Mishaguji

Mishaguji (ミシャグジ), also known as Mishaguchi or Mishakuji among other variants (see below), is a collective term for kami worshipped mainly in Nagano Prefecture (historical Shinano Province) since ancient times, with possible traces of their worship found elsewhere in east and central Japan.[1][2]

Believed to be spirits that inhabit natural objects like trees or rocks that could also be called upon to possess humans or objects during religious rituals,[3][4][2] Mishaguji are also thought to be god(s) of boundaries and protector(s) of communities.[5] Worship of the Mishaguji occupied a central place in the religious beliefs of the Suwa region in Nagano prior to the arrival of the Yamato state in the area.[6] Even after the local belief system was reorganized under the Yamato polity, Mishaguji worship was continued by a priest of the Moriya clan, the original politico-religious heads of Suwa.

While the deity worshipped in the Grand Shrine of Suwa - most often called Suwa Myōjin (諏訪明神) - is nowadays usually identified with Takeminakata, portrayed in the Kojiki as a son of Ōkuninushi, the god of Izumo who initially resisted the transfer of sovereignty over the land of Japan from his father to Amaterasu, the peculiar character of many of the religious rites of Suwa Shrine - specifically, that of the Upper Shrine (上社 Kamisha) - seem to point to the cult of Suwa Myōjin as originally being a derivative of indigenous Mishaguji worship under Yamato rule. Takeminakata and/or his myth has been theorized by a number of modern scholars to be possibly based on this adaptation of local beliefs.[7][8][9]

Names

A plethora of variant names and ateji are attested for Mishaguji, including Misakuchi-kami or Misaguji-gami (御左口神),[10][11]Mishaguji/Mishaguchi(-kami) (御社宮司神, ミシャグジ, ミシャグチ),[1][10][3][8] Mishakuji (ミシャクジ),[12][6] Saguji (サグジ),[13] Misaku-kami or Misaku-jin (御作神),[10][11] Mishagujin (ミシャグジン),[14] (O)shagoji ((オ)シャゴジ) and Oshamoji (オシャモジ)[15] among others.

The name has been variously interpreted as deriving from shakujin/ishigami (石神 'stone god'), due to Mishaguji's association with stones and rocks, or shakujin (尺神), due to another association with bamboo poles and measuring ropes used in land surveying and boundary marking.[16][11] Ōwa Iwao (1990), considering the above explanations unsatisfactory, instead opines the name to be ultimately derived from (mi)sakuchi (honorific prefix 御 mi- + 作霊, 咲霊 sakuchi), a spirit (chi; cf. ikazu-chi, oro-chi) that brings forth or opens up (saku, cf. 咲く 'to bloom', 裂く 'to tear open', 作 'to do/make/cultivate/grow'；cf. also the verb sakuru/shakuru 'to dig/scoop up'[17][18][19]) the latent life force present in the soil or the female womb.[20][21]

Origin and extent of cult

Worship of Mishaguji is thought to have originated in the area surrounding Lake Suwa from beliefs centering around the Earth Mother during the Jōmon period.[22] There are a total of 675 Mishaguji shrines within Nagano Prefecture, 109 of which are in the Suwa region,[lower-alpha 1] the heartland of the Mishaguji cult.[23]

In addition, traces of Mishaguji worship are found throughout the Kantō and Chūbu regions of Japan: shrines to the god(s) exist in areas such as Shizuoka (233 shrines), Aichi (229 shrines), Yamanashi (160 shrines), Mie (140 shrines) and Gifu (116 shrines).[23][24] On the other hand, Mishaguji shrines are conspicuously absent in the two prefectures of Niigata and Toyama, located to the north of Nagano.[23]

Function
A 2.23-meter stone rod (sekibō) from the Jōmon period known as the 'Great Sekibō of Kitazawa' (北沢大石棒) after its place of discovery, the Kitazawa River (北沢川) in the town of Sakuho, Nagano. Mishaguji were thought to dwell in various objects (yorishiro), the sekibō being one of them.

Mishaguji are believed to be spirits that dwell in rocks, trees, or bamboo leaves,[3][25][26] as well as various man-made objects such as phallic stone rods (石棒 sekibō),[27][28][29] grinding slabs (石皿 ishizara) or mortars (石臼 ishiusu).[30][31] In addition to the above, Mishaguji are also thought to descend upon straw effigies[32] as well as possess human beings, especially during religious rituals.[30][26]

This concept of Mishaguji as a possessing spirit are reflected in texts that describe Mishaguji being 'brought down' (降申 oroshi-mōsu, i.e. being summoned into a repository, whether human or object) or 'lifted up' (上申 age-mōsu, i.e. being dismissed from its vessel) by the Moriya jinchōkan, the priest with the exclusive right to call upon Mishaguji in the religious rites of the Suwa Grand Shrine.[33]

Folk beliefs considered Mishaguji to be associated with fertility and the harvest,[31] as well as healers of diseases like the common cold or pertussis.[1][34] Mishaguji have been worshipped as tutelary deities of whole villages (産土神 ubusuna-gami) as well as specific kinship groups (祝神 iwai-gami).[35] Further reflecting this relationship between Mishaguji and local communities is their being believed to preside over the act of founding villages[34] as well as their being associated with the broadly similar concept of saikami (patrons of boundaries or borders).[5]

Mishaguji in Suwa

Within the Suwa region, syncretism with other myths has resulted in the representation of Mishaguji as snakes, as well as their connection with the story of Takeminakata-no-kami and Moreya-no-kami; Moreya-no-kami is said to represent the autochthonous worship of Mishaguji that syncretized with the worship of new gods represented by Takeminakata-no-kami.[36]

Ontōsai (御頭祭), sacred hunts of deer culminating in the sacrifice of the animal's head to the Mishaguji, were formerly carried out at shrines such as Misayama Shrine in Suwa. In the modern era, these hunts have generally been replaced by a ceremony incorporating an artificial stuffed deer head.[37][38]

See also

Notes
  1. The modern municipalities of Chino, Suwa, Okaya, Shimosuwa, Fujimi, and Hara.

References
  1. Fukuta, Ajio; et al., eds. (1999). 日本民俗大辞典〈上〉あ〜そ (Nihon Minzoku Daijiten, vol. 1: A - So). Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan. p. 802. ISBN 978-4642013321.
  2. Tanigawa, Kenichi, ed. (1987). Nihon no kamigami: Jinja to seichi, vol. 9: Mino, Hida, Shinano (日本の神々―神社と聖地〈9〉美濃・飛騨・信濃). Hakusuisha. pp. 191–194. ISBN 978-4-560-02509-3.
  3. Moriya, Sanae (1991). Moriya-jinchō-ke no ohanashi (守矢神長家のお話し). In Jinchōkan Moriya Historical Museum (Ed.). Jinchōkan Moriya Shiryōkan no shiori (神長官守矢資料館のしおり) (Rev. ed.). p. 4.
  4. Miyasaka, Mitsuaki (1987). "Kyodai naru kami no kuni. Suwa-shinko no tokushitsu (強大なる神の国―諏訪信仰の特質)." In Ueda; Gorai; Ōbayashi; Miyasaka, M.; Miyasaka, Y. 御柱祭と諏訪大社 (Onbashira-sai to Suwa-taisha). Nagano: Chikuma Shobō. pp. 23–30. ISBN 978-4-480-84181-0.
  5. Gotō, Sōichirō, ed. (1996). 'Tōno Monogatari' kenkyu sōkō (『遠野物語』研究草稿). Meiji University School of Political Science and Economics. p. 20.
  6. Oh, Amana ChungHae (2011). Cosmogonical Worldview of Jomon Pottery. Sankeisha. pp. 156–159. ISBN 978-4-88361-924-5.
  7. Miyasaka (1987). pp. 17-26.
  8. Ōwa, Iwao (1990). 信濃古代史考 (Shinano Kodai Shikō). Tokyo: Meicho Shuppan. pp. 212–214. ISBN 978-4626013637.
  9. Suwa Shishi Hensan Iinkai, ed. (1995). 諏訪市史 上巻 原始・古代・中世 (Suwa-shi Shi (History of Suwa City), vol. 1: Genshi, Kodai, Chūsei). Suwa. pp. 687–689.
  10. Ōwa (1990). p. 189.
  11. Miyasaka (1987). p. 24.
  12. Yamamoto, Kenichi (2010). "Mishakuji: taiko kara no seimei no tsuranari (ミシャクジ-太古からの生命のつらなり)". Collected Papers on Japanese Culture at Teikyō University (帝京日本文化論集) (17): 255–271.
  13. Yanagita, Kunio (1910). Ishigami mondō (石神問答). Tokyo: Juseidō (聚精堂). pp. 2ff.
  14. Ōba, Yūsuke (2006). Ryujin-shinkō: Suwa-gami no rūtsu wo saguru (竜神信仰―諏訪神のルーツをさぐる). Ronsōsha. p. 28. ISBN 978-4846003142.
  15. Yanagita (1910). pp. 8-9.
  16. Ōwa (1990). pp. 189-191.
  17. "'sakuru' (さく・る)". goo Jisho (goo辞書).
  18. "'sakuru', 'shakuru' (さく・る、しゃく・る)". Weblio Jisho (Weblio辞書).
  19. Tanaka, Atsuko (2011). "古社叢の「聖地」の構造（3）─諏訪大社の場合 (The Sacred Site Structure of Ancient Shrine Groves (3) Primitive Beliefs in Suwa)" (PDF). Journal of Kyoto Seika University: 130.
  20. Ōwa (1990). pp. 192-194.
  21. Oh (2011). p. 178.
  22. Oh (2011). pp. 155-156.
  23. Ōwa (1990). p. 199.
  24. Tanaka (2011). p. 128.
  25. Miyasaka (1987). p. 27.
  26. Tanigawa (1987). p. 185, 193.
  27. Louis-Frédéric (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Translated by Roth, Käthe. Harvard University Press. p. 838. ISBN 978-0674017535.
  28. Ouwehand, Cornells (1964). Namazu-e and Their Themes: An Interpretative Approach to Some Aspects of Japanese Folk Religion. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 197.
  29. "Sekibō worship in the Jōmon Period (縄文時代の石棒祭祀 Jōmon-jidai no sekibō-saishi)". Suwa City Museum (諏訪市博物館).
  30. Ōwa (1990). p. 191.
  31. Oh (2011). p. 164.
  32. Tanigawa (1987). pp. 180-181.
  33. Miyasaka (1987). p. 26.
  34. Miyasaka (1987). p. 25.
  35. Miyasaka (1987). p. 23.
  36. 『東洋神名事典』p. 463
  37. 『悪魔事典』pp. 184-185, 282-283
  38. 『太陽の地図帳 楽しい古墳案内』 監修松木武彦 平凡社 2014年 ISBN 978-4-582-94560-7 p. 77

Bibliography
  • Jinchōkan Moriya Historical Museum, ed. (1991). 神長官守矢資料館のしおり (Jinchōkan Moriya Shiryōkan no shiori) (in Japanese) (Rev. ed.). Chino.
  • Oh, Amana ChungHae (2011). Cosmogonical Worldview of Jomon Pottery. Sankeisha. ISBN 978-4-88361-924-5.
  • Ōwa, Iwao (1990). 信濃古代史考 (Shinano Kodai Shikō) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Meicho Shuppan. ISBN 978-4626013637.
  • Suwa Shishi Hensan Iinkai, ed. (1995). 諏訪市史 上巻 原始・古代・中世 (Suwa-shi Shi (History of Suwa City), vol. 1: Genshi, Kodai, Chūsei) (in Japanese). Suwa.
  • Tanigawa, Kenichi, ed. (1987). 日本の神々―神社と聖地〈9〉美濃・飛騨・信濃 (Nihon no kamigami: Jinja to seichi, vol. 9: Mino, Hida, Shinano) (in Japanese). Hakusuisha. ISBN 978-4-560-02509-3.
  • Ueda, Masaaki; Gorai, Shigeru; Miyasaka, Yūshō; Ōbayashi, Taryō; Miyasaka, Mitsuaki (1987). 御柱祭と諏訪大社 (Onbashira-sai to Suwa-taisha) (in Japanese). Nagano: Chikuma Shobō. ISBN 978-4-480-84181-0.
  • Yanagita, Kunio (1910). 石神問答 (Ishigami mondō) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Juseidō (聚精堂). pp. 2ff.
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