Koya Myojin, also known as Kariba Myojin, is a Shinto deity venerated on Mount Koya as a guardian spirit associated with the founding of the sacred site by Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism. Tradition holds that this hunter-deity guided Kukai through the mountains to the location where he would establish his monastic complex, linking the figure to themes of guidance and pathfinding through unfamiliar terrain. The deity continues to be honored in shrines within the Koyasan precinct as part of the syncretic Shinto-Buddhist tradition of the mountain.