Uka no Mitama- Japanese GodDeity"Kami of Food Grains"
Also known as: 宇迦之御魂神, Ukanomitama, Uka no Mitama no Kami, and 倉稲魂命
Description
The divine spirit of the grain, whose very name means "sacred soul of food." Born to Susanoo and the grain-goddess Kamu-Ōichi-hime, Uka no Mitama is the kami enshrined at Fushimi Inari Taisha and identified with Inari across thirty thousand shrines in Japan.
Mythology & Lore
Birth and the Grain
The Kojiki names Uka no Mitama as a child of Susanoo and Kamu-Ōichi-hime, born alongside Ōtoshi, the harvest deity. Both parents carried grain in their names and their natures. Susanoo, banished from heaven, had become a god of the earthly realm; Kamu-Ōichi-hime was a goddess of the market and the harvest.
A related story in the Nihon Shoki tells of the grain deity Ukemochi, who hosted the moon god Tsukuyomi by producing food from her own body, pulling rice and fish and game from her mouth and nostrils. Tsukuyomi was so disgusted that he killed her. From Ukemochi's corpse the five grains sprouted: rice from her belly, millet from her forehead, wheat from her genitals. Ukemochi and Uka no Mitama are different figures in the texts, but the grain grows from both.
Fushimi Inari
Uka no Mitama is enshrined as the central deity at Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, the head shrine of roughly thirty thousand Inari shrines across Japan. The name Inari gathered several grain deities under one identity over the centuries, and Uka no Mitama became the primary divine name behind that face.
Foxes guard the approach. Stone kitsune sit at every torii gate, ears pricked, keys or jewels clamped in their jaws. The foxes are Inari's messengers, and through Inari, they are Uka no Mitama's. Farmers prayed here before planting season. Merchants pray here now before opening a business. The grain deity's shrine absorbed every kind of petition the living could bring.
Relationships
- Has aspect