Togakushi Ama-no-Iwato Legend

The Togakushi Ama-no-Iwato legend is a mountain-cult tradition that identifies Mount Togakushi (1,904 m) in Shinano as the place where the heavenly rock-cave, after being opened by Ame-no-Tajikarao-no-Kami, was hurled. In the upper scroll of the Kojiki (712 CE) and the age-of-the-gods seventh section of the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), Amaterasu-Omikami withdraws into the heavenly rock-cave and the world goes dark; the council of the gods devises the trance dance of Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto and the strength of Ame-no-Tajikarao opens the cave. In the Togakushi tradition the door, once pulled away, flies down to Shinano and becomes the mountain. An older indigenous layer of nine-headed-dragon (Kuzuryu Gongen) belief runs in parallel, and Togakushi was widely known from the medieval period as a layered site of Shinto, Shugendo and Buddhism. The five shrines that make up Togakushi Jinja are Okusha (Tajikarao), Chusha (Omoikane), Hokoosha (Ame-no-Uwaharu), Kuzuryu-sha (Kuzuryu-okami) and Hinomikosha (Ame-no-Uzume). The cedar avenue to Okusha is a designated natural treasure of Nagano. Sources include the medieval Togakushi-san Kenkoji Ryuki, the Togakushi-san Ekotoba, the Dai-Nippon-koku Hokke Genki, the Genko Shakusho, the Kojiki upper scroll rock-cave section (712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki age-of-the-gods seventh section (720 CE), with shrine records and the Nagano City Museum studies.