Improving your luck in Oarai 1
The Establishment of Oarai Isosaki Shrine
Improving your luck in Oarai 1
A stone torii stands on a large rock in the reefs of Meisho Oarai. It is referred to as the Kamiiso no Torii. Onamuchi no Mikoto and Sukunahikona no Mikoto, who descended on this large rock, are now the deities of Oarai Isosaki Shrine which is located on Mt. Oarai, about a hundred steps from the shore. The "Nihon Montoku Tenno Jitsuroku" (850-858), compiled in the Heian period, includes a story of the descent of the deities. Here is a free translation of the story.
December 29, 856 The governor of Hitachinokuni says. Gods descended anew in Oarai Isosaki, Kashima County. When the people boiling the salt looked out to sea at midnight, the heavens were shining.
The next day he went to the beach and found two fantastically shaped rocks. Both were one shaku tall, and their shapes seemed to have been created by God and not by the work of man. The old man boiling salt was suspicious of these and left.
The next day, there were about 20 pebbles on each side of the fantastically shaped rocks. It looks like people sitting in attendance, but the coloring is unusual, or like a statue of Buddhist priest, but it lacks ears and eyes. At that very moment, God possesses people and said.
"I am Onamuchi no Mikoto and Sukunahikona no Mikoto. Long ago, I created this land and went away to the eastern sea, but now I have come back again to save the people."
On August 7, 857, Oarai Isosaki Shrine and Sakatsura Isosaki Shrine in Hitachinokuni were listed as kansha, and the two shrines received the divine title of Yakushi Bosatsu Myojin on October 15.
Smallpox and famine struck Japan during this period, and many people died. At that time, it was believed that epidemics were caused by gods, and the government considered sutra chanting, prayers, hohei (receiving offerings from the state), and making Buddhist images as countermeasures against epidemics.
Oarai Isosaki Shrine was also listed as a kansha and received a hohei within a year of its establishment. And at that time, it received the divine title of Yakushi Bosatsu and became the god of medicine.
Hitachinokuni Fudoki once described Hitachinokuni as like Tokoyonokuni, a land of immortality, but it is said that two deities descended in response to the people's wish that disaster would never happen again. That is how Oarai Isosaki Shrine, the spiritual foundation of Oarai's health resorts, was established.
