, historically also known as Suwa Shrine (諏訪神社 Suwa-jinja) or , is a group of Shinto shrines in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The shrine complex is the ichinomiya of former Shinano Province and is considered to be one of the oldest shrines in existence, being implied by the Nihon Shoki to already stand in the late 7th century.
Overview The entire Suwa shrine complex consists of four main shrines grouped into two sites: the Upper Shrine or Kamisha (上社), comprising the and the , and the Lower Shrine or Shimosha (下社), comprising the Harumiya (春宮, spring shrine) and the Akimiya (秋宮, autumn shrine). The Upper Shrine is located on the south side of Lake Suwa, in the cities of Chino and Suwa, while the Lower Shrine is on the northern side of the lake, in the town of Shimosuwa.
In addition to these four main shrines, some sixty other auxiliary shrines scattered throughout the Lake Suwa area (ranging from miniature stone structures to medium to large sized edifices and compounds) are also part of the shrine complex. These are the focus of certain rituals in the shrine's religious calendar.
Historically, the Upper and the Lower Shrines have been two separate entities, each with its own set of shrines and religious ceremonies. The existence of two main sites, each one having a system parallel to but completely different from the other, complicates a study of the Suwa belief system as a whole. One circumstance that simplifies the matter somewhat, however, is that very little documentation for the Lower Shrine has been preserved; almost all extant historical and ritual documents regarding Suwa Shrine extant today are those of the Upper Shrine.Grumbach (2005). pp.150-151.
Deities
The Upper and Lower Shrines of Suwa were historically associated with a male and female kami, respectively. The god of the Upper Shrine, named Takeminakata in the imperially-commissioned official histories, is also often popularly referred to as 'Suwa Myōjin' (諏訪明神), 'Suwa Daimyōjin' (諏訪大明神), or 'Suwa-no-Ōkami' (諏訪大神, 'Great Kami of Suwa'). The goddess of the Lower Shrine, held to be Takeminakata's consort, is given the name Yasakatome in these texts.
While both the Kojiki (ca. 712 CE) and the Sendai Kuji Hongi (807-936 CE) portray Takeminakata as a son of Ōkuninushi, the god of Izumo Province, who fled to Suwa after his shameful defeat in the hands of the warrior god Takemikazuchi, who was sent by the gods of heaven to demand that his father relinquish his rule over the terrestrial realm,Chamberlain, Basil (trans.) (1882). Section XXXII.—Abdication of the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land. A translation of the "Ko-ji-ki" or Records of Ancient Matters. Yokohama: Lane, Crawford & Co. other myths and legends depict the Suwa deity differently. In one story, for instance, the god of the Upper Shrine is an interloper who conquered the region by defeating various local deities who resisted him such as the god Moriya (Moreya).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.). pp. 2–3.Yazaki (1986). pp. 24–25. In a feudal Buddhist legend, this god is identified as a king from India whose feats included quelling a rebellion in his kingdom and defeating a dragon in Persia before manifesting in Japan as a native kami.Takei (1999). 129–130. In another feudal folk story, the god is said to have originally been a warrior named Kōga Saburō who returned from a journey into the underworld only to find himself transformed into a serpent or dragon. A fourth myth portrays the Suwa deity appointing an eight-year-old boy to become his priest and physical 'body'; the boy eventually became the founder of the Upper Shrine's high priestly lineage.
Both Takeminakata and Yasakatome are now worshiped together in the Upper and Lower Shrines, with the god Kotoshironushi (another son of Ōkuninushi and Takeminakata's brother) being enshrined alongside them in the Lower Shrine as an auxiliary deity.Tanigawa, Kenichi, ed. (1987). p. 140.
Kamisha Honmiya: Takeminakata Kamisha Maemiya: Yasakatome Shimosha Harumiya, Shimosha Akimiya: Takeminakata, Yasakatome, Kotoshironushi
Like others among Japan's oldest shrines, three of Suwa Shrine's four main sites - the Kamisha Honmiya and the two main shrines of the Shimosha - do not have a honden, the building that normally enshrines a shrine's kami. Instead, the Upper Shrine's objects of worship were the sacred mountain behind the Kamisha Honmiya, a sacred rock (磐座 iwakura) upon which Suwa Myōjin was thought to descend,Tanigawa, ed. (1987). p. 132-135. and the shrine's former high priest or Ōhōri, who was considered to be the physical incarnation of the god himself.Tanigawa, ed. (1987). p. 135-136. This was later joined by Buddhist structures (removed or demolished during the Meiji period) which were also revered as symbols of the deity.
The Lower Shrine, meanwhile, has sacred trees for its go-shintai: a sugi tree in the Harumiya, and a yew tree in the Akimiya.Muraoka (1969). p. 27.Tanigawa (1987). p. 142.
History
Early history Upper Shrine
The origins of the Upper and Lower Shrines of Suwa are shrouded in mystery. The Nihon Shoki (720 CE) refers to envoys sent to worship "the wind-gods of Tatsuta and the gods of Suwa and Minochi in Shinano [Province]" during the fifth year of the reign of Empress Jitō (691 CE), which suggests that a notable kami in Suwa was already being worshiped by the imperial (Yamato) court as a water and/or wind deity during the late 7th century, on par with the wind gods of Tatsuta Shrine in Yamato Province (modern Nara Prefecture).Yazaki (1986). p. 22.Miyasaka (1992). p. 11.
Fune Kofun, a burial mound dating from the early 5th century discovered near the Kamisha Honmiya in 1959, yielded a number of important artifacts, among them weapons and implements of a ritual nature such as two dakōken (蛇行剣, a wave-bladed ceremonial sword). The tomb's location and the nature of the grave goods suggest that the individuals buried therein were important personages perhaps connected in some way to what would become the Upper Shrine. The presence of the snake-like dakōken and other items made of deer antlers have been connected to the identification of the Upper Shrine's god as a serpent in folk beliefs and the prominence of hunting animals such as deer in the shrine's rituals.Oh (2011). pp. 160-163.Terada; Washio (2010). p. 95.
Local historians have seen the legend that speaks of the Upper Shrine's deity as an intruding conqueror who wrested control of the Lake Suwa region from the native god Moriya (Moreya) to reflect the subjugation of local clans who controlled the area by invaders allied with the Yamato state - identified as the founders of the Upper Shrine's high priestly (大祝 Ōhōri) house - around the late 6th/early 7th centuries, with the appearance of burial mounds markedly different from the type exemplified by Fune Kofun heretofore common in the region around this time period being taken as the signs of Yamato expansion into Suwa,Ueda, et al. (1987). pp. 31-32.Suwa Shishi Hensan Iinkai, ed. (1995). "Suwa-jinja Kamisha Shimosha (諏訪神社上社・下社)". p. 686.Grumbach (2005). pp. 156-157. though this idea has been called into question in recent years due to the myth's late (medieval) attestation and its similarity to stories concerning the conflict between Prince Shōtoku and Mononobe no Moriya that were in wide circulation during the Middle Ages.
'Takeminakata', the name by which the deity of the Upper Shrine is more commonly known to the imperial court, appears in the historical record for the first time in the Kojiki's (711-712 CE) kuni-yuzuri myth cycle. Although the work associates Takeminakata with the province of Izumo and its deity Ōkuninushi, references to such a deity are curiously absent from the Nihon Shoki or other sources dealing with the province. Takeminakata is thus believed by a number of scholars to have been interpolated by the Kojiki's compilers into a myth which did not originally feature him.Suwa Shishi Hensan Iinkai, ed. (1995). pp. 687–689.Ueda, et al. (1987).pp. 17–26.Ōwa (1990). pp. 212–214.Oh (2011). pp. 157-158.
The earliest surviving literary references to a shrine in Suwa dedicated to Takeminakata are in the Shinshō Kyakuchoku Fushō (新抄格勅符抄 'New Extracts from Decrees and Edicts', 806 CE), which speaks of "Takeminakatatomi-no-Mikoto-no-Kami" being given land grants by the court,Ueda, et al. (1987). p. 10. and the Sendai Kuji Hongi, commonly dated to the 9th-10th century, which explicitly refers to Takeminakata as being enshrined in "Suwa Shrine in the district of Suwa in Shinano Province" (信濃国諏方郡諏方神社).
The national histories record Takeminakata's exceptionally rapid rise in importance: from rankless (无位), the imperial court steadily promoted the deity to increasingly higher ranks within the space of twenty-five years, beginning with junior fifth, upper grade (従五位上) in 842 CE. By 867 CE, 'Takeminakatatomi-no-Mikoto' is recorded in the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku as being elevated to the rank of junior first (従一位).
Lower Shrine
One theory suggests that the cult of the Lower Shrine may have originated from the worship of the kami of the nearby mountains and rivers. The Harumiya, one of the Lower Shrine's two component shrines, is located beside the Togawa River, which flows from the Yashimagahara Wetlands northwest of Kirigamine Plateau, where Moto-Misayama (旧御射山), the former sacred hunting grounds of the Lower Shrine, is situated.Ueda, et al. (1987). pp. 41-43.Terada; Washio (2010). pp. 69-70.
The Lower Shrine is also associated with a clan known as the Kanasashi (金刺, also read as 'Kanesashi' or 'Kanazashi'), the offshoot of a local magnate clan (kuni no miyatsuko) which eventually became the shrine's high priests. The Kanasashi are thought to have been originally district magistrates (郡領 gunryō) in charge of producing and collecting taxed goods and laborers to be sent to the central government in Yamato Province.Grumbach (2005). p. 157. Their seat of power seems to have been located near what is now the Lower Shrine, which was close to the important crossroads that led to the capital.Grumbach (2005). pp. 156-158. Indeed, the Shimosha Akimiya may have started as a kind of ancestral shrine to the clan's forebears; it is located nearby Aozuka Kofun, a burial mound notable for being the only keyhole tomb in the Lake Suwa region and which may have been the grave of a Kanasashi clan member.Miyasaka (1992). pp. 12-13.
The Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku mentions a Kanasashi, Sadanaga (貞長), receiving the kabane Ōason (大朝臣) in the year 863. A genealogy of the Lower Shrine's high priestly line records an elder brother of his, Masanaga (正長), who in addition to being the district governor (大領 dairyō) of Hanishina District, also held the title of Megamihōri (売神祝) or 'priest of the goddess'. The same title appears in a seal in the Lower Shrine's possession (designed as an Important Cultural Property in 1934) traditionally said to have been bequeathed by the Emperor Heizei (reigned 806-809).Miyasaka (1992). p. 12. This shows that the shrine's deity - named 'Yasakatome' in imperial records - is already conceived of as a goddess in the 9th century.
As Takeminakata, the Upper Shrine's god, rose up in rank, so did Yasakatome,Ueda, et al. (1987). pp. 37-38. so that by 867 CE, the goddess had been promoted to senior second rank (正二位).
Heian and Kamakura periods