor Yūryaku (418 - 8 September 479) was the 21st legendary Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 雄略天皇 (21) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional order of succession. He is remembered as a patron of sericulture.Nippon ...

, after which was preferred. has been held to mean something like "august, beautiful" () and "room", or "hall" ( corruption of ). The current

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

() and () are purely phonetic. It has also been written , another a phonetic spelling with the same pronunciation.

Early religion

Religious worship surrounding Mount Miwa has been deemed the oldest and more primitive of its kind in Japan, dating to pre-history. The very mountain itself is designated sacrosanct, and today's

still considers the mountain to be its ''

shintai In Shinto, , or when the honorific prefix ''go''- is used, are physical objects worshipped at or near Shinto shrines as repositories in which spirits or ''kami'' reside.''Shintai'', Encyclopedia of Shinto ''Shintai'' used in Shrine Shinto (Jinj ...

'', or kami-body. The kami residing on Mount Miwa was judged the most powerful by the

Fujiwara clan was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since the ancient times and dominated the imperial court until ...

, and consequently palaces and roads were built in the vicinity.

Pseudo-historical records

Installment of the Miwa (Ōmononushi) deity

The ''Nihon Shoki'', Book V, (Chronicle of

Emperor Sujin , also known as in the ''Kojiki'', and or in the '' Nihon Shoki'' was the tenth Emperor of Japan. While Sujin is the first emperor whose existence historians widely accept, he is still referred to as a "legendary emperor" due to a lack of info ...

, 10th emperor) records that when the country was crippled by pestilence and subsequent mayhem, the emperor consulted the gods. The god

(whom some sources to the chronicle identify with the Mount Miwa deity) spoke through the mouth of an elder princess of the imperial house named (daughter of 7th emperor Emperor Kōrei and Sujin's aunt) and revealed himself to be the deity residing in the borders of Yamato on Mount Miwa, and promised to bring end to chaos if he were properly worshipped. The emperor propitiated to the god but the effects were not immediate. Later, the same god appeared in a dream to and instructed him to seek out a man named , said to be the child of the god, and to install him as head priest of his cult. Subsequently, normal order was restored and crops no longer failed.

Ōtataneko's genealogy and Miwa etymology

The records that the first priest of the shrine, Ōtataneko declares himself the son born between the god and Ikutama yori-hime (or Ikudama-yori-bime). However, in the , Ōtataneko identifies himself as the great-grandson (Ōtataneko and Iku-tama-yori-bime begat Kushi-mikata, who begat Iikatasumi, who begat Takemikazuchi who begat the priest Ōtataneko). ''Kojiki'' tells how it became known Ikutama yori-hime was divinely conceived. The beautiful girl was found to be pregnant, and claimed a handsome being had come to her at night. Her parents, in order to discover the identity of the man, instructed her to sprinkle red earth by her bedside, and thread a hemp cord (or skein) with a needle through the hem of his garment. In the morning, the hemp went through the hole of the door-hook so that only "three loops" () were left. They trailed the remaining hemp thread to the shrine in the mountain, and that was how they discovered the visitation was divine.

Daughter of Ōmononushi of Miwa

The also records another divine birth from an earlier period (under

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the '' Nihon Shoki'' and ''Kojiki''. His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

inside. She shrieked out in surprise, whereby the deity transformed into human form, promised her payback for shaming him so, and took off to Mount Mimoro (Mount Miwa). The princess was so distraught at this, that she flopped herself on the seat stabbed herself in the pudenda with

chopsticks Chopsticks ( or ; Pinyin: ''kuaizi'' or ''zhu'') are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks of Chinese origin that have been used as kitchen and eating utensils in most of East and Southeast Asia for over three millennia. They are held in the domi ...

, which ensued in her death. She is supposedly buried at one of the six mounds near Mount Miwa, the mound. The version of this myth describes a union between a woman from the Miwa clan and Ōmononushi, resulting in the birth of an early Yamato king. Scholars note that this is a clear effort to strengthen Yamato authority by identifying and linking their lineage to the established worship surrounding Mount Miwa.

Emperor Yūryaku

In , Book XIV, under

year 7 (purportedly 463 A.D.), it is recorded that the emperor expressed the desire to get a glimpse of the deity of Mount Mimoro (Mount Miwa) and ordered a man known for his brute strength, named to go capture it. (A

scholium Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of t ...

in the codices writes the identity of the god of this mountain is said to by by some sources, and ). Sugaru thereby climbed the mountain and captured and presented it to the emperor. But Yūryaku neglected to purify himself (by religious fasting, etc.) so that the great serpent made thunderous noise and made its eyes glare. The frightened emperor retreated to the palace, and had the snake released in the hill. He gave the hill a new name, ., where the captor is transliterated as "Sukaru Chihisako Be no Muraji"

Emishi

Records say that Yamato Takeru's sword

Kusanagi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called , but its name was later changed to the more popular ("Grass-Cutting Sword"). In folklore, the sword represents the virtue of valor. Legends ...

was later placed in the keeping of the Atsuta Shrine, and that Takeru also presented a number of

Emishi The (also called Ebisu and Ezo), written with Chinese characters that literally mean "shrimp barbarians," constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region, referred to as in contemp ...

("barbarians") hostages he quelled to the same shrine. The priestess however found them rowdy and mannerless, and so she handed them over to the imperial court. The court settled them around the Mount Miwa area at first, but they would chopped down its trees, or make great hollers and frightened the villages. So their numbers were scattered and settled in five provinces, and they became the ancestors of the Saeki clans (Recorded in Book VII,

Emperor Keikō , also known as and , was the 12th legendary Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Both the ''Kojiki'', and the ''Nihon Shoki'' (collectively known as the ''Kiki'') record events that took place during Keikō's all ...

year 51 (purportedly 121 A.D.). Much later in time, during

Emperor Bidatsu was the 30th Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')敏達天皇 (30) retrieved 2013-1-31. according to the traditional order of succession. The years of reign of Bidatsu start in 572 and end in 585; however, there are no c ...

year 10 (581 A.D.), , Book XX), the

were harassing the borderlands. The emperor summoned their leader named Ayakasu, and threatened the ringleaders of the ruffians with death. Whereby Ayakasu and the others entered Hatsuse-gawa (upper stream of Yamato River, sipped its water, and facing towards Mount Mimoro (Mt. Miwa), swore allegiance unto their descendants to the Yamato court.

Archaeology

Yamato leaders often ruled from palaces near sacred mountains, and built burial mounds around them, as it was a prominent sanctuary for both locals and Yamato kings alike. Six

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or '' kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones b ...

have been found in the Shiki area at the base of Mount Miwa. These earthen mounds were built between 250 AD to 350 AD, and all display the same

keyhole A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, security token or coin), by supplying secret information (such as a number or letter permutation or passw ...

shape and stone chambers found in earlier mounds. However, the tumuli found at Mount Miwa hint at the beginning of a more centralized Yamato state. All six mounds are exceptionally large, twice as large as any similar mounds found in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...

, and contain prolific amounts of

mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

s, weapons, ornaments, as well as finely built wood and

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

coffins. They are as follows, in order of discovery: Religious objects and pottery have also been found on and around the mountain.

Cultural references

* Mount Miwa was the subject of a '' waka'' poem by

Princess Nukata , also spelled ''Nukada'', was a Japanese poet of the Asuka period. The daughter of and supposed younger sister of Princess Kagami, Nukata became Emperor Tenmu's favorite wife and bore him a daughter, Princess Tōchi (who would become Emperor K ...

, found in the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

'' * Mount Miwa was the site of a

kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords ( shinai) as well as protective armor ( bōgu). Today, it is widely practiced within Japan and has spr ...

tournament in

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered fo ...

's novel, '' Runaway Horses''.

Geography

Japanese cedar (''Cryptomeria'', jp. ''sugi'') grows all over the mountain and is considered a holy tree.

Notes

References

;(primary sources) *, English translation **Reprint (Boston, Tuttle, 2005) . *
sacred texts
**Reprint (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2005) . ;(secondary sources) * * * *, modern Japanese translation.