神々の故郷、宮崎県・高千穂の天孫降臨伝承地・二上山と、彼の地に残る鬼・「鬼八」に思いを馳せる

Mt. Futagami in the origin place of Japanese deities, Takachiho and its guardian ogre

Takachiho-cho in Miyazaki prefecture, down in the south of Japan, is well-known as the origin place of Japanese deities. In Kojiki (The Records of Ancient Matters), the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, myths on the origin of the Japanese archipelago and the deities are narrated. In the chronicle, Takachiho is described as the very land where the deities descended to Earth.

When did this nation, which embraces eight million deities, begin? The Tenson-Korin myth in Kojiki elaborates on the story of the grandson deity of the sun goddess, who descended from the Plain of High Heaven where the deities lived, Taka-ama-hara, to the terrestrial Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni (Japan), the so-called middle country of reed beds that existed between Taka-ama-hara (Heaven) and Yomi (Hell). Three generations after of that grandson is said to be the Emperor Jimmu（神武）, the very first Emperor of Japan known as the direct ancestor of the present 125th Emperor. 

There are several theories of which mountain the grandson deity, Ninigi-no-Mikoto, descended to. In Kojiki, it’s called “the peak Kujifurutake of Mt. Takachiho of Himuka”. In Nihon-shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), two other mountain names are mentioned, “Kushihi-no-Takachiho-no-Take” and “Takachiho-no-Kushihi-no-Futagami (twin-peaked)–no-Take”.

 The fact you find the magnificent Kushifuru Shrine in Takachiho-cho supports the story of Kojiki, but if you look out a little further, you notice there is indeed a mountain called Futagami which has two peaks. Mt. Futagami is 1,060 meters high and has been worshipped by the locals for a long time. It’s situated right near the border of Takachiho-cho and Gokase-cho. As the name suggests, the top of the mountain is crowned with two peaks, one called the male (男岳) peak and the other the female（女岳） peak. 

The view of the towering twin-peaks seen from the city of Takachiho is quite alluring. Nihon-shoki refers to this mountain as the one to which Ninigi-no-Mikoto descended, bringing many other deities with him. On the southern side of the male peak, at around the 9th station, is where you find the okumiya (inner-most shrine) of Sangasho Shrine. 

As this was built halfway up a steep cliff and is not easy to visit, it’s believed that the people of about a thousand years ago created another more accessible worship space of the Sangasho Shrine, its satomiya, at the foot of the mountain, as we still see today.

Both the Kojiki and Nihon-Shoki mention the Tenson-Korin myth. But I would like to bring your attention to another legend related to the Mt. Futagami: the local legend of Kihachi, the Ogre.

Something else famous to the Takachiho-cho area is Yokagura, the sacred Shinto dance rituals performed on stage at night. In a Yokagura performance, there is a scene where an ujigami, a guardian god or spirit, comes onto the stage. The scene came to be known as “The entrance of the ogre god (入鬼神)”. How did they come to adopt the concept of an ogre into their worship of the local guardian deity? This question popped into my head when I got to watch a Yokagura performance. 

I started to suspect that the concept of the ogre might be relatively recent, having come from how the relatively recent eras’ local people called, with a sense of awe, the very original people who they considered resided in the area even from the time before the deities descension. I have not confirmed this hypothesis of mine or backed it up with research, but if that’s the case, it resonates perfectly with many incidents recorded in historical documents, of people of different regions around the nation having referred to their area’s indigenous tribespeople using derogatory terms like “ogre”, “ground spider”, “trash” or “Emishi”.

In the legend, Kihachi the Ogre was said to have lived in the rock cave, Chichi-ga-Iwaya, near the top of Mt. Futagami. The cave was always considered a very sacred place as its nearby spring produced a stream of crystal-clear water, which people at the time believed would grant a pregnant woman a healthy baby. The spring remains today, still endlessly producing the stream of clear water. This is very peculiar considering how close the location is to the top of the mountain.

 In this kind of circumstance, it’s not too difficult to imagine how Kihachi the Ogre, who was said to live there, could have become the subject of the local people’s worship himself. People worshipped the stream as their water deity, and quite possibly considered the ogre who lived there and protected the spring their indigenous king. If Kihachi the Ogre was the original guardian of the local area, then the deities who descended to the mountain he was protecting were merely intruders.

 Maybe the story was that the ogre was forced to fight against these deities to protect the area and the people. And yes, the ogre lore of the region is written from the ogre’s perspective, something that you can see in the Yokagura performance. Kihachi the Ogre was robbed of his land and his people. Towards the end of the story, he resisted until the very end to protect the cave that produced the sacred crystal-clear water. A testimonial to this story is the name of a local area, “Ogre Slashed Field (鬼切畑)”, which still exists today.

The elder brother of Emperor Jimmu, Mikenu-no-Mikoto, is another main character in the story of the deities’ descent. In Both Kojiki and Nihon-Shoki, he killed Kihachi the Ogre in the field and occupied Mt. Futagami. Therefore, from Mikenu-no-Mikoto’s point of view, the same story could be seen as the righteous conquering of the pagan mountain following a fierce battle against an ogre who was worshipped by the locals, thereby establishing a rule over them. The phrase “deities who descended to the top of the mountain” might be metaphorically describing such an incident.

So, though “the origin place of Japanese deities”, Takachiho-cho of Miyazaki prefecture, is often expressed in and mentioned alongside the neat deities-descended myth, maybe it could also be considered a brutal history of the local area being invaded, from the perspective of the indigenous people who were originally there. The lore of Kihachi the Ogre hints towards the reason that so many shrines were built in Takachiho-cho was “to calm the divine wrath of Kihachi the Ogre”.

Remember the scene in which the guardian deity appears on the Yokagura stage? The reason why the scene is called “the entrance of the ogre deity” is probably clearer now. And, although it’s not explicit during the performance, it’s probably not too far-fetched to consider that the ogre deity who dances during Yokagura is the same Kihachi who lay down his life to protect the land and the people.

If you visit Takachiho, I strongly recommend that you go up Mt. Futagami and visit these deities. You will be able to witness traces of the narratives of how the local people led their lives in the region, the compelling remains of the region’s indigenous beliefs. It’s something you won’t find in tourist guidebooks.