A Synthetic Study on the Cultual Development of the Ancient Izumo--On an Erea of the Lower Hii River--

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A large amount of various Yayoi bronze ware from the ruins of Kojindani dale in Hikawa-Cho and the recent detection of inscriptions on a sword from Mt. Okadayama tumulus in Matsue City have drawn fresh attention toward the cultural background of the ancient Izumo.Mobilizing geological, geographical, archaelogical, paleological, sociological and folkloric investigations, this synthetic research is primarily intended to get a comprehensive elucidation of the development of the ancient regional history of Western Izumo.Though the clarifying explication as to the historical significance of the western area of Izumo has not been given sufficiently, the area is crowded with notable ruins including Kizuki-no-Oyashiro Shrine, the chief god who has dominated the Izumo district. And it is generally known that Western Izumo stood as the opposite pole in the ancient historical development of the district.The first fuestion to be taken is to gind the process and epoch of the development of the Izum … More o plain. The groups of geographical and geological surveys report that the framework of the plain had taken shape by the Yayoi Period, and, subsequently repeating slight changes such as deviations of the course of the Hii-Kawa River and small transgressions, the plain grew up to be the present state at the first half of the modern ages.The second question arises as to how these changes correspond with the history of the develop-ment. The groups of archaelogical and paleological researches conclude that the first epoch of the development lay on the latter half of the Yayoi Period, while in the western area of Izumo, some group of political organization came into being. The second epoch extended from the 6th to the 7th century, and the development may also be tied up with the expansion of the arable land as led by the Kando-no-Omi family. The third development approximately from the latter half of the 10th century to the 12th is supposed to be the greatest exploitation coincident with the retrenchment of the Kando lake, which severed almost all the connection with the open sea.The third question should be concerned with religious thought or mystery which has told the story of local vicissitudes. And it would be concluded that the establishment of the Parish shrine system, the theocracy of Kizuki-no-Oyashiro which assumed the complete control of political, economic and religious power gave decisive force for the formation of the religious history. Less