The Goddesses' Shrine Family: The Munakata through the Kamakura Era

• Main Author: Morley, Brendan Arkell, 1982-
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/9881

viii, 137 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. === This thesis presents an historical study of the Kyushu shrine family known as the Munakata, beginning in the fourth century and ending with the onset of Japan's medieval age in the fourteenth century. The tutelary deities of the Munakata Shrine are held to be the progeny of the Sun Goddess, the most powerful deity in the Shinto pantheon; this fact speaks to the long-standing historical relationship the Munakata enjoyed with Japan's ruling elites. Traditional tropes of Japanese history have generally cast Kyushu as the periphery of Japanese civilization, but in light of recent scholarship, this view has become untenable. Drawing upon extensive primary source material, this thesis will provide a detailed narrative of Munakata family history while also building upon current trends in Japanese historiography that locate Kyushu within a broader East Asian cultural matrix and reveal it to be a central locus of cultural production on the Japanese archipelago. === Committee in Charge: Andrew Edmund Goble, Chair; Ina Asim; Jason P. Webb