In today's post, an introduction to the Japanese goddess of Autumn, Tatsutahime. Also a beautiful autumn photo from Kourankei showing off her work. I've posted photos from Kourankei before. It is a valley in Toyota Prefecture, famous all over Japan for the autumn leaves.

Tatsutahime, the Autumn Goddess

Japan is, as they say, the land of the gods. Two of the more popular ones, at least traditionally, were the goddesses of Spring and Autumn. Seeing as how we are in the middle of Autumn here, let's look at the latter of those two goddesses.

Tatsutahime (竜田姫)---Princess Tatsuta---is the goddess of autumn in Japanese mythology. She is said to live in the mountains to the west of Nara on Tatsutayama---Mount Tatsuta. Tatsutayama is famous for its red maple leaves.

She is the goddess of dyeing and weaving. It is said she dyes the leaves beautiful colors in Autumn and then becomes a strong wind and blows all of them away.

A poem by Prince Kanemi:

Tatsutahime
must have offerings to make
to gods on her way:
so the autumn leaves
scatter like fragments of cloth.

Too Much Dye

With so many colors, the saturation is almost too much. So I made another version, this one a bit desaturated. Also, crazy artsy border added for no reason.