This episode we take a look at the rest of the life of Ōnamuchi. After subduing his “brothers” around the Izumo area and marrying various ladies from all over, he went on to team up with the tiny kami from across the waves, Sukuna Bikona (少彦根).

Now many of the places in this episode can still be visited, today. One of the neat things visiting Japan can be finding some of these traditional locations mentioned all the way back in the 8th century.

The story from the Iyo Fudoki has the two of them meeting at hot spring in Ehime, and tradition claims that as Dōgo Onsen (道後温泉): https://dogo.jp/. Of course, it was a little less built up back then.

And then there is Mt. Miwa. Ōmiwa shrine (大神神社) is still going strong, and you can visit it in Sakurai: http://oomiwa.or.jp/. Of course, Mt. Miwa is near the Makimuku site from the Yayoi period, as well as near Hashihaka Kofun and many others.

Finally, there is Izumo Taisha, also pronounced Izumo Ōyashiro, (出雲大社): http://www.izumooyashiro.or.jp/. Of course, in this case, the shrine has definitely changed a bit.

Here are a few photos from the shrine. Unfortunately, when we were last there, the main shrine was under renovation, so I recommend checking it out at the link, above. There are several features of the shrine that make it unique. One was its height—though it used to be much taller than the current building, as can be seen in some of the reconstructions from the Kamakura period and earlier. Another is its orientation. For one thing, the entrance is under gables, rather than the eves. That means that the entrance is in line with the ridge pole, instead of perpendicular to it. This likely developed from the local architecture—it is quite probable that a house, or palace, would have similar features. I doubt it would be quite that high, but they have found Yayoi buildings that had significant pillars, indicating they likely were raised up to some height, such as the “palace” building of the Yoshinogari site, down in Kyūshū.

Ancient Izumo Taisha (Conjectural Model)

This is one thought of what the Izumo shrine may have looked like, originally, with a single, long staircase climbing up to the main shrine.

Ancient Izumo Taisha (Conjectural Model)

A side view, showing the grand staircase. This particular conjectural reconstruction does not appear to show the triple pillar design that was found in the excavation at the shrine site.

Kamakura Conjectural Model

This is a model of the shrine as it is believed to have looked during the Kamakura Period.

Edo Period Model

This is the model of the shrine as it was reconstructed in the Edo period, and is largely the basis for the current shrine. One can see that the large pillars are no longer used and the entire shrine building is much more similar to standard shrines, though it kept some of the unique features of the Taisha style.

Ancient shrine pillars

Bundles of three pillars were found during an excavation at the shrine. Here is a photo showing the size of the pillars

Location of the ancient pillars

The modern shrine has covered up the excavation, but marked the location of the original pillars so that visitors can still see where they once stood.

Yoshinogari Ceremonial Hall

This is a reconstructed “ceremonial hall” at the Yoshinogari site in Kyushu. Based on the remains of the pillars, it was assumed to be a building of some height. While many of the features are still conjectural, the idea of significantly raised structures does not appear to have been unique to Izumo.

Yoshinogari Ceremonial Hall

A view of the under structure of the reconstructed Ceremonial Hall of Yoshinogari. Again, I would stress that much of this is conjectural, but drawing on various features of traditional architecture, what is known, and what might be possible. Regardless, you can see how a large raised structure may have looked back in the Yayoi period.

So we see a lot of importance seemingly placed on Izumo. These early myths are often grouped together as the “Izumo Cycle”. I guess it does make sense to try to keep them together, since regional stories likely had a greater number of connections to other regional stories, and therefore fit together well.

Still, there are other signs of Izumo’s relative independence, many of which we have gone over in previous episodes and blog posts. We will also encounter it in various encounters between Izumo and Yamato. While many of the details are often glossed over, it was clear that there was a sometimes rocky relationship between these polities, even though Yamato and the royal court would seem to win out.

Next episode, we’ll actually go backwards (or forwards? ) to the Yayoi period again and take a look at the growth of the Izumo cultural area in the archaeological record.

For now, thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed this episode!

References

Torrance, R. (2019). Ōnamochi: The Great God who Created All Under Heaven. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 46(2), 277-318. doi:10.2307/26854516
Ō, Yasumaro, & Heldt, G. (2014). The Kojiki: An account of ancient matters. ISBN978-0-231-16389-7
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Aoki, Michiko Yamaguchi (1997). Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki with Introduction and Commentaries. Association for Asian Studies. Translations of the Fudoki published online by the Japanese Historical Text Initiative of the University of California at Berkeley at https://jhti.berkeley.edu/NIJL%20gateway.html
Chamberlain, B. H. (1981). The Kojiki: Records of ancient matters. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co. ISBN4-8053-0794-3
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Philippi, D. L. (1968). Kojiki. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN4-13-087004-1