Haruta Shrine, Asuka

Haruta Shrine is located on the east side of Asuka, right next to Okadera Temple. The two were a temple-shrine complex until the seperation of buddhas and kami in early Meiji.

The three primary kami enshrined here are Onamuchi, another name for Okuninushi, Susano, and Homuda Wake, another name for Emperor Ojin.

The shrine is listed in the Engi Shiki, so is more than 1,000 years old.

The honden has an unusual design with a T-shaped roof topped by 3 chigi. The torii in front of the honden I would guess to be a post-meiji addition as this style was adopted by State Shinto.

A statue of Kinjiro, the common name for Ninomiya Sontoku. Similar statues are common in front of schools. Kinjiro is famous for becoming successful through self-study.

Tanzan Shrine

Probably the first thing you notice at Tanzan Shrine is the rather unusual 13-story pagoda. Pagodas are of course Buddhist, and this was a temple and monastery complex until the government made it a "shinto" shrine in early Meiji.

The pagoda was built on top of the bones of Kamatari Nakatomi by his son Joe Fujiwara and the temple was primarily a private family mausoleum until later when it came under the wing of the Tendai sect and expanded.

Nearby is where Kamatari met with Prince Nakano Oe (later Emperor Tenji) and plotted the assasination of Soga no Iruka.

The Soga were the most powerful clan and most probably ruled Japan at that time, the Imperial family being mere figureheads (like they were for most of history). After their fall the Fujiwara ( the new family name of the Nakatomi) in essence ruled Japan for the next 1,000 years or more.

The history of the ruling elites of Japan, like many other places, reads like a gangster novel, assasinations, plots, revenge, inter-gang warfare, etc. and in truth the distinction between gangster and ruler is a very fine one indeed.

Leading away from the main building a line of torii lead to 3 shrines to Inari. There are in fact and incredibly large number of Inaris, though there are collectively lumped together as one.

There are numerous other sub-shrines within the grounds, a Shinmei Shrine dedicated to Amaterasu, a Sugiyama Shrine dedicated to Isotakeru, the son of Susano that came with him from Korea, the local Mountain God, an Okami Shrine to Suijin the water god, and a branch of Hie Shrine enshrining Oyamazumi, probably dating from the time the Tendai sect took over the temple.

When I went to Tanzan many years ago it was hard to reach, even though it is close to Asuka, though now they have built a new road directly from Asuka that I believe is open.

Tanzan is very popular during the Fall when the leaves are changing.

Ketsuwake Shrine

Ketsuwake ( or Kitsuwake) Shrine is located at the head of a valley running east out of Asuka in a village called Kamura.

The area is known for an old legend concerning Kamatari Nakatomi, who, after having his rival Iruka Soga assassinated was chased by Soga's disembodied head. For some reason he believed that he would be safe here. In the mountains above the village is Tanzan Shrine, the site of where the plot against the Soga was hatched.

There are 2 hondens at the shrine. The larger one belongs to Ketsuwake no mikoto, who would be the local village god. The second honden was built in the Meiji era and is a branch of Kasuga Shrine, enshrining Ame no Koyane, the mythical ancestor of the Nakatomi clan who since Kamatari were given the family name Fujiwara.

Monkey Stones

These 4 statues, located now at the tomb known as Kibitsuhime Kofun in Asuka, are known as Saruishi, Monkey Stones, as their faces somewhat resemble monkeys.

They were dug up in a field next to nearby Kinmei Kofun in the Edo Period, and may be what a 16th Century book referred to as demon statues located on the kofun.

There are numerous theories as to what they are and what they mean, but the bottom line is nobody knows.

They do bear a similarity to some other statues on the Korean peninsular, and the area around Asuka was known to be settled by many immigrant clans.

Their are many other mysterious stone objects in the Asuka area which also are unknown in their meaning or origin.

Oharetsu Mountain shrines

When I am planning my walks I usually spend quite a lot of time studying maps. I usuallu use a combination of Google maps and the Japanese geologic survey map

One of the things I look for are shrines that cannot be reached by car. For some reason I think that such places are likely to be more traditional, less likely to have been modernized, so some years ago when I was planning a walk in the Asuka area I was intrigued by 3 shrines up the northern slope of Mount Oharetsu.

The path begins off a narrow mountain road between the settlements of Kitayama and Imaidani which lie in the mountains east of Asuka.

The red color of the Torii is intiguing. Red torii usually indicate either an Imperial connected shrine or an Inari shrine. Usually, but not always. I have seen Atago shrines and Ebisu shrines with red torii.

There was nothing at any of the three shrines to indicate Inari, and if it was an Imperial shrine it would probably be listed in the Engi Shiki, a tenth century document, and I could not find them listed. There was no signboards or nameboards at any of the three, so I know absolutely nothing about them

This is something I have never seen before. Cutouts of tools used by forest workers. Obviously the people up here made their living from the forest, and as tools, until recently anyway, are considered to have their own spirit, they are obviously used in some ceremonial or ritual way. If any reader can shed any light on it I would appreciate it.

The path still existed and was not too overgrown, so the shrines were not abandoned, but probably not visited very often.

As can be seen from the photos, the forest on this mountainside seems to have been planted no more than 30 years ago, and is a typical post-war tree farm.

The phallic stones of Asuka Nimasu Shrine

There is a collection of phallic stones at the Asuka Nimasu Shrine that I would guess have been collected from the surrounding area.

A few of them are paired with a "female" stone.

I think there is a good chance that these, or some of them at least, are Dosojin.

Dosojin, sometimes called Sainokami, were phallic stones placed at the roadside at community borders.

Often referred to as protective deities of travellers, their original use seems to be protecting the village from evil/pollution rather than protecting travellers.

Later the dosojin became rocks carved with a male-female couple, and later still Jizo statues took over some of their functions.

In some places Sarutahiko is associated with Dosojin.

Asuka Nimasu Shrine

Asuka Nimasu Shrine in Asuka, the ancient capital of early Japan is a very old shrine and is one of the possible sources of the name of Asuka.

The three main kami enshrined here are Kotoshironushi, Takamimusubi, and Kayanarumi.

Kotoshironushi is an Izumo kami, one of Okuninushi's sons, nowadays equated with Ebisu. Kayanarumi is a daughter of Kotoshironushi, and Takamimusubi is one of the three "creator" kami. In some versions of the Kuniyuzuri myth that explains the ceding of Japan from Okuninushi to the Yamato, it is Takamimusubi who orders the process and not Amaterasu, and in fact Ninigi who descends to rule over Japan is the grandson of both Amaterasu and Takamimusubi.

Kayanarumi is the most interesting of the three, and an alternate name for her is Asuka no Kannabi mi Hime no kami, and this relates to what happened after Kuniyuzuri. Okuninushi decided to place himself and several of his relatives in the Kannabi (sacred mountains) surrounding Yamato, and Kayanarumi was placed in a mountain in Asuka, so it seems likely that she was the original main kami of the shrine.

There are a lot of secondary shrines within the grounds, enshrining Onamuchi (the name of Okuninushi enshrined in nearby Miwa), Oyamazumi, an Asuka Yamaguchi Shrine, and Sarutahiko.

There is also an Inari Shrine, one for Konpira, one for Daijingu, and one for Shirahige, a Korean god brought over with immigrants who settled in the Lake Biwa area.

When we look at some of the things for sale in the small office of the shrine it becomes clear what the focus of the shrine is,..... fertility!

This is a male/female sake cup.

The shrine is home to a famous matsuri, the Onda matsuri, which includes a performance with masked dancers that includes explicit representations of the sex act.