More discovery about the relation between Mononobe no Moriya and Suwako Moriya!
Summary of points I've more or less
covered in the previous thread:
-Mononobe no Moriya's name is written 物部守屋.
-In real life, the native god of Suwa and his shrine are both named 洩矢 (
pronounced Moreya or Moriya; Moreya is the more ancient pronunciation).
-In real life, the priest family who claims descendancy to Moreya is named 守矢 (Moriya). The current head of the family is a woman named Sanae Moriya.
-The Mononobe clan originated from a completely different region. Their ancestry should have no relation to the Suwa region.
-Obviously, the Moriya clan and the god Moreya dates back to a time much earlier than the person Mononobe no Moriya.
-There was indeed a medieval rumour about Moriya clan being descendants of Mononobe no Moriya.
-In Touhou universe, the shrine is 守矢 and the priest family is called Kochiya (東風谷, "eastern wind valley"), to differentiate them from the real world.
-Suwako's last name is written 洩矢 and pronounced Moriya.
Then I found out:
-There is also a Mt. Moriya in Suwa. Its name is written 守屋.
-Mt. Moriya is
the sacred mountain of Suwa. To put it as simply as possible, when we say Kanako and Suwako are goddesses of mountain, they are more specifically goddesses of Mt. Moriya.
-However, there is a shrine at the foot of Mt. Moriya: Shrine of Mononobe no Moriya.
-Not only that, this shrine appears to have some close relationship with Moreya Shrine. For example, its crest is 3 Kashiwa Oak leaves, while Moreya Shrine's crest is one Kashiwa Oak leaf. Some villages seem to treat Moreya Shrine as its branch shrine. (
Source)
-Many of its relics and rituals are ancient remnants of Mishaguchi worship (Mishaguchi are those serpents controlled by Suwako). (
Source)
-Given the above, the Shrine of Mononobe no Moriya is probably an ancient site of worship, somehow taken over by descendants of Mononobe no Moriya.
And the trail breaks here. Even the Japanese find this fact baffling, and they can't seem to find any further explanation. Did the Mononobe clan seriously take over someone else's sacred mountain, just because it has the same name as one of them?