Moriya-no-kamiMoriya-no-kami, the Local Deity of Suwa Who Confronted Takeminakata-no-kami

The charm of Moriya-no-kami lies in the fact that he is spoken of not as the victor of the central mythology, but as the deity who was there first. Takeminakata-no-kami is the Great God of Suwa standing at the center of the official historical view of Suwa Grand Shrine, but the story of that god entering Suwa requires a god on the receiving end. Moriya-no-kami fulfills that role. He is not a god who fights, loses, and vanishes, but one who, after reconciling, enters into the ritual order as the High Priest. Therein lies a uniquely Suwa-like layering of faith, not merely conquest and replacement. When reading Onbashira, Mishaguji, the Moriya clan, and Suwa Myojin as a single geological stratum, Moriya-no-kami stands precisely at the boundary of those layers.