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tama no Mikoto, along with two other gods, at the great temple of Inari between Kiôto and Fushimi. Temples consecrated to “Inari sama” are common all over Japan, and it is usually supposed that Inari is the name of a god; the mistake arises from the common Japanese practice of calling persons, and gods also, by the name of the place where they reside. Another erroneous belief is that Inari sama is a fox, and many temples originally dedicated to foxes are consequently mis-called temples of Inari. One origin assigned for the error is the use of a Chinese character which means ‘fox’ in writing down phonetically Miketsu kami, which is an alternative name of Toyo-uke-bime. The truth is that the fox is the messenger of this goddess, and images of the animal are placed in front of her temples, which may have aided in confirming the error.
The worshipper is next directed to turn in the direction of the province of Hitachi, and bowing down as before, to repeat the following prayer.
“From a distance I reverently worship with awe before Takemikadzuchi no kami, Futsu-nushi no kami and Funado no kami, to whom are consecrated the Palace of Kagushima[1] in the department of Kagushima in the province of Hitachi, the palace of Katori in the department of Katori in the province of Shimotsufusa, and the temple of Ikisu in the province of Hitachi; which are reverently styled the three temples of Adzuma.”
Take-mika-dzuchi and Futsunushi have already been mentioned as the two gods who descended from heaven to conquer the country for Ninigi no mikoto, and Funado no kami acted as their guide. After persuading Oho-kuni-nushi to surrender the sovereignty of Japan, they slew or expelled all the evil gods ‘who glittered like fire-flies or were disorderly as May-flies, banished to foreign countries all the demons who made rocks, stumps of trees, leaves of plants and the foam of the green waters to speak, and then ascended to heaven from the
- ↑ Kagushima and Shimotsu-fusa are the archaic spelling of Kashima and Shimôsa. The first-named two temples have been described by Mr. C. W. Lawrence in a paper published in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan for 1874.
