Kamo Yatagarasu Legend

The Kamo Yatagarasu tradition is the ancestral-deity legend of the Kamo clan, identifying the three-legged crow Yatagarasu that led Emperor Jimmu's mountain campaign from Kumano to Yamato during his eastern campaign with Kamotaketsunumi-no-Mikoto. Kamotaketsunumi-no-Mikoto was sent down from Takamagahara as the guide deity of Emperor Jimmu's eastern campaign; after that, it is said, he went from Okada in Yamashiro Province up the Kamo River (Kamogawa) to the Kamo region, where he became the guardian deity. The mythic genealogy continues with the maid-of-the-deity Tamayori-hime-no-Mikoto picking up a vermilion-painted arrow (ninuriya) on the Kamo River and giving birth to Kamowake-ikazuchi-no-Mikoto, forming the core of the founding tales of the upper and lower Kamo shrines. The story has three stages: Yatagarasu's (Kamotaketsunumi-no-Mikoto's) guidance during Jimmu's eastern campaign, the move to Yamashiro Province and the becoming the ancestral deity of the Kamo of the Kamo River, and the vermilion-arrow myth and the birth of Kamowake-ikazuchi-no-Mikoto. By joining the Jimmu eastern campaign tale with the local clan tradition of the Kamo, the Kamo were positioned as the ruling clan of ancient Yamashiro Province, forming the central tradition group of the mythic geography of Kyoto. The center is the Kamo Wake-ikazuchi Jinja (Kamigamo Shrine) in Kamigamo Honzan, Kita Ward, Kyoto, and the Kamo Mioya Jinja (Shimogamo Shrine) in Shimogamo Izumikawa-cho, Sakyo Ward. Both are Yamashiro Province first shrines, registered as World Cultural Heritage. As related sites of Jimmu's eastern campaign, Kumano Hongu Taisha in Tanabe, Wakayama, the Uda Mikumari Shrine in Uda, Nara, and Kashihara Jingu in Kashihara share the mythic sphere. The Kojiki, middle scroll, Emperor Jimmu segment "Yatagarasu guidance," the Nihon Shoki, Jimmu chronicle, are the textual basis. The lost Yamashiro no Kuni Fudoki tells Kamotaketsunumi-no-Mikoto's Yamashiro settlement and the vermilion-arrow myth; the Shinsen Shojiroku, Yamashiro Province Shinbetsu "Kamoagatanushi" entry, and the Engishiki Jinmyocho's two Kamo-shrine entries indicate the ancient rank. The traditions of both shrines, Kyoto City and Kyoto Prefecture cultural property materials, and World Heritage materials are the basic references.