Several phases of earth worship are exemplified in Shinto. The simplest of all is the _ji-matsuri_, or _ji-chin-sai_ (earth-festival or earth-calming-festival), which is the ceremony of propitiating the site of a new building, or a piece of ground to be reclaimed for cultivation. Here it is the ground itself that is worshipped, without distinction of sex, or the adjunct of myth, metaphor, or personal name. This practice is as old as the _Yengishiki_, and is not extinct at the present day. Many peasants make sacrifice to the _ta no kami_, or rice-field god, when preparing the ground for a crop, though here we perhaps pass into the next stage, in which the God is something apart from the rice-field itself. A similar phase of thought is implied by the use of such terms as _Iku-kuni_[112] (living country), and _Taru-kuni_ (perfect country), though here too the _norito_ of Praying for Harvest, has already taken the further step of regarding this deity as a God who "rules" the islands of Japan. _Ikushima_ (living island or region), is also used both for the country regarded as a God and for the God of the country. We have seen above that several of the provinces had two names, one geographical, the other when considered as a God or Goddess, like our Britain and Britannia, Scotland and Caledonia. A still further stage of progress is illustrated by the terms _kuni-dama_ (country spirit), and _iku-dama_ (live spirit). _Kuni-dama_ is a general term for deified localities. _Iku-dama_, which has the same meaning, is a contraction for _iku kuni-dama_. Motoöri says that any God who has done service by "making" a country or province is worshipped in that province as the Kuni-dama or Oho-kuni-dama. The _Ichi no miya_ (No. 1 shrines) of later times represent the old Gods of localities. The Kunari no kami, or Kunari-hime, were also apparently local earth-deities. Kunari is for _kuni-nari_ (earth-become). =Ohonamochi=.--In the case of the great Earth-God of Japan, namely, Ohonamochi, the direct worship and personification of the country have already retired into the background. The myths speak of him not as the land itself, but as the maker of the land. His functions are variously described as constructing, measuring out, consolidating, subduing, and ordering or governing. The _Idzumo Fudoki_ frequently calls him the _ame no shita tsukurashishi Oho-kami_, that is to say, "the great God who made the Under-Heaven." The spear which he carries is indicative of warlike prowess and political sway, while the mattock given to him by one myth points rather to agricultural development. He is also, along with Sukuna-bikona, the instructor of mankind in the arts of medicine and magic. The usual tendency to enlarge the sphere of nature deities by attributing to them providential powers is illustrated by a poem in the _Manyōshiu_ in which he is appealed to for the protection of the ship of an envoy who was about to proceed to China.