Who Is Omononushi, God of Mount Miwa (Omononushi no Kami)?
The god who dwells on Mount Miwa
Omononushi-no-Okami
Omononushi is the god worshipped on Mount Miwa in Nara. He is regarded as the same god who, in Book I of the Kojiki, helped build the land and was enshrined on Mount Miwa.
In Book II he appears in two stories. In one, he turns into a red-painted arrow, floats down to the maiden Seyadatarahime, and their union produces Isukeyorihime. In the other, during the reign of Emperor Sujin, when a plague was killing people one after another, he appears in the emperor's dream and says, "Have my descendant Otataneko worship me, and the land will be at peace." To explain that lineage, the Kojiki also tells of a young man who visited Ikutamayoribime every night; when a hemp thread was stitched to his clothes and followed, it led to the shrine on Mount Miwa.
Because three loops (miwa) of hemp were left on the spool, the Kojiki says the place came to be called Miwa. Omiwa Shrine at the foot of the mountain treats the mountain itself as the god's body and is famous for having no main sanctuary building.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 3
A Love Story That Began With “Why Those Eyes?”The Kume Songs and Princess Isukeyori
Having lost his brother on the road to Yamato, Iwarebiko clears his way with song: a feast-song signal in a mountain cave, a dawn assault on the man who shot his brother, and a call that brings food to his starving soldiers. Now king of the land, the young man gets help from his comrade-in-arms Okume's answering verse and meets a maiden with an unflinching gaze.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
I Sewed a Thread to My Secret LoverThe Legend of Mount Miwa
A plague has nearly emptied the land. Emperor Sujin is told in a dream to find a man named Otataneko, though nobody has ever heard of him. When he is found at last, Otataneko tells an old family story. Long ago, a young woman named Ikutamayoribime was visited every night by a handsome stranger who would not give his name. She stitched a single hemp thread into his robe. In the morning, it ran out through the keyhole of her locked door, and at its end waited the very god the emperor met in his dream.
19 pages