Shikoku

• • Co-ordinates: 33°45′N 133°30′E
  • Prefecture: Ehime Prefecture, Kagawa Prefecture, Kochi Prefecture, Tokushima Prefecture.

Shikoku

Shikoku (四国, Four Provinces) also historically called Iyo (伊予, Land of Groves) in the kojiki and nihongi is one of the four main islands of Japan.

Mythical Creation

According to both the kojiki and the nihongi this island is the second of the Great Land of Eightfold Isles to have been born by Izanami and Izanagi.¹²

The kojiki elaborates more stating the island is made up of one body with four faces. Each face of the island was inhabited by a kami. The S.W face called Iyo (Groves) is inhabited by Ehime, the North face called Sa-nuki (Sandy Hollows) inhabited by Iiyorohiko, the East face called Awa (Foxtail Millet) inhabited by Ōgetsuhime and the South face called To-sa inhabited by Takeyoriwake.²

Yōkai

The island is noted to have connections with the Yōkai Inugami where it is venerated as a powerful creature.³

Footnotes

1. Aston. W.G. (1896) “Nihongi Volume 1: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD697”. Tuttle Publishing.
2. Yasumaro. O, translated by Gustav Heldt. (2014) “Kojiki. An Account of Ancient Matters”. New York: Columbia University Press.
3. Yoda, H. and Alt, M. (2016) “Japandemonium: Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopaedia of Toriyama Sekien.”. New York: over Publications, Inc.

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