明けましておめでとうございます！ Happy New Year, everyone!

So as I mentioned in the episode, this one is a bit odd—a bit all over the place, really. Sumō, shrines, and then something bout oranges.

On Sumō

For information on modern sumō, a quick Internet search should turn up plenty, both in English and Japanese, so I really won’t go into all of that here. Rather, we’ll just pull out a few things from the episode.

First off, Nomi no Sukune. His title, “Sukune”, tells us that he was someone of rank—of course, as with many of these ancestral figures, it isn’t clear if he was already “no Sukune” at the time that the court “discovered” his wrestling talents or not, but he was more than just a great wrestler. His connection to Izumo is interesting, as is his connection to haniwa. How or why all this is related is still something of a mystery, at least from what we’ve seen so far. Maybe it will become more clear as we move on—or perhaps it won’t. We’ll see.

As for some of the other connections, it is hard to tell how much of the “traditional” sites are accurate, but it at least gives us some idea of what the people believed. For instance, there is the Sumō Shrine in Anashi, Sakurai. If you take a look at its position, it is clearly in an area near some of the large kofun and ruins that we associated with this time period. Then again, is it that difficult given the clues in the chronicles themselves?

The roof of the shrine, as seen from outside—the actual buildings are surrounded by walls and the public is only allowed in the outermost worship areas. Photo by author.

Ise Grand Shrine

One of the other things we see in this episode is the founding of the Grand Shrine of Ise—Ise Jingū. The shrine of the Imperial Family, the chief shrine of Amaterasu Ōkami, many would consider it the central shrine of Shintō worship and practice. Certainly there is a modern focus on the shrine, which includes a University, the Kogakkan, set up in the 19th century and still going strong, today, including a graduate course in Shinto studies for those aspiring to the Shinto priesthood.

And yet, despite this, before the Kamakura Period, very few commoners likely knew much about the shrine. It was over time that it opened more to the people outside the circle of the court itself, until, in the Edo period, there was special dispensation for anyone to make pilgrimages to the shrine, no matter their rank and status in society. This has been a transformation over time. One that really deserves more time and words than I would give it here.

Of course, we have seen the “founding” of the shrine from several aspects already in the Chronicles. First off, there are multiple stories in the Age of the Gods, when the Heavenly Deities are being sent down in the first place. There are a few different stories about just who was sent down and how they were to establish the shrine. This is similar to how the shrine at Mt. Miwa has at least two stories of its origins—the outright mythic and the mytho-historic.

So it is in the account of Ikume Iribiko no Mikoto, however, is where we first see Amaterasu enshrined at Ise, and the individual who is given this task is known simply as Yamato Hime. That name does not tell us much. Some have suggested that “Yamato” is the family name of the royal lineage, but that doesn’t really hold water. After all, if that were the case, we would expect to see all of the sovereigns named as some variation of “Yamato no X”, but that really isn’t the way of it. In fact, there is no need for a family name for the royal line—possibly because in the early days it seems that family names may not have been in use, at least not as we think of them, later, but also because they royal house is just that, and there is no need for a “family” name because the titles tell you all that you need to know. So “Yamato” then, one assumes, is simply a locative, telling us that this is a person “of [the country of] Yamato”. And then “Hime” simply refers to a “woman of the sun”—a lady or princess, used as both a title and an honorific, and the counterpart to the male “hiko”. So what are we to make of this founding princess, Yamato Hime?

Furthermore, jumping ahead a bit, we’ll see “Yamato Hime” playing a part in the stories of Yamato Takeru, the Brave of Yamato, aka O’usu no Mikoto. But that takes place almost 100 years—according to the Nihon Shoki—after the founding of the shrine. Leaving us with the question—just how old was Yamato Hime? Granted, we cannot exactly take any dates or lengths of time at this point in the Chronicles at face value, but it does make one wonder.

Some have suggested that “Yamato Hime” was simply the title of the Chief Priestess of Ise in the early days. That there may have been multiple women who held the role and the position—they may even have been members of the Yamato royal line. They may have indeed brought Yamato style worship to the area, or may have co-opted local practices as part of some political arrangement.

On the other end, some have suggested that Yamato Hime could have been the title of the ruler of Yamato—Yamato no HImemiko, or Queen Himiko herself—but that opens even more questions about what is going on here.

For now, I think we will accept that the shrine is founded, though possibly not as “Grand” as it would eventually be. It may even have held the sacred mirror—and apparently the sword, Murakumo—but we’ll want to come back around to all of that.

Isonokami

For my money, Isonokami seems to be the more important shrine, at least at the time.. Some of this may be the influence of the Kūjiki and its support of the Mononobe, who claim Isonokami as their ancestral shrine, but it has already held some prominence since the time of the Age of the Gods, and there is a lot more detail about it in these early passages than really about Ise. And while the shrine itself may not be as well known to people, especially outside of Japan, it continues to maintain a storehouse with donations dating back to at least the Kofun period if not earlier. I suspect that it suffered in status along with the Mononobe, as their own influence diminished, but early on it seems to have been quite important.

The significance of the weapons being stored at the shrine would seem to fit in with the stories that the Mononobe themselves were placed in charge of many of the military matters of state, giving their kinsmen access to the halls of power, as it were. Remember, they trace their own lineage back to another Heavenly Grandchild, Umashimaji. Who knows? But for a twist of fate back in the mists of time, perhaps this shrine would have been the ancestral shrine of the Royal House, and not Ise? We may never fully know, however, as our sources are thin and this is still before the age of true written culture in the archipelago..

And as promised in the episode, check out some of their treasures on the shrine website.

The Introduction of Oranges to Japan

This last story seems kind of odd. A royal desire for a fruit from the continent, and a ten year mission that returns too late. On the surface, it is just the tale of the oranges, and that is it. Beneath that, though, I can’t help but notice that the one who goes out is a descendant of immigrants from the Korean peninsula, and his return, just after the sovereign’s death, seems oddly in tune with the arrival of Prince Tsunoga just after Mimaki Iribiko’s passing. Is this mere coincidence, or is there more? It certainly seems to speak to ongoing intercourse with the mainland, even if that was less official than the missions to the Wei court.

References

Ō, Yasumaro, & Heldt, G. (2014). The Kojiki: An account of ancient matters. ISBN978-0-231-16389-7
KISHIMOTO, Naofumi (2013, May). Translated by Ryan, Joseph. Dual Kingship in the Kofun Period as Seen from the Keyhole Tombs. UrbanScope e-Journal of the Urban-Culture Research Center, OCU, Vol.4 (2013) 1-21. ISSN 2185-2889 http://urbanscope.lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp/journal/vol.004.html
Bentley, John. (2006). The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi: a New Examination of Texts, with a Translation and Commentary. ISBN-90-04-152253
AKIMA, T. (1993). The Origins of the Grand Shrine of Ise and the Cult of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami. Japan Review, (4), 141-198. Retrieved December 25, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25790929
Chamberlain, B. H. (1981). The Kojiki: Records of ancient matters. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co. ISBN4-8053-0794-3
Takeshi, M. (1978). Origin and Growth of the Worship of Amaterasu. Asian Folklore Studies, 37(1), 1-11. doi:10.2307/1177580
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4
Philippi, D. L. (1968). Kojiki. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN4-13-087004-1