Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba

[1] The deity of the Suwa Kamisha, Suwa (Dai)myōjin (諏訪（大）明神), commonly identified with the god Takeminakata recorded in both the Kojiki (720 CE) and the later Sendai Kuji Hongi (807-936 CE, aka Kujiki), was worshipped as a god of warfare since the Heian period, as attested to by a 12th-century song anthology, the Ryōjin Hishō.

[9] The shrines of Suwa and the priestly clans thereof flourished under the patronage of the Hōjō, which promoted devotion to the god as a sign of loyalty to the shogunate.

[9] For their part, the Hōjō, a clan of obscure origins who lacked an ancestral kami (ujigami) of their own, looked upon Suwa Myōjin as the closest thing they had to a guardian deity.

[1] Tokitsugu's son who inherited the office of ōhōri, Yoritsugu (頼継), was stripped from his position and replaced by Fujisawa Masayori (藤沢政頼), who hailed from a cadet branch of the clan.

[15][16] In 1336, Takauji defeated pro-imperialists Nitta Yoshisada and Kusunoki Masashige in the Battle of Minatogawa and drove Go-Daigo out of Kyoto.

[18][19] Illustrated scrolls (emakimono) depicting the respective foundation legends (engi) of various important shrines and temples and related anecdotes (setsuwa) were popular in medieval Japan.

[26][27] Enchū, who have been thinking of another means to promote devotion to the god of Suwa and his shrine, thus decided to commission a new set of engi emaki as a replacement for these lost scrolls.

[28][31] The actual scrolls themselves were written and illustrated by some of the best high-ranking calligraphers and artists of the age such as Prince Son'en (尊円親王, 1298-1356), son of Emperor Fushimi and abbot of Shōren-in in Kyoto.

[28][32][14][33] Emperor Go-Kōgon of the Northern Court inscribed the title on the labels (外題 gedai) of each scroll, while Ashikaga Takauji wrote afterwords at the end of each volume.

[28][19] In mid-1442 (Kakitsu 2), Enchū's fourth-generation descendant, Suwa Shōgen Chūsei (諏訪将監忠政), exhibited these to courtier Nakahara Yasutomi (中原康富) and certain others.

[39][37][38] Records from this time such as Nakahara's diary consistently refer to the Suwa Engi as comprising twelve volumes, suggesting that two more scrolls were added to the work in the interim.