Unnan God - Unnangami

Japanese: ウンナン神 - うんなんがみ

...In the Kayagawa River in Minami Village, Gujo County, Gifu Prefecture, residents never caught eels, as they believed that the eels in the river protected and guided the Bodhisattva Kokuzo to exterminate monsters, and until the early Meiji period, anyone who violated this prohibition was punished by being ostracized by the village. Unnan-gami, which is characteristically distributed in the former Sendai domain, is an eel god, and it is thought that eels were worshiped as flood-causing creatures to appease them due to the frequent floods caused by the development of new rice fields in the early modern period. Many Unnan shrines are enshrined near springs and streams, and even at the site of lightning strikes, giving them a strong character as water and agricultural deities. ...

From [Flood]

...In Okinawa, there is a legend that a sacred fish predicts a tsunami in human speech, and on Irabu Island in Miyako, there is a story of a mother and child who escaped when they heard the voice of a mermaid (Yonatama) just before the tsunami. In the Rikuzen region, where there are many Unnan gods (eel gods), there is also a legend of a white-haired eel predicting a flood. The fact that the spirit of water predicts a flood in the voice of a fish or a human before the disaster is considered to be an act of saving humans from the end of the world, and the creation of these legends suggests the involvement of religious figures. ...

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Unnan God" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…岐阜県郡上郡美並村の粥川では妖怪退治にこの川のウナギが虚空蔵菩薩を加護，案内したとして住人はウナギを決して捕獲せず，明治初年までこの禁を犯すと村八分の制裁を受けた。旧仙台藩領に特徴的に分布するウンナン神はウナギ神で，近世初期の新田開発と洪水の頻発から，ウナギは洪水を起こすものとして，これを慰撫（いぶ），祭りこめたものと考えられる。ウンナン神社の多くは湧水地や水流の近く，さらに落雷の跡に祭られるなど水神，作神的性格が強い。…

【洪水】より

…沖縄では，霊魚が人間の言葉で津波の予告をしたという伝説があり，宮古の伊良部島には津波の直前，ヨナタマ(人魚)の声に気づいた母子だけが難をのがれた話が伝わる。陸前地方にはウンナン神(鰻神)が多く分布するが，やはり白髪のウナギが洪水を予告した伝説がある。水の霊が洪水という破局の前に，魚や人の声で予告することは，裏返せば終末から人間を救う行為と考えられ，これらの伝説の成立には宗教者の関与がうかがわれる。…

※「ウンナン神」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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