Gozu Tennō

Overview

The origins and early development of the Gozu Tennō cult before it reached Japan, as well as the process of his amalgamation with other deities, are unclear and a matter of debate. One theory for instance claims that Gozu Tennō was originally a minor Buddhist deity regarded as the protector of the monastery (vihara) of Jetavana, with his Sanskrit name being reconstructed either as 'Gavagrīva' ("Ox-Necked") or 'Gośirsa Devarāja' ("Ox-Headed Divine King", a calque of 'Gozu Tennō'). From India, the deity's cult was supposedly transmitted to Japan via Tibet and China, where it was influenced by esoteric Buddhism and Taoism. Another theory proposes a Korean origin for the deity.

Gozu Tennō was historically identified with a number of deities, foremost among these being Susanoo, the impetuous storm god of classical Japanese mythology, and Mutō-no-Kami (武塔神), an obscure deity who appears in the legend of Somin Shōrai. The story relates that Mutō was a god from the northern sea who stayed at the house of a poor man named Somin Shōrai after Somin Shōrai's wealthy brother refused to give him lodgings. Mutō later provided Somin Shōrai's family a magical means to save themselves from future epidemics as a reward for their hospitality and slew the rich man who rejected him. The earliest extant version of this legend dating from the Nara period (surviving in an extract quoted in a medieval work) has Mutō revealing himself to be Susanoo, suggesting that the two deities were already being conflated during the 8th century, if not earlier. Sources that equate Gozu Tennō with Susanoo first appear during the Kamakura period (1185–1333), although one theory supposes that these three gods and various other disease-related deities were already loosely coalesced around the 9th century, probably around the year 877 when a major epidemic swept through Japan. In later versions of the Somin Shōrai legend, the deity in the story came to be identified as Gozu Tennō, who at this stage had become more or less synonymous with both Susanoo and Mutō (though one source instead applies the name 'Mutō' to Gozu Tennō's father).

The idea that Gozu Tennō had Korean roots stems in part from his association with these two gods. Mutō's name for instance is believed to derive from the Korean word mudang, "shamaness", while a story recorded in the Nihon Shoki (720 CE) claims that Susanoo, after his banishment from heaven, came down to a place called 'Soshimori' in the land of Silla and from there crossed the sea to Japan. Indeed, the epithet gozu ("ox-head(ed)") has been explained as being derived from 'Soshimori', here interpreted as a Korean toponym meaning "Bull's (so) Head (mari)".