Kuebiko
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Wikidata imageTemplate:Compare image with Wikidata
Script error: No such module "Nihongo". is the Shinto kami ("god; deity") of folk wisdom, knowledge and agriculture, and is represented in Japanese mythology as a scarecrow who cannot walk but has comprehensive awareness.
Names
Kuebiko is the main name for this kami. There is also an alternate name of Yamada no sohodo (Script error: No such module "Lang".), mentioned in the Kojiki.
- Kuebiko comes from Script error: No such module "Nihongo"., an archaic verb meaning "to break down; to become shabby and disordered", plus Script error: No such module "Nihongo"., an old epithet for "boy, young man", in turn from Script error: No such module "Nihongo"., literally "sun child".[1][2][3] The meaning could be translated as something like "shabby young man".
- Yamada no sohodo is formed like an old-fashioned formal name, from surname or literal noun Script error: No such module "Nihongo"., genitive or possessive particle Script error: No such module "Nihongo"., and Script error: No such module "Nihongo".,[4] in turn from soho ("sopping wet") + -do, a contraction from -bito, the compounding form of Script error: No such module "Nihongo"..[5] The meaning of this name could be construed as "soaked person of the mountain paddies", a euphemism for "scarecrow".
Mythology
The (c. 712) Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters") has the earliest reference to Kuebiko in the myth of Ōkuninushi ("Great Land Master"). When Ōkuninushi was at Cape Miho in Izumo, a small kami arrived in a boat. Nobody knew his name, but a toad suggested asking Kuebiko, who revealed the god was a scion of the goddess Kami-musubi (神産巣日) named Sukuna-bikona (少彦名神). In Basil Hall Chamberlain's translation,
Then the toad spoke, saying: "As for this, the Crumbling Prince will surely know it." Thereupon [the Deity Master-of-the-Great-Land] summoned and asked the Crumbling-Prince, who replied, saying: "This is the Little-Prince-the-Renowned-Deity, the august child of the Deity-Producing-Wondrous-Deity." ... So [the Deity here] called the Crumbling Prince, who revealed the Little-Prince-the-Renowned-Deity, is what is now [called] the scarecrow in the mountain fields. This Deity, though his legs do not walk, is a Deity who knows everything in the Empire.[6]
Modern worship
In the present day, Kuebiko is worshipped as the god of agriculture or scholarship and wisdom. The Kuebiko Shrine (Kuebiko jinja 久延彦神社), which is a subordinate shrine (massha) of Ōmiwa Shrine in Sakurai, Nara, is dedicated to this deity.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
See also
- Ting mong, a Cambodian scarecrow used against spirits and plagues
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, entry for Script error: No such module "lang". available online here Script error: No such module "webarchive". (in Japanese)
- ↑ Daijirin, second edition, 1995
- ↑ Digital Daijisen, entry for Script error: No such module "lang". available online here Script error: No such module "webarchive". (in Japanese)
- ↑ Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, entry for Script error: No such module "lang". available online here Script error: No such module "webarchive". (in Japanese)
- ↑ 1988, Script error: No such module "Lang". (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
- ↑ Chamberlain, Basil Hall, 1919, The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters Script error: No such module "webarchive"., The Asiatic Society of Japan, p. 103.
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".