Horses, Dragons, and Disease in Nara Japan

Although the introduction of horses into the Japanese islands has long been a topic of interest for scholars concerned with political and military relations between the Japanese islands and the Korean peninsula, their role in shaping cultic life in the Japanese islands has received surprisingly little attention. Because horses were a central node within the technological, political and ritual systems that formed the material and ideological basis of the Japanese court, however, they helped engender a series of cultic developments that were essential for the formation of what later generations would come to consider native Japanese religious and cultic identity. This article argues that myths and legends of deadly horse-riding spirits were most likely shaped not by the memory of ancient horse riding armies, but rather by a host of forces that included immigrant deities, natural disasters and plagues from which even rulers were hard pressed to escape.