Ibuki-no-Kami- Japanese GodDeity"God of Mount Ibuki"

The Encounter with Yamato Takeru

After his campaigns in the eastern provinces, Yamato Takeru turned homeward toward Yamato and decided to subdue the god of Mount Ibuki on the border of Ōmi and Mino. He left the sacred sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi behind with his consort Miyazu-hime at Atsuta. He climbed the mountain unarmed of divine protection.

On the path he met a great white boar. The Kojiki says he dismissed it as a mere messenger of the mountain god and declared he would deal with it on the way down. He walked past it without breaking stride.

The boar was no messenger. It was the god. Enraged by the insult, Ibuki-no-Kami brought down a hailstorm that battered Yamato Takeru with ice and freezing rain. The hero stumbled off the mountain dazed and sick. He paused at the Tama spring and briefly recovered his senses, but the divine sickness had already taken hold. He grew weaker with every mile, and at the plain of Nobo in Ise Province he died without reaching home.

The Serpent on the Path

The Nihon Shoki tells the encounter differently. In its account, the mountain god appeared not as a white boar but as a great serpent blocking the trail. Yamato Takeru stepped over it. The outcome was the same.