{"product_id":"founding-territorial-cults-in-early-japan-traces-of-a-forgotten-ritual-in-ancient-myths-and-legends-9789004685819","title":"Founding Territorial Cults in Early Japan: Traces of a Forgotten Ritual in Ancient Myths and Legends","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first book that deals with the territorial cults of early Japan by focusing on how such cults were founded in ownerless regions. Numerous ancient Japanese myths and legends are discussed to show that the typical founding ritual was a two-phase ritual that turned the territory into a horizontal microcosm, complete with its own ‘terrestrial heaven’ inhabited by local deities.   Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky.  The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContents   Preface   List of Figures      Introduction    The Problem of the Pre-Shinto Cults    Territorial Cults    The Focus on Early Japan    Japan’s Protohistory    Innovations Introduced by the Taika Reform    Different Versions of the Same Story in Nihon Shoki    The God Age Mythology    The Fudoki Mythology    The Method of Interpretation    The Theoretical Model    The Structure of the Book    Various Notes      1 Divination    Divining with Things Thrown and Falling Down    Divining the Place for Founding a Shrine    Absurd Uses of the Falling Motif    Realistic Methods Exaggerated    Land Divination Typically Performed in Front    Divining with Things Cast Overboard    Floating a Wisteria Twig to Find the Right Place    Letting a Cooking Set Float to Enemy Land    Susanoo and the Floating Chopsticks    Kisakahime and the Lost Bow and Arrow    Articles to Play on the Sea    Floats Used for Divining    Divining in Boats    Later Survivals: The Religious Use of Wood Drifted Ashore    Conclusion      2 The Story of Yato no Kami    The Topography    The Mountain Entrance    The Lacking First Part of the Story    The Yashiro at the Upper Boundary    Matachi’s Ritual Procedure Reconstructed    Mibu no Muraji Maro and the Divine Snakes    Moving a Shrine to Another Site    The Location of the Ancient Pond    The New Conditions in the Ritsuryō State    Conclusions      3 Making a Large Territory in Harima    Ame no Hiboko and Iwa no Ōkami    Ame no Hiboko’s Arrival    The Claiming Ceremony on Iibo Hill    Other Claiming Stories    The Iibo Hill and Its Special Relation to the Iwa Jinja    Hardening the Land    A Model of the Grand-Scale Land-Making Myth?    The Two Foundations of the Iwa Shrine    Conclusions      4 Making and Ceding the Land in the God Age    The God Age Mythology: An Overview according to Kojiki    The Land-Making Myth    Sukunabikona    Ōnamuchi as a Beginner in Land-Making    The Land-Ceding Myth according to Kojiki    The Land-Ceding Myth according to Nihon Shoki    Kojiki and Nihon Shoki: Two Different Doctrines    Consequences of the Land-Ceding Myth    Conclusion      5 Ninigi’s Descent and His Territory in Kyushu    The Title Sentence Pattern    The Two Main Versions of the Myth    Cape Kasasa as a Place on the Way to Takachiho    Ninigi’s Arrival at the Coast    Ninigi Questions the Master of the Land at Cape Kasasa    Ninigi at Cape Kasasa    Takama no Hara as a Horizontally Distant Heaven    Ninigi’s Descendants Living in Kyushu    The Conquest of Yamato    Conclusion      6 The Foundation of the Izumo Shrine    Ōkuninushi’s Place of Hiding and Waiting    Prince Homuchiwake Worships the Great God of Izumo    Ashihara no Shikoo and the Worship at Iwakuma    Mt. Kannabi and the Sokinoya Shrine    A Suitable Site at the Foot of Mt. Kannabi    The Political Aspect    The Foundation of the Shrine at Kizuki    The Land-Pulling Myth and the Four Kannabi of Izumo    Summing Up      7 The Foundation of the Ise Shrine    The Later Version of the Foundation Story    Name-Asking as a Form of Claiming    Pillow Words Alluding to Land-Making Myths    The Topography of the Isuzu Valley    Sarutahiko and a Heaven in the Mountains    The Precinct of the Inner Shrine (Naikū)    From Simple to Complex Cult Systems    Sarutahiko’s Destiny    Summing Up      8 Characteristics of Territorial Cults    Divination as the Primary Rite    Variants of the Cult Contract    The Cult Contract and the State Ritual after the Taika Reform    Founder Worship    Shrine and Tomb    The Guardian Deity Is Excluded from the Land Opened Up    Nature Spirits Can Become Manifest in Wild Animals    The Guardian Deity Is Believed to Control the Local Weather    Calamities Blamed on Some Mistake in the Ritual    Cult Places Could Be Moved to Enlarge the Agricultural Land    The Mountain God as a Multifunctional Deity    The Mountain Entrance and the Torii    Boundary Marks    Tabooed Mountain Areas    The Bipolar Structure of Territories    The Chigi Cross as a Symbol    The Name of the Kami Land    The Age of the Yorishiro Concept    The Land-Making Motif in Creation Myths    Conclusion      9 Sacred Groves and Cult Marks    Yashikigami Worship    A Sacred Grove on Hirado Island    The Garō Yama of Tanegashima    The Sacred Forest of the Ōmiwa Shrine    The Matsushita Shrine and the Somin Sanctuary    Cult Marks Replaced by Shrine Buildings    Yorishiro and Ogishiro    The Shimenawa and the Straw Snake    Claiming Signs Made by Binding or Knotting Growing Plants    Pacifying the Site    Ancient Land-Claiming and the Rural Gathering Economy    Sign-Making Dealt with in Ethnographic Studies      10 Comparative Notes    The Settlement of Iceland    Founding Sacred Groves and Colonies in Ancient Greece    The Vedic Tradition    Opening Up Land in Shifting Cultivation    From Terrestrial Heavens to the Heaven in the Sky   Bibliography   Index","brand":"Brill","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53210875822423,"sku":"9789004685819","price":61.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/founding-territorial-cults-in-early-japan-traces-of-a-forgotten-ritual-in-ancient-myths-and-legends-9789004685819","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}