Toyouke-Ōmikami is the goddess of agriculture and industry in the Shinto religion. Originally enshrined in the Tanba region of Japan, she was called to reside at Gekū, Ise Shrine, about 1,500 years ago at the age of Emperor Yūryaku to offer sacred food to Amaterasu Ōmikami, the Sun Goddess. by her father Wakumusubi, who was born while Izanami was still alive. While popular as Toyouke-Ōhmikami presently, her name has been transcribed using Chinese characters in several manners including 2=豊宇気毘売神 in "Kojiki", while there is no entry about her in "Nihon Shoki". Literally, her name means kami of "Luxuriant-food Princess". Several alternative transcription and names are attributed to this goddess including 2=豊受気媛神,,,, and 2=とよひるめ. God and goddess thought to be identical to Toyouke-Ōhmikami are a god and a goddess 2=豊岡姫. There is a separate shrine dedicated to Toyouke's Ara-mitama, or 2=豊受大御神荒魂 called :ja:多賀宮|Takanomiya inside Gekū.
Mythology
In Kojiki, Toyouke-Ōmikami is described as the granddaughter to Izanami via her father :ja:和久産巣日神|Wakumusubi, and Toyouke was said to settle to Gekū, Ise Shrine at 2=度相 after Tenson kōrin when the heavenly deities came down to the earth. In her name Toyouke, “uke” means food, or being the goddess of food and grain, which is said to be the basis that other kami were equated and merged into Toyouke as the deity of foodstuff: Uke Mochi, Inari Ōkami, and Ukanomitama. The head priest of Toyouke Daijingū submitted "2=止由気宮儀式帳", or the record of the Ise Grand Shrine to the government in 804, in which it is told that goddess Toyouke originally had come from Tamba. It records that Emperor Yūryaku was told by Amaterasu in his dream that she alone was not able to supply enough food, so that Yūryaku needed to bring 2=等由気大神, or the goddess of divine meals, from Hijino Manai in ancient Tanba Province. Stories among various Fudoki indicate the origin of Toyouke: In that of Tango, or ":ja:丹後国風土記|Tango no kuni fudoki", 2=豊宇賀能売命 had been bathing with other seven deities at Manai spring on the hilltop of Hiji in Tamba province, when an old couple hid Toyouke's heavenly robe so that she was not able to return to the heavenly world. Toyouke tended over ten years to that old couple and brew sake which cured any ailment, but was expelled from the household and wandered to reach and settle at Nagu village as a local deity. The anecdote in the Fudoki of Settsu Province ":ja:摂津国風土記|Settsu-no-kuni fudoki" mentions that 2=止与宇可乃売神 had lived in Tango.
Faith and rituals
The original location
In Mineyama Town, Kyōtango, Kyoto prefecture, there is a well 2=清水戸 and a story of the now lost half-moon-shaped rice paddy 2=月の輪田. They are believed to be the site where Toyouke had soaked rice seeds to encourage germination and planted the first rice. The 2=:ja:比沼麻奈為神社 is mentioned in Engishiki dating back to Heian period, as literally meaning the Garden of Rice Paddies. That ancient place name is thought to have changed overtime to Taba, then to 2=丹波. On the slope of the Kuji Pass, there is a shrine dedicated to Ōkami, as well as Hoi no dan, the ruin of a sacred well Ame no manai of Takamagahara: That well was entered both in Kojiki and Nihonshoki, and was also the highest title given to water bodies. The shrine's auspicious spirit is said to be in the 1=cuboid, which has been worshiped as 2=大饗石. There is a shrine named Moto-Ise :ja:豊受大神社|Toyouke daijinja Shrine in Ōemachi, Fukuchiyama City to the south of Naiku of Moto-Ise uphill the Funaokayama. Its name literally means former Ise, where the priesthood has been inherited by Kawada clan, the further relative of the Fujiwara clan.
Amaterasu and Toyouke
appointed imperial daughter 1=Princess Toyosuki-iri as a Saiō to serve ”as a cane for Amaterasu” to find a new location to reside, and dispatched Toyosuki-iri to travel from present dayNara to neighboring areas. It is said that on the route, several locations hosted the spirit of Amaterasu by building her shrines, while Tango had the first of such shrines among the list of :ja:遷宮|relocation sites. Those shrines honor Amaterasu as their main kami are:
Okumiya Ama no manai Shrine, :ja:籠神社|Kono jinja , and
:ja:比沼麻奈為神社|Hinuma Manai Shrine .
In addition, Toyouke-Ōmikami is worshiped at many branches of Ise shrines called Shimmei shrines, along with Amaterasu, and separate shrines are often built on the property of regular shrines for Toyouke-Ōmikami. There are also Inari shrines where they build alters for Toyouke as well. According to the discipline of Ise Shintō originated by a priest at Geku named 2=度会家行, Toyouke-Ōmikami is recognized as the first devine being which appeared in this world. In their idea, Toyouke is also identical to Ame no minakanushi and Kuni no tokotachi. In this sect of shintoism, Geku, or the shrine of Toyouke-Ōmikami, is treated as ranked higher than Naiku, or the shrine of Amaterasu.
