Editing Susanoo-no-Mikoto (section)

=== Susanoo, Mutō Tenjin and Gozu Tennō ===
{{See also|Somin Shōrai|Gozu Tennō}}
[[File:Gion Daimyojin.png|thumb|170px|Gion Daimyōjin (Gozu Tennō) from the ''[[Butsuzōzui]]'']]

The [[Shinbutsu shūgō|syncretic]] deity [[Gozu Tennō]] (牛頭天王, "Ox-Headed Heavenly King"), originally worshiped at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto and at other shrines such as Tsushima Shrine in Aichi Prefecture, was historically conflated with Susanoo. Originally a deity of foreign import (India and Korea have all been suggested as possible origins), Gozu Tennō was widely revered since the [[Heian period]] as a god of pestilence, who both caused disease and cured them.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Yonei |first1=Teruyoshi |title=Gozu Tennō |url=http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=192 |website=Encyclopedia of Shinto |publisher=Kokugakuin University |access-date=2020-03-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Rambelli |editor1-first=Fabio |editor2-last=Teeuwen |editor2-first=Mark |title=Buddhas and Kami in Japan: Honji Suijaku as a Combinatory Paradigm |url=https://archive.org/details/buddhaskamijapan00teeu |url-access=limited |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |pages=[https://archive.org/details/buddhaskamijapan00teeu/page/n48 38]–39|isbn=9780203220252 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gozu Tennou 牛頭天王 |url=http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/g/gozutennou.htm |website=Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System (JAANUS) |access-date=2020-03-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gozu-Tennō |url=https://www.rodsshinto.com/gozu-tenno |website=rodsshinto.com |access-date=2020-03-30}}</ref>

Gozu Tennō became associated with another deity called Mutō-no-Kami ([[:ja:武塔神|武塔神]]) or Mutō Tenjin (武塔天神), who appears in the legend of [[Somin Shorai|Somin Shōrai]] ([[:ja:蘇民将来|蘇民将来]]). This legend relates that Mutō, a god from the northern sea, embarked on a long journey to court the daughter of the god of the southern seas. On his way he sought lodging from a wealthy man, but was turned down. He then went to the home of a poor man (sometimes identified as the rich man's brother) named Somin Shōrai, who gave him food and shelter. Years later, Mutō returned and slew the rich man and his family but spared Somin Shōrai's house. Some versions of the story have Mutō repaying Somin Shōrai for his hospitality by giving the poor man's daughter a wreath of ''susuki'' (''[[Miscanthus sinensis]]'') reeds that she is to wear while declaring, "[I am] the descendant of Somin Shōrai" (蘇民将来之子孫也, ''Somin Shōrai no shison nari''). By doing so, she and her descendants would be spared from pestilence.<ref name="McMullin">{{cite journal |last1=McMullin |first1=Neil |title=On Placating the Gods and Pacifying the Populace: The Case of the Gion "Goryō" Cult |journal=History of Religions |date=February 1988 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=270–293 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press|doi=10.1086/463123 |jstor=1062279 |s2cid=162357693 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Japan Mail |date=1878-03-11 |publisher=Jappan Mēru Shinbunsha |pages=138–139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IhJCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA169}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hardacre |first1=Helen |title=Shinto: A History |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=181 |isbn=978-0-19-062171-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Q81DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA181}}</ref><ref name="KotenBungaku">{{cite book |editor1-last=Akimoto |editor1-first=Kichirō |title=日本古典文学大系 2 風土記 (Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei, 2: Fudoki) |year=1958 |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |pages=488–489}}</ref> The deity in this story, Mutō,  is often conflated with Gozu Tennō (who, as his name implies, was born with the head of an ox) in later retellings, though one version identifies Gozu Tennō as Mutō Tenjin's son.<ref name="McMullin" />

The earliest known version of this legend, found in the ''Fudoki'' of [[Bingo Province]] (modern eastern [[Hiroshima Prefecture]]) compiled during the [[Nara period]] (preserved in an extract quoted by scholar and Shinto priest Urabe Kanekata in the ''[[Shaku Nihongi]]''), has Mutō explicitly identify himself as Susanoo.<ref name="KotenBungaku" /> This suggests that Susanoo and Mutō Tenjin were already conflated in the Nara period, if not earlier. Sources that equate Gozu Tennō with Susanoo only first appear during the [[Kamakura period]] (1185–1333), although one theory supposes that these three gods and various other disease-related deities were already loosely coalesced around the 9th century, probably around the year 877 when a major epidemic swept through Japan.<ref name="McMullin" />