Kamayama Jinja Shrine（竈山神社）

The first emperor of Japan "Jinmu" was born in Takachiho, Kyushu. He went on a journey to look for the better place to rule Japan. He had many fights against local deities who showed him disobedience. He won the battles on his journey with his own strength and supports from his brother. Jinmu accompanied his elder brother "Itsuse" but Itsuse died of an enemy's attack while on their journey. Jinmu mourned his brother's death and he decided to make a grave for his brother. The place Jinmu buried his brother's body is now a shrine and Itsuse is the enshrined god.

Kamayama Jinja shrine （竈山神社）is located in Wakayama as one of the three shrine visit (Refer to " Itakiso Jinja Shrine" ) and its location is in between Nichizen-Gu shrine and Itakiso Jinja shrine. When you go through the main gate, you will see a spacious graveled garden with a widely large main bundling (alter). Behind the main building, there is a core building where the god is said to exist, and the core building looked linked to the god's grave.

The main building (alter inside)

As the enshrined god is the first emperor's brother Itsuse, his graveyard is managed and controlled by the Imperial Household Agency or Kunai-cho, of which work is to support the imperial family and manage the family's property such as their palace, villas, treasures and graves. The grave is blockaded by the "keep-out" fence but it seems to be linked directly to the core building behind the main building for the alter. Actually, there aren't tangible evidences that Ituse existed for real. I haven't found any data available on whether or not Itsue was a real existence.

As seen in the picture, Itsuse is drawn as a brave/bold male deity so sometimes it can be seen as a fighting god. However, Motoori Norinaga, a specialist of Kojiki (the first national history in writing; refer to "おのころ神社") in Edo period (1603 AD to 1868 AD) argued that the name of Ituse originally meant "rice", so Ituse is actually a god of rice (symbolically, "rice" is food and grain). I explained in a previous article, rice is a important part of Japanese Shintoism (Refer to "Rice and religion" ) and there are many rice guardians in the religion. Interestingly, those rice guardians are higher-rank deities in the divine hierarchy. You can see how ancient Japanese (our great great ancestors) put an emphasis on their food by having many gods related to rice (and food).

The god's grave

Pictorial god

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