Tsukuba-san

   Mount Tsukuba, Ibaraki. It is famous for a story in the Hitachi fudoki which tells how Tsukuba-san gave shelter to a deity called mi-oya-no-kami (parent or ancestor kami) who had been refused lodging by a certain Mt. Fukuji (=Fuji?). The honden of the shrine is on top of the mountain and the mountain kami (yama no kami) of Tsukuba is welcomed to the rice fields on April 1 st in a rite known as o-za-gawari matsuri, the rite of 'exchanging the seat' of the kami. It returns to the mountain on November 1st, both dates by the lunar calendar. The Mt. Tsukuba shrine (Tsukuba-yama jinja) hosts the tsukuba-san gama matsuri, Mt. Tsukuba toad festival, on August 1st-2nd, in which an effigy of a toad is carried in memory of all the toads killed that year for toad-grease, a popular folk-medicine.