Kamo : PhotoStory

Kyoto in summer. A Shinto priest is visiting Kamo Shrine in the Province of Harima (in present-day Hyōgo Prefecture). He sees a standing arrow at the alter and asks some women who have come to draw water for the reason.

The women say that the arrow embodies the deity of the shrine and tell him related legend. One says that by drawing water, one can understand the heart of the deity.

When the priest asks the woman about herself, she tells him she is an incarnation of a deity and then disappears.

A deity from a lower-ranking shrine that serves Kamo Shrine relates the tale of the god of Wakeikazuchi and the deity of Mioya.

Before long, transformed into a celestial maiden, the deity of Mioya appears. As she performs the dance of the celestial maiden for the priest, her sleeves dip in the water, cooling her.

The summer ground shakes and the god of Wakeikazuchi appears.

The god of Wakeikazuchi controls thunder, wind and rain. There is a roar of thunder.

Witness the power the god holds over the land and the harvest.

After the deity of Mioya flies away to the woods of Tadasu, the god of Wakeikazuchi climbs to heaven.

The god of Wakeikazuchi is enshrined at Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto.