The Ritual of the Lord of Mount Tai.
The Lord of Mount Tai was an extremely ancient deity of the Central Land, one who had existed as far back as the Pre-Qin Period, before Taoism took shape or Buddhism arrived. After the Tang and Song dynasties, however, his worship gradually declined, becoming little known.
Yet what faded at home flourished abroad. In Japan, just across a narrow stretch of water, the Lord of Mount Tai instead became renowned thanks to the great Onmyoji Abe no Seimei.
According to Onmyodo, belief in the Lord of Mount Tai was brought back to Japan by Abe no Nakamaro, an envoy to Tang China, who worshipped him as his household's patron deity.
According to genealogical records such as Genealogies of the Noble and Base and the Abe Genealogy, Abe no Seimei was Abe no Nakamaro's eighth-generation descendant, and worship of the Lord of Mount Tai flourished under him.
Japan's earliest written account of the Ritual of the Lord of Mount Tai came from the Heian Period diary, Diary of the Junior Right Minister. Abe no Seimei persuaded Dharma King En'yu to hold the first Ritual of the Lord of Mount Tai to dispel illness and misfortune for his son, Emperor Ichijo, who was plagued by nightmares.
Afterward, the Ritual of the Lord of Mount Tai became widely popular among aristocrats and court nobles. They held it to pray for good health, cure the sick, and even advance their official careers.
Eventually, even emperors repeatedly used the Ritual of the Lord of Mount Tai to pray for national peace and lasting stability.
In official histories, the Ritual of the Lord of Mount Tai was a ceremony held to seek blessings and ward off calamity. In occult legends, however, it was Onmyodo's supreme secret art, capable