Mount Miwa

Mount Miwa
三輪山
Elevation	467 m (1,532 ft)
Location
Mount Miwa Sakurai, Nara, Japan
Coordinates	34°32′06″N 135°52′00″E / 34.535°N 135.8666667°E / 34.535; 135.8666667Coordinates: 34°32′06″N 135°52′00″E / 34.535°N 135.8666667°E / 34.535; 135.8666667

Mount Miwa (三輪山, Miwa-yama^?) or Mount Mimoro (三諸山, Mimoro-yama^?) is a mountain located in the city of Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It has been an important religious and historical mountain in Japan, especially during its early history, and serves as a holy site in Shinto. The entire mountain is considered sacred, and is home to one of the earliest Shinto shrines, Ōmiwa Shrine. Several burial mounds from the Kofun period can be found around the mountain.

Name

Mount Miwa was first described in the Kojiki as Mount Mimoro (三諸山). Both names were in common use until the reign of Emperor Yūryaku, after which Miwa was preferred. Mimoro has been held to mean something like "august, beautiful" (mi) and "room", or "hall" (moro corruption of muro).^[1] The current kanji 三 (mi) and 輪 (wa) are purely phonetic. It has also been written 三和, another a phonetic spelling with the same pronunciation.

Geography

Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria, jp. sugi) grows all over the mountain and is considered a holy tree.

History

Archeological and literary records demonstrates that Mount Miwa was the center of early Yamato power until about the year 350 CE.^[2]

The Nihon Shoki also records that a thousand Emishi swore alliance to the Yamato court while facing Mount Miwa.

Religious significance

Religious worship surrounding Mount Miwa have been deemed the oldest and more primitive of its kind in Japan, where the very mountain itself is designated sacrosanct.^[3]

The kami generally associated with Mount Miwa is Ōmononushi (Ōmono-nushi-no-kami), a rain kami. However, the Nihon Shoki notes that there was a degree of uncertainly when it came to naming the principal kami of Mount Miwa.

In early Shinto, mountains were regarded as sacred sites where kami reside. Mount Miwa was a particularly prominent example of this. Myths and traditions suggest that Mount Miwa was worshiped for its powerful kami long before recorded history.^[4] Even today, the mountain itself is unusual for being revered at Ōmiwa Shrine as the shintai, or kami-body, whereas virtually all other shrines designate a hall of worship (shinden) for such purposes. The veneration of the mountain itself at Ōmiwa Shrine, as well as symbols and ritual offerings found on the mountain, points to its status as a prominent sanctuary for both locals and Yamato kings alike.^[5]

Yamato leaders often ruled from palaces near sacred mountains, and built burial mounds around them. The kami residing on Mount Miwa was judged the most powerful by the Fujiwara clan, and consequently palaces and roads were built in the vicinity.^[6]

In a myth from the Nihon Shoki, a princess (Yamato-totohi-momoso) falls in love with a kami from Mount Miwa. The kami however, would only appear to her at night, and the princess asked him to show her what he looked like. The kami warned her not to be shocked, and agreed to meet her in her bathroom the next morning. When the princess went into her bathroom the next day, she was horrified at the sight of a snake. Furious at her reaction, the kami turned to human form, and ran off to Mount Miwa. The princess was so distraught at this, that she stabbed herself to death with chopsticks, and is supposedly buried at one of the six mounds near Mount Miwa, the Hashihaka (lit. "chopstick-grave") mound. The Kojiki version of this myth describes a union between a woman from the Miwa clan and Ōmononushi, resulting in the birth of an early Yamato king. Scholars note that this is a clear effort to strengthen Yamato authority by identifying and linking their lineage to the established worship surrounding Mount Miwa.^[7]

Later in the Nihon Shoki, Emperor Sujin appealed to the kami on Mount Miwa when the country was crippled by disasters. Sujin is said to have received, via a princess, a revelation that the disasters would cease should the kami making the revelation be properly worshipped. When asked which kami was speaking, it was revealed to be Ōmononushi, who claimed to reside in the borders of Yamato on Mount Miwa. Proper rites were held, and the disasters came to an end.

The serpent seems to play a key role in Miwa worship, as demonstrated by yet another tale from the Nihon Shoki. In this story, a dispute breaks out about which kami truly resides in the mountain, Ōmononushi, or Uda-no-sumizaka. Emperor Yūryaku then demands a courtier to find out the appearance of the Mount Miwa kami. The courtier went up the mountain and captured a monstrous serpent whose "thunder rolled, and ... eyeballs flamed". Terrified by the huge snake, Yūryaku names it Ikazuchi (lit. "thunderbolt") and orders it released back into the mountain.^[8]

Archaeology

The Andonyama burial mound

Six tumuli have been found in the Shiki area at the base of Mount Miwa. These earthen mounds were built between 250 CE to 350 CE,^[9] and all display the same keyhole shape and stone chambers found in earlier mounds. However, the tumuli found at Mount Miwa hint at the beginning of a more centralized Yamato state. All six mounds are exceptionally large, twice as large as any similar mounds found in Korea, and contain prolific amounts of mirrors, weapons, ornaments, as well as finely built wood and bamboo coffins.^[10]

They are as follows, in order of discovery:

Name	Japanese	Size (length)	Location	Notes
Hashihaka mound	箸墓古墳	280m	Sakurai	Said to be grave of Princess Yamato-totohi-momoso
Nishitonozuka mound	西殿塚古墳	230m	Tenri
Chausuyama mound	茶臼山古墳	207m	Sakurai
Mesuriyama mound	メスリ山古墳	240m	Sakurai
Andonyama mound	行燈山古墳	242m	Tenri	Sometimes called the tomb of Emperor Sujin
Shibutani-mukō mound	渋谷向山古墳	310m	Tenri	Sometimes called the tomb of Emperor Keikō

Religious objects and pottery have also been found on and around the mountain.

Cultural references

• Mount Miwa was the subject of a waka poem by Princess Nukata, found in the Man'yōshū
• Mount Miwa was the site of a kendo tournament in Yukio Mishima's novel, Runaway Horses.

See also

• List of mountains and hills of Japan by height
• Ōmiwa Shrine
• Ōmononushi
• Ko-shinto (Jomon)
• Jōmon period
• Kofun period

Notes

1. ^ Brown (1993), 263.
2. ^ Brown (1993), 125.
3. ^ Kidder (2007), 262.
4. ^ Brown (1993), 116.
5. ^ Brown (1993), 117.
6. ^ Brown (1993), 36.
7. ^ Brown (1993), 118.
8. ^ Kidder (2007), 269.
9. ^ Brown (1993), 114.
10. ^ Brown (1993), 114.

References

• Brown, Delmer M. (1993). Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 1. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521223520.
• Kidder, Jonathan Edward (2007). Himiko and Japan's elusive chiefdom of Yamatai: archaeology, history, and mythology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824830350.
• Aston, William George (2005). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. Boston: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0804836744.
• Chamberlain, Basil Hall (2005). The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters. Boston: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0804836752.