Founding Territorial Cults in Early Japan : : Traces of a Forgotten Ritual in Ancient Myths and Legends / / Gaudenz Domenig.

• Superior document: Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2024
• VerfasserIn: Domenig, Gaudenz,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2024.; ©2024
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2024.; Brill's Japanese Studies Library ; 76.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (320 pages) :; illustrations.

The first book that deals with the territorial cults of early Japan by focusing on how such cults were founded in ownerless regions. Numerous ancient Japanese myths and legends are discussed to show that the typical founding ritual was a two-phase ritual that turned the territory into a horizontal microcosm, complete with its own ‘terrestrial heaven’ inhabited by local deities. Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky. The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Figures and Tables -- 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 -- Romanisation -- Quoting from Ancient Texts -- Chapter 1 Divination, the Crucial Rite -- 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 -- The Religious Use of Wood Drifted Ashore -- Conclusion -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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.