Katori-no-umi Pacification Legend

The Katori-no-umi (Katori Sea) pacification tradition is the rite-foundation tale enshrining the principal deity of Katori Jingu, Futsunushi-no-Mikoto (also Futsunushi-no-Kami), as guardian of the ancient inland sea of Katori that once spread across Hitachi and Shimousa provinces. Futsunushi-no-Mikoto is one of the chief deities of the kuni-yuzuri myth of the Kiki, who descended with Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto from Takamagahara to Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni and pressed Okuninushi-no-Kami for the surrender of the country. Set across the Katori Sea from Kashima Jingu in Kashima, Katori was treated by the ancient state as a frontier base for the eastern sea routes and the Emishi campaigns. The story has three central scenes: Futsunushi-no-Mikoto's role in the kuni-yuzuri, the transfer to the eastern Katori Sea as guardian deity, and the use of Kashima and Katori jointly as ritual support for the conquest of eastern Japan. The Katori Sea formerly included Lake Kasumigaura, the North Lake, and the Inba marsh as a great inland sea and was the arterial flow of the eastern Japanese trade. The two deities of Kashima and Katori formed the ritual core of Yamato's eastern policy from the myth of Izumo's kuni-yuzuri to the Emishi campaigns. The center is Katori Jingu in Katori, Katori, Chiba (Shimousa first shrine). The shrine grounds lie on the south bank of the former Katori Sea, and with Kashima Jingu in Kashima, Ibaraki, and Ikisu Shrine in Kamisu, they form the "Three Shrines of Eastern Japan." With Isonokami Jingu in Tenri, Nara, which enshrines the ancestor of the Mononobe, Futsu-no-Mitama, Katori shares the sacred-sword belief. Kashima and Katori were the only shrines outside Ise permitted the title of jingu under the ancient ritsuryo state. The Kojiki, upper Ashihara pacification segment, the Nihon Shoki, divine age book two ninth section variants, and the surviving Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki record Futsunushi-no-Mikoto's deeds. Katori Jingu old documents, the Engishiki Jinmyocho "Shimousa Province, Katori District, Katori Jingu, Myojin Dai," and the Fujiwara house chronicles Okagami and Eiga Monogatari record the rite.