 Kanayago-The
Gods of Iron-Workers
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Recently, I was asked to set up a visit to a Tatara furnace and a Kanayako
Shrine for an American professor. I did this and found a couple of problems.
They concerned the Gods of Iron-workers. The first problem was, the Kanayako
Shrine is a male Taisha Zukuri shrine! I had thought that the Tatara furnace
had a goddess. I went to several sources to find out the answers.
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The main shrine is now in Nishi Hida of Hirose, and the day of worship
is April 21st. The Kanayako Shrine is dedicated to two main gods! Kanayama
Hiko, a god, and Kanayama Hime, a goddess. Of course the shrine "chigi"
was to a god, but the main worship is to the goddess. She is said to hate
women who are unclean, according to Shamanism. She will not forgive their
presence at her shrine. However, she forgives death! This is strange in
a religion that considers death as unclean.
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I wondered why? The reason is probably that, the old Tatara furnaces
were outdoors with no roof. During the iron-making process, if it rained,
which it often does in the Sanin Area, the water would sometimes cause
the furnaces to explode. Such an incident would result in deaths. Since
these deaths were in her service of iron- making, she would forgive them.
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These gods and goddesses protect workers involved in Tatara iron-making!
"Kanayako" means, those workers. The origin of Kanayako Shrines was in
the distant past when everything in daily life had a god! It is said that
they came to earth in Harima no Kuni in Hyogo Prefecture, but flew to
the Chugoku Mountains on a heron. They were enshrined here by two lords
of this area. They have been worshipped most in this part of Japan, but
since then, with the decline of Tatara operations, their popularity has
also decreased.
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The iron technology probably came to the Izumo Area because of the huge
iron sand deposits that exist in this part of Japan. It is high-grade
iron sand, and is used in the world famous Japanese swords. It is also
used by Hitachi Metals Co. They make the steel for Gillette.
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One more fact that I discovered was that one of the Gods of Iron has
two, or three, heads! I was really shocked to see this, because there
are no gods, with multiple heads, in any mythology of Japan that I have
read! Still, these two gods are recorded. I found them written about in
very old books held in Hitachi's Wako Museum of Iron in Yasugi. The books
carried pictures of these gods, and they looked like gods from another
country. Of course they did!
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India has many gods with multiple hands, heads, and whatever you can
imagine. These gods probably found their way to Japan through China and
Korea, along with the iron technology. Everything will have an explanation
in Japanese culture, if you search long enough. I must go into this research
a little further before I will be completely satisfied.
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