There is a god you often see introduced at shrines as the god who opens the way. That is Sarutahiko. Many people visit this god to pray when starting something new.
Guiding a god descending from heaven
Sarutahiko appears in both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. When Ninigi no Mikoto, grandson of Amaterasu Omikami, descended to earth (the descent of the heavenly grandson), Sarutahiko is said to have served as his guide along the way.
He is described as tall, with a very long nose, and a somewhat frightening appearance. After finishing his task as guide, he is said to have settled on the banks of the Isuzu River in Ise. Sarutahiko Shrine in Mie Prefecture is the best-known shrine dedicated to this god.
A god who stands at the fork in the road
Sarutahiko is thought to have originally been a god of the chimata, the crossroads: a god who stands where the road divides. From there, he came to be seen as a god of roads themselves, then a god of safe travel.
In the medieval period, through the shared sound saru, he became linked with the monkey (saru) of the zodiac, and also with the faith surrounding Koshin days. Many meanings have built up around a single god.
Something that shows the way forward
What Sarutahiko did was not to make the road, but to show it. Among roads that already existed, he guided which way to go.
Called by the snow at Kumano Taisha
When I visited Kumano Taisha in Nanyo City, Yamagata Prefecture, several small shrines stood around the main hall. As I paid my respects at each in turn, only in front of one, a shrine whose name, 幸神社, uses the character for happiness, my feet stopped on their own. At the others I had given just a moment of greeting, but there I stood a little longer.
At that very moment, snow came tumbling down from above, enough that I clearly felt it on my head plus shoulders. Yet no snow was falling anywhere else around me. During my whole visit, snow did not fall at any other spot.
2026 is the year of the horse. The horse is said to be a symbol of moving forward, and snow a symbol of purification plus change. Since I was also born in a year of the horse, this felt to me like a sign that I was ready to move on to what comes next.
I believe paintings can do this too. A piece hanging on the wall reminds you, when you are lost, that this was the way. It does not hand you an answer; it points a direction.
When I paint order art, I think about leaving the direction you want to go in as color plus form.
Mermaid nao's order art aims to be a piece that helps you remember your own path.
Reference: note (Japanese): The god who opens the way / A message for breaking through in 2026, the year of the horse, from 幸神社 plus Sarutahiko (Mermaid nao)
[References]
Wikipedia (Japanese): Sarutahiko
Kotobank (Japanese): Sarutahiko no Kami
Discover Japan (Japanese): Sarutahiko, the guide of the descent of the heavenly grandson
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