Hyūga Provinceひゅうが

Konohanasakuyahime is a goddess who single-handedly embodies "beauty and the finitude of life" within Japanese mythology. In stark contrast to her older sister Iwanagahime, who symbolizes eternity, she bears the origin of the finite human lifespan, represented by the cherry blossom that is beautiful precisely because it falls. When her one-night pregnancy was called into question, she chose action over excuses—sealing a doorless delivery hut with earth, setting it ablaze herself, and proving her innocence by safely delivering three princes amidst the roaring flames. The sheer intensity of this birth-in-fire is the very core of her faith as the goddess of safe childbirth, fire prevention, and bountiful harvests. At Toman Shrine in Hyuga Province, she is enshrined as the symbol of the land of "Tsuma" (Wife) where she united with Ninigi-no-Mikoto, and as the mother who provided amazake to her three princes. Later, as the guardian deity of Mount Fuji and the Great Deity of Asama, her faith spread to 1,300 shrines nationwide. Her unparalleled charm lies in the fact that she possesses both the fleeting fragility of a flower and the fierce intensity of a flame.

Among the many kappa legends nationwide, the hyousunbo stands out as a water apparition of Hyuga renowned as "the kappa that keeps promises." Although a dangerous being that drags children playing in the river to their deaths, it made a pact with the villagers—"I will not take their lives until a certain rock rots away"—and faithfully touched the rock countless times to check on it, thereby polishing it smooth. The detail of this "Hyosubo Rock" transcends a simple ghost story, conveying the memory of a negotiation between humans and a water god. The belief in its seasonal migration—living in the river during spring and autumn and the mountains in winter—reflects the southern Kyushu folk view of kappa as avatars of water and mountain gods. The dedicatory sumo matches held annually at the Suijin-buchi of the Tsuboya River are remnants of local rituals to pacify a raging water god through wrestling. Connected to the garappa and kawantaro of southern Kyushu's kappa culture, the hyousunbo remains a unique entity with a name and legend native to Hyuga, telling the story of the boundary between water and humans.

While the *Yamawaro* is a mountain monster unique to the mountainous regions of Kyushu, its greatest originality lies in the fact that it forms two aspects of a single body with the *kappa*. The fact that Terajima Ryoan noted the habitation of *Yamawaro* in Chikuzen and Goto in *Wakan Sansai Zue* is evidence that early modern intellectuals incorporated the folklore of grotesque beings from the western mountains into the framework of natural history, showing that the Goto Islands were designated early on as a land of *Yamawaro* traditions. In the migration belief, it is said that the *kappa* of the river and the *Yamawaro* of the mountain switch places at the boundary of the spring and autumn equinoxes, which is thought to be a crystallization of the agricultural calendar, water god worship, and mountain god worship into a single existential image. Its assistance to woodcutters and the reward of rice balls, its love of sumo, its dietary preference for salt and crabs, and its grotesque form with dog ears, red hair, and a single eye are all supported by the *Wakan Sansai Zue* and the oral traditions of various parts of Kyushu. Amidst life in the Goto Islands, surrounded by sea and mountains, the *Yamawaro* has become inextricably linked to the *kappa* (*gataro*), becoming an entity that embodies the local spirituality penetrating both the waterside and the mountains.