Saturday, October 18, 2014

Tsukigata Shrine



While heading back to the main road after visiting Enko-ji I passed by this small shrine, Tsukigata Shrine.


Tsukigata means "moon-shaped", and I am guessing it refers to the rock outcropping behind the shrine.


According to the sign the main kami enshrined here, not surprisingly perhaps, is Tsukiyomi, the moon kami. There are surprisingly few shrines to Tsukiyomi, Surprising because Tsukiyomi, Susano, and Amaterasu were all created at the same time, but whereas Susano and Amaterasu feature in much of the later mythology, Tsukiyomi is barely mentioned again.



2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. It's always struck me as most suspicious that Tsukiyomi gets written out of the mythology. Why should this be, given the obvious yin-yang sibling combination of sun and moon? Could it be that the original Tsukiyomi was a reference to a non-Yamato prince, perhaps...?

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  2. Wonderful images.
    Thanks for the information

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