ABSTRACT

In Engishiki, though I greatly regret to say for some inscrutable reason it is no longer intoned on the occasion of the reisai, we find “Tatsuta ni masu Ame no Mihashira, Kuni no Mihashira Jinja, 2 za. Tsukiname, Ainame, Niiname, Myōjin dai, of Heguri gōri of the province of Yamato.” This is the shrine now officially described as being in Sango mura, ōaza Tatsuno, of Ikoma gun (生駒郡). The problems regarding this shrine are many and difficult, but it is now universally agreed that the Deities are Deities of the Wind. According to shrine tradition, there was, in the reign of the Emperor Sujin, a. succession of years of bad harvest, caused by violent storms of wind and rain, and the people suffered grievously, and the Emperor was sore perplexed what to do until the wind deities revealed to him in a dream that if they were suitably worshipped at Ōno of Tatsuno in Tatsuta, not only would the 5 cereals give them increase, but the very leaves and grasses flourish. This story is incorporated in the Norito (祝詞), Tatsu Kaze no Kami no Matsuri, which is preserved in Engishiki, and which is still intoned annually on the occasion of the reisai, or annual festival.