Musashi Mitake-san O-inu-sama Legend

The Musashi Mitake-san O-inu-sama legend is a mountain-cult cycle in Musashi Province, centred on the wolf deity Okuchi-no-Magami, also called O-inu-sama (the Honourable Dog), enshrined as messenger at Musashi Mitake Jinja on Mount Mitake (929 m). Shrine tradition holds that during Yamato-takeru-no-Mikoto's eastern expedition, when he lost his way on the mountain, a white wolf appeared and led him to the summit; the wolf was later enshrined as Okuchi-no-Magami. The deity holds the protective powers of warding off fire and theft, exorcising possession and keeping away wolf attacks, and the cult-area for O-inu-sama spread across Musashi, Kai, Sagami and Kozuke. The talisman, a printed image of a wolf on woodblock, was venerated as an apotropaic charm at house entrances. The structure has three parts: Yamato-takeru's eastern expedition and loss of the way on Mitake; the white wolf's appearance and guidance to the summit; and the elevation to Okuchi-no-Magami and the spread of the O-inu-sama cult across Kanto. The double structure of wolf-harm and wolf-worship is shared with Chichibu Mitsumine Jinja in Saitama; Mitsumine and Mitake make a pair in the Kanto mountain-cult area. The cult is also connected to the protection of livestock, especially silkworms. The site is Musashi Mitake Jinja near the summit of Mount Mitake in Mitakesan, Ome (Tokyo). The shrine sits just below the summit, with oshi (yamabushi-priests') houses along the approach. With Mitsumine Jinja in Chichibu and Hodosan Jinja in Nagatoro, it forms the Kanto O-inu-sama cult sphere, and together with Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama in Sagami it makes up the heart of Kanto mountain worship. The site shares mythic space with Yamato-takeru-related shrines such as Hashirimizu Jinja in Yokosuka. Sources include the Yamato-takeru eastern expedition section of the Keiko chapter of the Nihon Shoki, the medieval Mitake-san Engi, the Edo Shinpen Musashi Fudoki-ko (1810-1828) and the journals of Sugae Masumi. Wolf-cult studies include Yanagita Kunio's Yama no Jinsei and Chiba Tokuji's Shuryo Denjo Kenkyu; the shrine records, Tokyo and Ome cultural-property materials and the Kanto wolf-cult surveys provide further documentation.