Gozu Tenno- Japanese GodDeity"Lord of Gion"
Also known as: 牛頭天王 and Gozu Tennō
Description
A wandering god refused by a rich man, welcomed by his poor brother — the plague that followed spared only those who wore the grass ring he gave as thanks. Gozu Tennō's worship at Yasaka Shrine gave rise to the Gion Matsuri.
Mythology & Lore
The Rich Man and the Poor Man
A fragment attributed to the Bingo no Kuni Fudoki preserves the story. A wandering god sought lodging during his travels. A wealthy man named Kotan Shōrai turned him away. His poor brother Somin Shōrai took the god in, fed him what little he had, and gave him a place to sleep.
The god gave Somin Shōrai a ring woven from kaya grass and told him to wear it. Then he sent a plague. Kotan Shōrai and everyone who had refused the god died. Somin Shōrai's family, wearing the grass ring, was spared. The chinowa, the grass ring passed through during purification rites at shrines across Japan, comes from this story.
The wandering god is named as Gozu Tennō in some tellings and as Susanoo in others. The two were identified as the same deity for most of Japanese religious history.
The Gion Matsuri
In 876 CE, a shrine-temple complex was built at the eastern edge of Kyoto to protect the capital from epidemics. Gozu Tennō was enshrined there as the god who could turn plague back.
In 869, a devastating plague struck the city. Sixty-six halberds, one for each province of Japan, were erected at the Shinsen-en garden, and Gozu Tennō was invoked to drive the pestilence away. The ritual became the Gion Matsuri, held every July, and over the centuries it grew into the procession of yamaboko floats that fills the streets of Kyoto today.
After the Meiji government separated Buddhism from Shinto in 1868, the shrine was renamed Yasaka Jinja and Susanoo officially replaced Gozu Tennō as the enshrined deity. The festival kept its name.
Relationships
- Has aspect