Suwa clan

Although the Suwa, which was the high priestly lineage of the Upper Shrine (上社 Kamisha) of Suwa, one of the component shrines of Suwa Grand Shrine, traditionally regarded themselves to be the descendants of the shrine's deity, Takeminakata (also known as Suwa Daimyōjin),^[2] the clan's actual historical origins are shrouded in mystery.

In the Kojiki and the Sendai Kuji Hongi, Takeminakata is portrayed as a son of the god Ōkuninushi who fled to Suwa after his defeat at the hands of the god Takemikazuchi, who was sent by the gods of heaven to claim the land held by his father in the name of the goddess Amaterasu.^[3][4][5][6] Other myths (mostly of medieval provenance), however, portray the Suwa deity in a different light. In one story, Suwa Daimyōjin is an interloper who wrested control of Suwa from the indigenous god Moriya,^[7] the mythical ancestor of the Moriya (守矢氏) clan, one of the priestly families of the Upper Shrine.^[8][9] In another myth, the god is said to have chosen an eight-year-old boy to become his priest (祝, hōri; historical orthography: hafuri) and living incarnation by clothing the latter with his own garments. This boy is eventually said to have become the founding ancestor of the Suwa clan.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Medieval tradition usually identified a semi-legendary individual named Arikazu (有員), who is said to have lived in the early Heian period during the reigns of the emperors Kanmu (reigned 781-806), Heizei (806-809), and Saga (809-823), to be this child.^{[15][16][11][17]} The Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba (1356) for example relates:

At the beginning of the god's manifestation, he took off his robe, put them on an eight-year-old boy, and dubbed him 'great priest' (Ōhōri). The god declared, "I do not have a body and so make this priest (hōri) my body." This [boy] is Arikazu (有員), the priest of the sacred robe (御衣祝 Misogihōri), the founding ancestor of the Miwa (Jin) clan.

However, a brief text attached to a genealogical record of the Suwa clan discovered in the Ōhōri's residence in 1884^[18] instead portrays Arikazu as a descendant of Kumako (神子 or 熊子), a son of a kuni no miyatsuko (provincial governor) of Shinano Province, who is claimed to have founded the Upper Shrine during the reign of Emperor Yōmei (585-587).^[19]

When Kumako was eight years old, the revered deity appeared, took off his robe and put them on Kumako. After declaring, "I do not have a body and so make you my body," he disappeared. This [Kumako] is the ancestor of Arikazu of the Miwa (Jin) clan, the Misogihōri. In the second year of Emperor Yōmei, Kumako built a sanctuary at the foot of the mountain at the southern side of the lake.

Another genealogical record, that of the Aso clan (阿蘇氏) of Aso Shrine in Kyushu (discovered in 1956), similarly identifies Otoei (乙頴) - there given the alias 'Kumako' - as the "Ōhōri of the great deity of Suwa" (諏訪大神大祝) and narrates the same legend as those found above.^[20] Recent reappraisals of these two genealogies, however, have cast doubt on their authenticity and reliability as historical sources.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26]}

Apart from these candidates, the clan has also been claimed to descend from the Seiwa Genji via Minamoto no Mitsuyasu (one of the sons of Minamoto no Tsunemoto).^[27][28]

In antiquity, the Suwa clan produced the Upper Shrine (上社 Kamisha) of Suwa's high priest known as the Ōhōri (大祝 'great priest', old orthography: おほはふり Ohohafuri; also rendered as Ōhafuri), who was worshiped as the living avatar of the shrine's deity during his period in office.^[14][29]

The Ōhōri, who traditionally assumed the position at a young age (ideally between the ages of eight and fifteen), was assisted by five priests headed by the Jinchōkan (神長官) of the Moriya clan, who oversaw the Upper Shrine's religious rituals, many of which are centered around the worship of agricultural and fertility god(s) called Mishaguji. The Jinchōkan was believed to have the prerogative to summon the Mishaguji onto individuals and objects whenever its presence was called for.^[30][31]

Though officially the Upper Shrine's chief priest and as incarnate deity, an object of worship, the Suwa Ōhōri had little, if any, actual power over the shrine's affairs, which rested in the hands of the Moriya Jinchōkan, with his unique relationship to the Mishaguji and his knowledge of closely guarded secret traditions passed down via word of mouth only to the heir to the office.^[32] In fact, it was due to the Jinchōkan summoning the Mishaguji onto the Ōhōri during the investiture ceremony that the latter became a living deity.^[33][34]

The full rite of investiture into the office of Ōhōri as practiced in the late medieval period involved the candidate first undergoing a twenty-two day period of strict ritual purification in the Maemiya (前宮 'old shrine'), one of the Upper Shrine's two component shrines. During the day of the ceremony itself, the Jinchōkan led the candidate by the hand before a sacred tree west of the Gōdono (神殿), the Ōhōri's residence during his term located west of the Maemiya, under which was a flat rock known as the kanameishi (要石 'keystone'). During the ceremony, this rock is surrounded a makeshift enclosure or hut and a mat of reeds was placed over it for the boy to sit on.^[35]

Inside this enclosure, the Jinchōkan dressed the boy in full ritual attire: traditional makeup (oshiroi, ohaguro, beni and mayuzumi), a dull yellow-green sokutai, a hakama, and a crown (kanmuri).^[36] The Jinchōkan then summoned the Mishaguji (who as a nature spirit was believed to manifest on rocks and trees^[30]) to the kanameishi via secret incantations. Via the rock, the Mishaguji was then believed to enter the child's body, thereby turning him into a living god.^[37][38]

After being consecrated, the Ōhōri visited the various shrines of the Upper Shrine complex. In another shrine in the Maemiya area, the Uchi-no-mitama-den (内御霊殿), wherein was kept the sacred treasures of the Upper Shrine (a bell, a mirror, a bit and a saddle) that were supposedly brought to the region by Suwa Daimyōjin himself,^[39] the Ōhōri made a ritual declaration (申立 mōshitate) that he has become the god's new 'body' and will henceforth avoid impurity.^[40]

As time went on the ritual became increasingly simplified and later, was supposedly even omitted altogether, with the ōhōri simply assuming the position without any ceremony.^[41]

During his term, the incumbent Ōhōri was treated as the physical manifestation of Suwa Daimyōjin. In 1186, Minamoto no Yoritomo officially recognized the Ōhōri as the god's incarnation in a letter to his subordinates, declaring that the Ōhōri's orders are those of the god himself.^[42]

The Ōhōri was expected to live a life of ritual purity and was also forbidden to step outside the boundaries of Suwa region under pain of divine punishment.^[43][44]

During his term of office, the Ōhōri originally resided in a building near the Suwa Maemiya known as the Gōdono (神殿). Reflecting its being the residence of an incarnate deity, the Maemiya area and its vicinity was known during the Middle Ages as the Gōbara (神原), the 'god's field'.^[45][44]

Should an incumbent Ōhōri die while in office, his corpse was immediately brought before the Uchi-no-mitama-den where he was ceremonially retired - the idea being that the Ōhōri's spirit was temporarily deposited in the shrine until a new candidate was chosen.^[46] Originally, the deceased priest was buried wearing hunting attire (such as that supposedly worn by Suwa Daimyōjin) and with hair and beard kept unshaven.^[47] However, in 1465, with the death of then Ōhōri Yorinaga (頼長), the local priesthood began to adopt the Buddhist custom of cremation.^[47]

By the early 17th century, the Ōhōri's residence was moved from the Maemiya to a place in what is now Nakasu, Suwa City.