Ōtori-jinja 大鳥神社 is the place of worship for Ebisu 恵比寿 in the Seven Lucky Gods tour of Zōshigaya 雑司ヶ谷. The main shrine, however, is devoted to the mythical character Yamato Takeru 日本武 1.
Often, the lion dogs in front of a shrine or temple are simply called either koma inu 狛犬 or shishi 獅子, but in fact there usually is one of each. The one that has its mouth opened is the shishi and the one that has its mouth closed is the koma inu. Furthermore, when looking up the difference between the two one can usually find that the latter has a unicorn-like horn, but most koma inu I have seen do not have a horn. Since the one at Ōtori-jinja clearly has a horn I elaborated on this subject.
A hōkora 祠dedicated to Ebisu can be found near the main shrine.
Another deity enshrined on the grounds of Ōtori-jinja is Uga no Mitama no Mikoto 倉稲魂尊, a deity closely related to Inari 稲荷.
Footnotes:
1 By the way, Yamato Takeru was portrayed brilliantly by actor Mifune Toshirō 三船敏郎 in the 1959 film Nippon Tanjō 日本誕生.
Sources:
- Ekubota, Hiromichi (久保田裕道). 『日本の神さま』(Nihon no kami-sama). Tokyo: PHP Kenkyūsho (PHP研究所), 2008.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten