Sakanoue no Tamuramaro
さかのうえのたむらまろ
God of War Pacifying Demons, Tamura Daimyojin
Divine Spirit / DeityYamashiro Province / Kiyomizu-dera (now Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture) / Mount Suzuka / Suzuka Pass (now around the border of Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture and Koka City, Shiga Prefecture) / Isawa in Mutsu Province / around Taga Castle
This version of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro is not treated as the historical military official, but as the deified Tamura Daimyojin of later generations. He is told as a warrior receiving the protection of Kannon at Kiyomizu-dera, a paired husband-and-wife deity with Suzuka Gozen at Suzuka Pass, and as General Tamura subjugating Akuro-o and Otakemaru in Tohoku. A single person's name wandered through the temple origins of Kyoto, the mountain pass faith of Suzuka, and the shrine and temple origins of Tohoku, acquiring different faces in each land.
The power of Tamuramaro is not the sword that slashes demons itself. Kiyomizu Kannon, Vaisravana, Suzuka Gozen, the sacred sword, and the gods of the passes support his story, transforming his martial prowess into "protection acknowledged by the gods and buddhas." Therefore, in the Tamura-gatari, rather than the scenes of defeating enemies, what matters more is which gods and buddhas took his side, in what land he was enshrined, and to which mounds or temples the memories were transferred. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro is a hero who defeats yokai, but at the same time, an axis to pass down yokai as stories to later generations.
