When I had composed a large number of poems on Shintō themes.
かみつけのせたのあかぎのからやしろやまとにいかであとをたれけん
kamitsuke no seta no akagi no karayashiro yamato ni ikade ato o tareken
In Kamitsuke, At Seta lies Akagi’s Cathay-style shrine— Why, in the land of Yamato Might the Buddhas manifest there? [i]
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[i] Akagi Shrine (akagi jinja 赤城神社) lay (and still lies) on the banks of Lake Ōnuma 大沼 in Kōzuke (Kamitsuke) 上野 province (modern Gunma 群馬 prefecture). Under the belief that various Buddhist deities manifested themselves in Japan as Shintō kami in order to better provide salvation to the people there (honji suijaku-setsu 本地垂迹説) its principal deity, Akagi Daimyōjin 赤城大明神 was believed to be a manifestation of Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara (Senju kannon 千手觀音), Ākāśagarbha (Kokuzō bosatsu 虛空藏菩薩) and Kṣitigarbha (Jizō bosatsu 地藏菩薩). Sanetomo’s poem queries why, if the bodhisattvas have chosen to manifest as kami, they should do so at a shrine built in a foreign style.
