22-554: Atago Gongen ( 愛宕権現 ) also known as Tarōbō (太郎坊), Atago Daigongen (愛宕大権現), Shōgun Jizō (勝軍地蔵) of Mount Atago is a Japanese kami and tengu believed to be the local avatar ( Gongen ) of Buddhist bodhisattva Jizō and Shinto goddess Izanami . He is mounted on a white horse and carries a ringed staff and desire-cancelling jewel. The cult originated in Shugendō practices on Mount Atago in Kyoto , and Atago Gongen
44-439: A Shinto shrine) was added in 1928. It is told that the deity of the shrine is Izanami-no-Mikoto, and from ancient times, it was called Atago Gongen. Originally, Wake no Kiyomaro transferred the divided deity from Kyoto. In Kyoto, Goo-jinja Shrine enshrined Kiyomaro and there was a tradition that Ujiko worshiped Goo-jinja Shrine, received the charm, and brought it back to Nakamiya-jinja Shrine. The philosopher Hayashi Razan lists
66-603: A guardian deity in the northwest regions of Kyoto. Mt. Atago was worshipped as a deity of wildfire and theft protection, but this belief later merged with the principles of the Shogun Jizō belief, resulting in the creation of the deity Atago Gongen. At the time, faith in the Tengū was popular as well, resulting in Atago Gongen being worshipped by some as ‘Taroubou’, according to sources such as Fujiwara no Yorinaga ’s diary,
88-530: A trusted advisor to Emperor Kanmu , a position which he used to encourage the development of Buddhism in a direction which would prevent it from posing a threat to the government. According to the Shoku Nihongi , he was sent to the Usa Shrine to receive a divine message; stating that only those of descent from Amaterasu could become emperor, it refuted the previous divine message claiming Dōkyō
110-519: Is represented with the features of a Chinese warrior on horseback, carrying a pilgrim’s staff and a cintamani. Popular imagery sometimes also symbolizes him by statuettes of a horse carrying a cintamani on its back. The support animal or messenger of this Atago Gongen is the wild boar, the symbol of courage, strength, and perseverance. Many legends relate that warriors in difficulty have been rescued by wild boars or Atago Jizō 愛宕地蔵, which charged at their enemies, putting them to flight.” Nakamiya-jinja Shrine
132-558: Is the term for belief in the existence of gongen. The gongen concept is the cornerstone of the honji suijaku theory, according to which Buddhist deities choose to appear to the Japanese as native kami in order to save them, which is based on the Mahayana Buddhist notion of upaya , "expedient means". It is sometimes assumed that the word gongen derives from Tokugawa Ieyasu 's posthumous name (Tōshō Daigongen). However,
154-422: Is worshiped as a protector against fire and a god of war and victory by Samurai . There are some nine hundred Atago Shrines around Japan. Mount Atago was said to be infested by tengu during the reign of Emperor Monmu . One of the tengu was a particularly powerful one named Tarōbō. The sages En no Gyōja and Taichō were charged with clearing the mountain. When Tarōbō surrendered to them, he became protector of
176-630: The first of the great tengu . Says the Flammarion Iconographic Guide: “In certain cases, Jizō may also assume a syncretic aspect, and be represented as a warrior when assimilated with Atago Gongen, a Kami considered to be a temporary incarnation of Jizō. This kami (Shintō deity), protector from flame and fire, mainly venerated on Mount Atago in Kyoto Prefecture, has also been identified as being Kagutsuchi or even Susanoo-no-Mikoto and sometimes even as Izanagi . He
198-607: The Daiki. Taroubou is said in some sources to have been related to Shinto deities the likes of Amaterasu , Tsukuyomi , Hiruko , and Susanoo . The faith in Atago Gongen began to diminish due to the revision and removal of Buddhist beliefs and ideology via the Ordinance for the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism in 1868. In the 1870s, many temples and shrines dedicated to Atago Gongen were forcibly shut down or abandoned. Nowadays,
220-644: The Kumano Kodō, and as valuable as the moon is to Mt. Atago”. As the combined faith in Mt. Atago and Shugendō became more and more popular in the Edo period, more shrines dedicated to the faith were built all over Japan. Due to the influence of Onmyodo and the faith in the Kunado-no-Kami (local Japanese gods connected to protection from natural disasters and malicious spirits), Mt. Atago itself came to be considered
242-701: The Middle Ages, with its main shrine enshrining Izanami and Katsugun Jizō, the Okuin shrine enshrining Taroubou, and the Tendai shrine enshrining Katsuji-incho Tokobo, Kyogakuin Ozaki-bo, and Daizen. Mt. Atago is considered to be one of the seven “high mountains” of the Shugendō faith, and Mt. Atago flourished as an ascetic dojo to the extent that it is said to be worth “seven times more than Ise, three times more than
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#1732776584841264-538: The country and the concept of gongen, a dual entity composed of a buddha and a kami, evolved. Under the influence of Tendai Buddhism and Shugendō , the gongen concept was adapted to religious beliefs tied to Mount Iwaki , a volcano, so that female kami Kuniyasutamahime became associated with Avalokiteśvara ekadaśamukha (Jūichimen Kannon Bosatsu, "Eleven-Faced Guanyin "), Ōkuninushi with Bhaisajyaguru (Yakushi Nyōrai) and Kuninotokotachi with Amitābha (Amida Nyōrai). The title "gongen" started being attached to
286-437: The governor of Dazaifu to send officials to Usa to investigate allegations of "fraudulent oracles"; in his later report, Wake no Kiyomaro stated that out of five oracles checked, two were found to be fabricated. This resulted in the government relieving Usa no Ikemori of his position as head priest and replacing him with the previously-disgraced Ōga no Tamaro . Following this, Wake no Kiyomaro returned to Yamato . He remained
308-557: The greatest of these daitengu as Sōjōbō of Kurama , Tarōbō of Atago , and Jirōbō of Hira . The demons of Kurama and Atago are among the most famous tengu . Gongen A gongen ( 権現 ) , literally "incarnation", was believed to be the manifestation of a buddha in the form of an indigenous kami , an entity who had come to guide the people to salvation , during the era of shinbutsu-shūgō in premodern Japan. The words gonge ( 権化 ) and kegen ( 化現 ) are synonyms for gongen. Gongen shinkō ( 権現信仰 )
330-496: The mountain. He is often seen as the guardian or an avatar of Jizō as a result. Atago Gongen is the name of a deity resulting from a fusion of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, specifically combining the worship in Mt. Atago and Shugendō beliefs. The faith in Jizō Bodhisattva is considered to be the original Buddhist belief with Izanami as its patron deity. The Hakuun-ji Temple located in Mt. Atago reached its peak prosperity during
352-586: The names of kami and shrines were built within the premises of large Buddhist temples to enshrine their tutelary kami. During the Japanese Middle Ages, shrines started being called with the name gongen to underline their ties to Buddhism. For example, in Eastern Japan there are still many Mount Haku shrines where the shrine itself is called either gongen or jinja. Because it represents the application of Buddhist terminology to native kami,
374-737: The oldest examples of gongen-zukuri is Kitano Tenmangū in Kyoto . The name comes from Nikkō Tōshō-gū in Nikkō because it enshrines the Tōshō Daigongen and adopts this structure. Wake no Kiyomaro Wake no Kiyomaro ( 和気 清麻呂 , 733–799) was a high-ranking Japanese official during the Nara period. He was born in Bizen Province (now Wake, Okayama ) to a family of politically important, devoted Buddhists who hoped to keep Buddhism and politics separate through religious reform. He became
396-559: The shrines that were once dedicated to Atago Gongen now enshrine deities of the Shinto faith. Like Sōjōbō , these tengu are daitengu , chieftains of a tengu mountain, and appear in different forms of Japanese art. Kimbrough says that in one version of the Heike monogatari , the tengu Tarōbō is described as the greatest tengu in Japan. In the text Gempei Seisuiki , Tarōbō is described as
418-570: The term was created and started being used in the middle of the Heian period in an effort to harmonize Buddhism and indigenous religious practice in what is called shinbutsu-shūgō or " syncretism of kami and buddhas". At that time, the assumption that Japanese kami and buddhas were essentially the same evolved into a theory called honji suijaku ( 本地垂迹 ) , which held that native kami were manifestations or avatars of buddhas, bodhisattvas and other Buddhist deities. The theory gradually spread around
440-545: The use of the term was legally abolished in the Meiji Restoration with the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order ( 神仏判然令 , Shin-butsu Hanzenrei ) and shrines began to be called jinja . Gongen-zukuri ( 権現造 ) is the name of a complex Shinto shrine structure in which the haiden , or worship hall, and the honden , or main sanctuary, are interconnected under the same roof in the shape of an H. One of
462-401: Was built by the lord of Kinugasa Castle, and it used to stand on Nokubo area which was between Mt. Takao and Senko-ji temple, so it was called ‘Naka no Miya’ (Naka means between in Japanese.) Later, it was crashed because of the landslide and it lost a large land. The temporary shrine was built on the small land which was left from the landslide, but it was renewed in 1888, and a torii (gateway to
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#1732776584841484-782: Was to be the next emperor after Empress Kōken (later Empress Shōtoku). This report angered Dōkyō, who used his influence with the Empress to have an edict issued sending Kiyomaro into exile; he also had the sinews of Kiyomaro's legs cut, and only the protection of the Fujiwara clan saved him from being killed outright. The following year, however, Empress Shōtoku died. She was succeeded by Emperor Kōnin , who in turn exiled Dōkyō to Shimotsuke Province and not only recalled Wake no Kiyomaro from exile, but also appointed him as both kami (governor) of Bizen Province and Udaijin (junior minister of state). The following year, he petitioned
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