Kasuga Kashima-dachi Legend

The Kasuga Kashima-dachi tradition is the founding legend of Kasuga Taisha in Nara, in which the Fujiwara clan's ancestor Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto rode from Kashima in Hitachi to Kasuga in Yamato on a white deer. By tradition, in Jingo Keiun 2 (768), the Fujiwara clan elder Fujiwara no Nagate and others, to protect the capital Heijo-kyo, summoned (kanjo) the four deities -- Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto from Kashima Jingu, Futsunushi-no-Mikoto from Katori Jingu, Ame-no-Koyane-no-Mikoto from Hiraoka Shrine, and Hime-gami -- to the foot of Kasuga-yama and founded Kasuga Taisha. The tale that Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto rode a white deer from Hitachi-Kashima to Yamato is the basis on which the deer of Kasuga have been honored as sacred deer (shinroku) and continue to be preserved in Nara Park down to the present day. The story has three central scenes: the Fujiwara plan for the protection of Heijo-kyo, the call of the four deities and the transfer of Takemikazuchi by white deer, and the enshrinement at the foot of Kasuga-yama and the breeding of the sacred deer. The Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto of the Kiki is the central deity of the kuni-yuzuri myth of Izumo and the ancestor of the Fujiwara (former Nakatomi), and the exclusive worship of an important deity of the ancient state as a clan deity proceeded in parallel with the rise of Fujiwara power. The center is Kasuga Taisha in Kasugano-cho, Nara. With four halls aligned against the primeval forest of Kasuga-yama, it is a World Heritage Site forming an integral sacred precinct with Nara Park, where the sacred deer live. Together with Kashima Jingu in Kashima, Katori Jingu in Katori, and Hiraoka Shrine in Higashi-Osaka, it forms the Kasuga four-shrine system. The Shoku Nihongi, Jingo Keiun 2 (768) entry records the founding; the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki kuni-yuzuri segments, the Engishiki Jinmyocho Kasuga-sai liturgy, and the Fujiwara house chronicles Okagami and Eiga Monogatari record the clan-deity rite. The medieval Kasuga Gongen Genki Emaki (late Kamakura) gave the figure literary form.