Mount Ibuki- Japanese LocationLocation · Landmark

Yamato Takeru and the God of Mount Ibuki

Mount Ibuki (伊吹山) stands on the ancient boundary between Ōmi and Mino provinces in central Japan. According to the Kojiki, after his campaigns against the Kumaso in Kyushu and the Emishi in the east, the hero Yamato Takeru set out to subdue the deity of Mount Ibuki on his return journey. Overconfident from his string of victories and having left his legendary sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi in the care of his consort Miyazu-hime, Yamato Takeru declared he would defeat the mountain god with his bare hands.

As he ascended, he encountered a white boar on the mountain path, the deity in disguise. He dismissed it as a mere messenger, vowing to deal with it later. The mountain god summoned a fierce hailstorm that disoriented and weakened the hero. Yamato Takeru staggered down the mountain in a daze, resting at a spring called Tamakida, but never recovered. The curse proved fatal. He died at the plain of Nobo in Ise, and his spirit transformed into a white bird.

The Ibuki Dōji Tradition

The Otogi-zōshi tale known as Ibuki Dōji claims that after Susanoo slew the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi in Izumo, its malevolent spirit migrated to Mount Ibuki and took up residence in the mountain's depths. The serpent's lingering essence eventually produced the demon Shuten-dōji, whose mother was a human woman from the Ibuki region impregnated by the mountain's supernatural power. Shuten-dōji would go on to terrorize Kyoto from his stronghold on Mount Ōe until the warrior Minamoto no Raikō led an expedition to slay him. But his origin, in this tradition, lay on Mount Ibuki, where the ancient serpent's malice had seeped into the earth.