Mitsumine Shrine

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Mitsumine Jinja 三峰神社 Mitsumine Shrine
Mitsumine, Chichibu, Saitama
Mitsumine sama 三峯様 - see below

Official HP of this shrine



http://www.mitsuminejinja.or.jp/

Spring at the Shrine, a photo tour
三峰の春

Great Japanese page with more photos
http://www.sight-seeing-japan.com/genr/gjj_mitsumine.html

Statue of Yamato Takeru 日本武尊の銅像

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The Japanese Wolf ニホンオオカミ
The Mitsumine Shrine Museum

The messenger of the Gods from Mitsumine Shrine is the Japanese Wolf, kami no tsukai, ookami, 「神使: 狼 おおかみ」.
The wolf
is often symbolically linked with mountain kami in Shinto (the most famous example being the wolf kami of Mitsumine Shrine in the town of Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture).

Interesting is a report by Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) in one of his lectures on "the Superiority of the Ancients".
In the Ômine and Mitsumine mountains, he avers, "there are many wolves which are called the messengers of the gods of the mountains, and people from other parts of the country come and, applying through the guards of these mountains, choose and borrow one of these wolves as a defence against fire. That is to say they only arrange to borrow it and do not take a wolf to their place. And from the day of borrowing they offer daily food to the spirit of the wolf.

But if through neglect several days pass without food being offered then the wolf chosen becomes thin, emaciated, and weak. There is a case where a man I know borrowed a wolf and neglected to offer food for four or five days, and misfortune came to him from that source and he was fearfully surprised."
Wolves, Ookami, By ROWAN HOOPER

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Wolf Worship

Prior to the Meiji Restoration (1868),　Japanese worshiped this canine, whether wolf or mountain dog. The Shinto shrine Mitsumine Jinja was of particular importance in wolf worship and has　been associated with both Shugenoo, or traditions of mountain asceticism, and wolf iconography. Mitsumine Jinja stands near the village of Ootaki, in Saitama Prefecture.

The main gods worshiped at the shrine are Izanagi and Izanami, two powerful deities who feature in the Japanese creation myth. Tradition holds that the shrine was built by none other than Prince Yamatotakeru, the legendary unifier of Japan, who, during pacification campaigns in central Honshu, wandered astray of the Karisaka mountain-pass road.

The prince found himself lost until a white-wolf god led him out of the mountains, hence the shrine’s connection with wolves.

Later the prince’s father, the legendary twelfth emperor, Keikoo, retraced his son’s route through the mountains during an imperial tour. According to tradition, after climbing the mountains, the views of the three peaks of Kumotori-yama, Shiraiwa-yama, and Myoo-ga-take so stunned Keikoo that he bestowed on them the name Mitsumine-guu, the “shrine of the three peaks.”

Over time the three peaks became objects of worship. Spring thaws caused swift and pure rivers to flow from the mountains and, not surprisingly, local farmers revered the mountains in their agrarian traditions.
Today Mitsumine Jinja sits at about 1,080 meters, on the northwestern slope of Myoo-ga-take, having been moved there from Kumotori-yama after the Meiji Restoration.



http://www.kitanippon.co.jp/pub/hensyu/chinmoku/maboroshi/050112.html

Standard forms of o-fuda (talismans)
and other iconography, ranging from statues to hanging-style prints, were distributed at Mitsumine Jinja. The great majority of these images feature two wolves facing each other. The wolf on the right usually has its mouth open, symbolizing a, or the sound of an open mouth, and iconographically representing the first letter of the ancient Siddhamatrika script used to write Sanskrit.

The wolf on the left has its mouth closed, symbolizing un, or the sound of a closed mouth.
Although abstract, the three sounds contained in the sound on, or aun in Japanese, refer to the three states of consciousness: a being the first state, of waking consciousness; u being the second state, of dreaming consciousness; and n being the third state, of sleeping consciousness.
(More about Aum (阿吽) A-Un, Om).

When placed together, these two wolves strike poses similar to those of the Deva Kings, Nioo in Japanese, two fierce Buddhist guardian deities who protect temple precincts.
These o-fuda and other iconography were distributed by shrines; and some o-fuda, called shishiyoke (猪よけ　boar deterrents), were used by peasants to spare their crops from the ravages of deer and wild boar.

The Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido, knew the Hokkaido wolf as the high-ranking god Horkew Kamuy. In Hokkaido’s Tokachi and Hidaka regions, there flourished versions of a myth about a white wolf that mated with a goddess, or sometimes a Japanese court lady, and the offspring from this union became the ancestors of the Ainu people.

Several regional versions of this origin myth exist, and some feature a white dog rather than a white wolf. The difference between wolves and dogs appears to have been less important to the Ainu, since both wolves and dogs inhabited much the same space in their classifying imagination.

One version of this myth from Shizunai, in the Hidaka region, explains that the god of the mountain Poroshiri-dake, Retaruseta Kamuy (the white-wolf god), could not find a auitable mate, even though he searched the entire island. So Retaruseta Kamuy summoned his divine powers, seeing all the way to lands across the seas, and in time spotted a mate in a distant country. Again drawing on his divine powers, he coerced the woman to get in a small boat, cross the seas, and once on the island become his wife. From this union, it is said, the Ainu people were born.

Read a lot more here on PDF file.www.jpf.go.jp/j/publish_j/jfn/pdf/jfn29_1.pdf
... ... ...

You can see the two wolves at the gate, click photo for enlargement.

http://www.sight-seeing-japan.com/genr/gjj_mitsumine.html

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三峰様（ミツミネサマ） Mitsumine Sama 　

Mitsumine-sama, the farmer's name for the Deity worshipped at Mitsumine Shrine. They also call it Big Mouth God (大口 ooguchi kami) or わんわん様 WanWan Sama (barking like a dog).

関東三峰神社の神、狼（おおかみ）の神格、別名大口（おおぐち）神、わんわん様、農作物荒らしの害獣を防ぎ盗人を威怖させ、盗難を防除する神である。関東一円から北信にかけて、農山村に強い信仰圏をもっている。その神が関東から遠く離れた与川に二社祠られていることは何を物語っているのであろうか。（一社は、胡桃田・川合平・小川野平の三部落合同で、胡桃田沢の右岸の尾根の山中に昭和二十年代まで祠っていたという）。
その昔、
狼（山犬）が盛んに跳梁（ちょうりょう）して人畜に被害を及ぼしたので、狼の大王（神）に人畜を護って貰う目的があったのであろうか。幕末期には、この辺りにも信仰が浸透しいたと思われる。修験者によるものか、それとも関東と何か交流が持たれていたか。信仰の伝播（でんぱ）とその媒体はいかがなものであったか。管見ではあるが、大桑村の和村部落では、三峰講が現在も機能しており、神札が毎年新しく配布されている。与川村の三峰信仰については、今後の研究課題の一つであるが、加えて一区の阿弥陀信仰と四区・五区の十王信仰の対比。三区四区の三峰信仰と一区の三峰信仰の対比なども考究対象として挙げておきたい。
屋号・
下川合の家の上の方の山の尾根に祀られている。与川村では、三区の胡桃田沢の右岸の尾根の高い処と、一区の根の上峠の下の、脇沢の東の宇礼寄りの小山の頂、及びこの川合平の尾根の三箇所に祀られている。この三箇所は、上の原と大奈良の境にある地名・城山(山)との間の相互の見通しがよい。春の花見の宴は、この三峰様の広場で行われたという伝承が残っている。中世の外敵に対する物見の台の跡かもしれない。
享保五年(一七二〇)に
三峰山の神を「使わしめとしての狼（おおかみ）」と定めた。初めは、猪と鹿の防除に効顕（こうけん）ありと信仰されていたが、火防・盗賊除けの信仰が加わった。「狼」のお札はワンワン様と呼ばれ、関東・中部地方に配布された。村々では、三峰講を結成して代参をたてて祀った。川合平の山田家の『大福出入日記覚帳・文久元年』(一八六一)に「文久元年四月二十四日・三十九文三峰様むかえ入用」とある。この記録は、この時に初めてお札をお迎えしたのではないことが、三十九文の少ない費用から判る。
講の代参
旅費負担か若しくは、三峰神社の御師比（おし）(御札配り)が廻村してきて、簡単な神事を行ったのであろうか。それ以前から信仰があったであろう。地名論と関係があるが、深入りを避け後の研究に期待しておきたい。幕末頃、日本全国に狼による人畜の被害が増加したので、与川村の人たちは、日本の国の狼の王様の三峰様に狼の害を除くことをお願いしたのである。管見では、須原・和村から南の長野村と野尻村に信仰圏があり、三峰神社のお札が個人の家の神棚に祀ってあるのを見かける。
小林　俊彦
http://www.nagiso-town.ne.jp/kouhou/213/chimeikou62.htm
http://www.nagiso-town.ne.jp/kouhou/220/chimeikou69.htm


. Japanese Legends - 伝説　民話　昔話 – ABC-List .
17 三峯様 legends to explore

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Read more about the Wolf as a kigo for haiku

Wolf (ookami)





. Kaneko Tohta and the Wolf Haiku of Chichibu 　


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The Wolf Cult in Kifune Shrine Kume 貴布弥（きふね）

. Oku Osaki Jinja 奥御前神社 Kume, Okayama .

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. ookami 狼 Okami, wolf legends
yama-inu, yamainu　山犬、豺 "mountain dog" .


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