Fudoki Fragments 2

This essay covers brief surviving fragments from a large number of Fudoki: those for Hōki, Harima, Mimasaka, Bizen, Bingo, Awa, and Iyo provinces, in western Japan. Most of these stories are short, and obscure even in Japan, but one, the tale of Somin Shōrai, is famous as the origin story for the custom of using a ring of woven reeds (chi-no-wa) to ward off epidemics. There are also some examples of very similar stories attributed to different areas, suggesting that certain patterns of myth may have been widespread in ancient times.

Torii image © Dean Spencer, used with permission. All rights reserved.