page_title: Takeminakata
section_title: Association with snakes and dragons
hierarchical_section_title: Takeminakata / Worship / Association with snakes and dragons
caption_attribution_description: English: Fugen Bosatsu (Samantabhadra) on an elephant, upper detail , wood and cut-gold foil (kirikane), whole sculpture height 140cm(including elephant), Heian period, first half of 12th century, Ōkura Shūkokan Museum of Fine Arts, Tokyo 日本語: 普賢菩薩騎象　像、上部、　象も含めた高さ140cm, 平安時代後期, 大倉集古館
context_page_description: Takeminakata-no-Kami or Takeminakata-no-Mikoto, also known as Minakatatomi-no-Kami or Takeminakatatomi-no-Mikoto is the name of one of the two principal deities of Suwa Grand Shrine in Nagano Prefecture. Also known under the epithet Suwa Myōjin or Suwa Daimyōjin, he is considered to be a god of wind, water and agriculture, as well as a patron of hunting and warfare, in which capacity he enjoyed a particularly fervent cult from various samurai clans during the medieval period such as the Hōjō or the Takeda. The deity was also held to be the original ancestor of certain families who once served at the shrine as priests, foremost among them being the Suwa clan, the high priests of the Upper Shrine of Suwa who were also revered as the living incarnations of the god.
  The Suwa deity is the subject of a number of different, often conflicting myths.
context_section_description: Suwa Myōjin's association with the snake or the dragon in many stories featuring the god such as the Kōga Saburō legend (see 'Legends of Suwa Myōjin' above) might be related to his being considered as a deity presiding over wind and water, due to the association of dragons with winds and the rain in Japanese belief. (See also mizuchi.)
caption: Suwa Myōjin was once believed to be a manifestation (suijaku) of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra.
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