Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   G. Domenig
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   76
Weight:   0.750kg
ISBN:  

9789004685819

ISBN 10:   9004685812
Pages:   324
Publication Date:   13 December 2023
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

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

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Author Information

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).

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