Nachi Karasu-ishi Legend

The Nachi Karasu-ishi legend tells of a sacred stone in the precincts of Kumano Nachi Taisha in Wakayama, identified as the petrified form of Yatagarasu, the three-legged crow who in the Kojiki (712 CE) and Nihon Shoki (720 CE) guided Emperor Jimmu's army from Kumano through the mountains to Uda in Yamato. In the Nachi tradition, having completed its mission, the crow turned to stone and remains in the shrine grounds; it is venerated as a treasure of Kumano Nachi Taisha and as the deity of the Miagatahiko-sha subordinate shrine, which enshrines Yatagarasu as Karasu-no-kami. The cycle has three stages: Jimmu's loss of the way in Kumano and the dispatch of Yatagarasu by Takamimusubi-no-Mikoto; the crow's guidance from Kumano through the mountains to Yamato; and the petrification of the crow after fulfilling its role and its later enshrinement. Yatagarasu survives as the guide messenger of the Kumano Sanzan and is the well-known emblem of the Japan Football Association. The Kumano cult ranks Nachi, with its great waterfall and the karasu, alongside Hongu and Hayatama. The Nachi waterfall (the sacred body of Hiro Jinja) stands behind the shrine, and the Nachi area lies within the Yoshino-Kumano National Park and the 'Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range' UNESCO World Heritage area. Sources include the central scroll of the Kojiki and the Jimmu chapter of the Nihon Shoki, shrine records, the Kii Zoku Fudoki and the Kumano Gongen Gosuijaku Engi held by Kumano Nachi Taisha.