Sumiyoshi Sanjin

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Main Torii of Sumiyoshi Taisha .

The three sumiyoshi-kami ( Japanese 住 吉 三 神 , sumiyoshi sanshin ) are Japanese kami of the sea.

In detail these are (in the order of their appearance in Kojiki and with the translation by Karl Florenz ):

  • Soko-tsutsu-no-o no mikoto ( 底 筒 男 命 ; "The [sea] soil's ancient man"),
  • Naka-tsutsu-no-o no mikoto ( 中 筒 男 命 ; "The [sea] middle venerable man") and
  • Uwa-tsutsu-no-o no mikoto ( 表 筒 男 命 ; "The surface venerable man").

If one speaks of the Sumiyoshi daijin , the "great Sumiyoshi gods", the Tennō consort Jingū -kōgō, also revered in Sumiyoshi Taisha under the name Okinagatarashihime ( 息 長 帯 姫 ) , is included in this group . According to the Kojiki , the Sumiyoshi-Kami accompanied Jingū's ship on their military expedition to Korea.

The Sumiyoshi-Kami are venerated in over 2,000 Sumiyoshi shrines spread across Japan , the main shrine of which is the Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka .

Names

The characters 住 吉 sumiyoshi were originally read Suminoye , where 住 ("live, reside") read sumi , and 吉 ("good sign") read ye . The no is an inserted particle, together it means something like "inherent happiness". If you write Suminoe as 澄江 or 清江 , it can also mean “unclouded river”. As part of the Yasoshima-Matsuri ( 八十 嶋 祭 ), a festivity carried out from 850 to the Kamakura period for the accession of the Tennō , the latter blessed the sea in a ritual called Suminoe ( 住 吉 ). Confusingly, there are two places near Sumiyoshi-taisha that are named Suminoe . One is written 住 之 江 , meaning “pure river”, the other 墨 江 , meaning “Indian ink river” (Sumi is the same symbol here as in 墨 絵 sumie , ink image).

In the Heian period the reading of the second character was changed, from then on 住 吉 was read as sumiyoshi .

The names of the three gods can be interpreted as “lowest”, “middle” and “foremost of a row”, whereby o no mikoto means “male kami”.

It is believed that the names of the three gods refer to the three stars that make up Orion's belt . As the kami of seafaring, these three stars helped the early seafarers navigate.

Emergence

According to the gods tales of Kojiki and Nihonshoki , the three Sumiyoshi-Kami were born together with the three Watatsumi -Kami when Izanami was washing in the sea to perform the Misogi ritual. Another version, the Sumiyoshi kami along with five other cleaning Kami so born ( Misogi- harai -no-kami ): Soko-tsu-tsu-wata-mi-no-kami, Naka-tsu-tsu-mi-wata -no-kami, Uwa-tsu-wata-tsu-mi-no-kami, Kamu-naho-bi-no-kami and Ō-naho-bi-no-kami (sometimes also necessary together with Ya-so-maga- tsu-hi-no-kami).

Originally the three Watatsumi and the three Sumiyoshi Kami were the same entities. However, when the center of political power in Japan was moved from Kyushu to the Kinai area in the early days of Japanese history , the Kami, whose sanctuary remained in Kyushu, were referred to as Watatsumi-kami, while the gods who had moved to Kinai became the Sumiyoshi-Kami were. The thesis of a connection between the two divine triads is supported by the fact that the shrine of the patron saint ( ujigami ) of the Tsumori family, who have been the chief priest of the Sumiyoshi shrine for generations, is called Ō-watatsumi-jinja ( 大海 神社 ).

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