AWASHIMASAMA

The popular name for Awajimyojin. The name derives from the accounts in theKojikiandNihongiof the first birth by sexual reproduction of the 'leech child' hiru-ko and the island called aha/awa or ahaji/awaji. Belief in awashima-sama was popularised in the seventeenth century by wandering 'ahashima' priest-healers specialising in gynaecological illnesses.