Kotohira Tengu Legend

The Kotohira Tengu legend is the Shugendo cycle attached to Kotohira-gu on Mount Zozu in Kotohira, Kagawa. Konpira-bo, one of the eight major tengu of Japan, is described as the mountain's guardian. Kotohira-gu's principal deity, Omononushi-no-Kami, is the same deity associated with Mount Miwa in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki and was widely worshipped as a protector of maritime traffic, agriculture and medicine. From the medieval period the shrine was reframed within Shugendo as Konpira Dai-gongen, syncretised with the Indian deity Kumbhira, and became the centre of a Seto Inland Sea cult. Pilgrimage to Konpira was, with Ise and Zenkoji, one of the three great pilgrimages of the early-modern period. Sources include medieval Konpira Dai-gongen Engi, the Sanuki no Kuni Meisho Zue (1854), and Jippensha Ikku's Kanezowaraji (1810-1822); studies of the tengu tradition include Chigiri Kosai's Tengu-ko and Inoue Enryo's Tengu-ron.