Oyama Afuri Rain Legend

The Oyama Afuri rain tradition centers on the principal deity of Oyama Afuri Shrine in Isehara, Kanagawa, Oyamatsumi-no-Okami, and on the belief that the clouds covering Mount Oyama bring rain. "Afuri" is read as "ame-furi" (rain-fall), and the conical form of the mountain at the eastern end of the Tanzawa range often drew thunderstorms; farmers across the Kanto plain visited it to pray for rain. In the Edo period the Oyama-mode pilgrimage flourished, with congregations walking the streets of Edo on a pilgrimage that became the subject of the rakugo "Oyama-mode" and Hiroshige's Soshu Oyama woodblock prints. The legend has three layers: the identification of mountain form with weather (clouds equaling divine presence), the worship of Oyamatsumi as rain god, and the Edo-period system of confraternities and oshi (ritual hosts). The same Oyamatsumi-no-Okami is enshrined at the Izu first shrine Mishima Taisha (Mishima, Shizuoka), a paired rite-site. The shrine's main shrine is at the summit (1,252 m) and the lower shrine on the mountain's middle slope; the shrine is in Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park. The Engishiki Jinmyocho "Sagami Province, Osumi District, Afuri Shrine," the Shinpen Sagami no Kuni Fudoki-ko, and the Oyama-dera Engi Emaki form the textual core; the rakugo "Oyama-mode" and Edo-period road-records carry the pilgrim culture.