Yoshida[1] Tōgo lists seven Kamo (usually written 賀茂 or 鴨) Shrines, which are for the most part dedicated to another thunder god, Wakeikazuchi-no-mikoto 別雷命. In no case is it clearly stated that the object of worship in any of these shrines is a weapon which can be identified with a stone thunderbolt, but it is significant that in one case this is indirectly implied. The Kamo 賀毛 Shrine at Haruta 治田 in the extreme north of Ise 伊勢 is one of the few places in that province known as a site abounding in prehistoric stone implements, so it is not improbable that a stone thunderbolt was the original deity of this shrine also.[2]
This scattered evidence in favor of the identification of stone weapons with thunderbolts in ancient Japan is far from being conclusive. It is all too scanty and trivial in the face of the almost complete absence of corroborative evidence in the passages on stone and thunder deities in such early works as the Kojiki, the Kogoshūi 古語拾遺, and the Nihon shoki and other volumes of the Rikkokushi 六國史. However, it is sufficient to hint strongly at a very interesting possibility, which deserves further study.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedr8 - ↑ Cf. Yoshida 606. Other hints may possibly be derived from the following facts: (1) the Iso 伊曾 (iso=ishi, “stone,” as in Isonokami?) Shrine in Iyo 伊豫 is in a place called Kamo 賀茂 and is devoted to the worship of the Kamo family (Yoshida 1286); (2) a noteworthy feature and possibly the original deity of the Kamo 賀茂 Shrine in Hirosawa 廣澤 in Kōzuke 上野 is a stone in the shape of a lantern in a grove behind the shrine (Yoshida 3369); and (3) the Ikazuchi 雷 or Thunder, Shrine (also called the Bright Deity of Kamo 加茂明神) of Shizuoka 静岡 city is on the edge of Ishimachi 石町 (“Stone Street”) (Yoshida 2560).
“sword-god” and the name of the Bizen “sword shrine,” is found in Takefutsu-no-kami 建布都神 and Toyofutsu-no-kami 豊布都神, alternate names for the thunder god Takemikazuchi-no-kami. The birth of this deity “from the blood that stuck to the upper part of the august sword and again bespattered the multitudinous rock-masses” and the birth of the Rock Splitting Deity (Iwasaku-no-kami 石柝神) and the Rock Possessing Male Deity (Iwatsutsunoo-no-kami 石筒之男神) “from the blood that stuck to the point of the august sword and bespattered the multitudinous rock-masses” suggests vaguely some relationship between stones, swords, and thunder which may have bearing on our problem. Cf. Chamberlain, Kojiki 古事記 or Record of Ancient Matters 32.
