Hayachine-san Kaizan Legend

The Hayachine-san kaizan legend records the founding of Mount Hayachine (1,917 m) in Mutsu Province by Yosumi Tozo (Tozo) in the Daido era (806-810). A hunter, Tozo received a vision in the mountains, was led by a revelation of Kannon to the summit, and built a small shrine there; this is the founding of Hayachine. The summit shrine enshrines Seoritsuhime-no-Mikoto as principal deity, and the four foothill Hayachine Shrines (Ohasama, Take, Etsunagi and Uchikawame) form a single belief area. The mountain-kagura tradition known as Hayachine Kagura (designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property and inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list) has been performed at the mountain's festivals since the medieval period. The structure has three parts: the hunter Tozo's vision and the Kannon revelation; ascent and construction of a small summit shrine; and the establishment of mountain worship centred on Seoritsuhime and the offering of Hayachine Kagura. Seoritsuhime is a deity of purification who appears in the Oharae no Kotoba, said to wash impurities away in the river current; the assignment of this deity to a Tohoku mountain summit is an interesting medieval reorganisation. The setting spans Hayachine and the foothill Hayachine Shrines across Hanamaki (Ohasama), Tono and Miyako (Iwate), with the Take Hayachine Shrine in Take, Ohasama, Hanamaki, the centre for the Take and Osho kagura. The Hayachine Shrine in Tono's Tsukumoshi-cho also draws on the world of Tono Monogatari and Yanagita Kunio's field-work. As the highest peak of the Kitakami Mountains, Hayachine is the core of the Sanriku mountain cult. Sources include the medieval Hayachine-san Myosen-ji Engi, the Edo Honai Gosonshi (Kyowa era), gazetteers in the Nanbu Sosho, Yanagita Kunio's Tono Monogatari (1910), the Cultural Affairs Agency intangible cultural property records, and shrine records.