served as the site of the coming of age ceremony of Minamoto no Yoshimitsu, his third son. As a result the sobriquet Shinra Saburō (新羅三郎) was often used to refer to him. Thanks to the influence of their family, the worship of Shinra Myōjin spread outside Ōmi, as far as Hokkaido. A further factor which made it possible to introduce him to new areas was the involvement of the Jimon tradition in the Kumano pilgrimages. Due to being transmitted through this route, he came to be incorporated into the practices of various religious groups in the Kii Peninsula, including pilgrims from the imperial court, Shugendō practitioners, and others. The veneration of Shinra Myōjin continued in the Edo period, but its scope declined. The Matsumae clan, who from the seventeenth century onward resided in Matsumae on Hokkaido, considered Minamoto no Yoshimitsu their ancestor, and as attested in Matsumae Kagehiro’s Shinra no Kiroku (1646) similarly viewed Shinra Myōjin as their protective deity. He is still worshiped today, and while due to rearrangements made after World War II, the shrine dedicated to him is now separate from the rest of the Onjō-ji complex, services dedicated to him still follow the Instructions for the Buddhist Ritual of the Three Shrines (三社法会法則, Sansha hōe hōsoku), originally compiled in 1367 and subsequently copied by the monk Enshin (圓親) in 1615. They start with “a recitation of the Heart Sutra as an offering to the deity” and additionally include “the deity’s connection with Enchin; reciting the title of the Lotus Sutra; a vow to attain enlightenment; Shinra Myōjin’s acolytes;” a prayer for “various kinds of blessings from the deity” serves as the ending. Notes References Bibliography Japanese gods Buddhist gods Tendai Sea and river gods Mountain gods Arts gods Plague gods Silla