is a

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

in the Miyasumiyoshi neighborhood of the city of

Shimonoseki file:141122 Shimonoseki City Hall Yamaguchi pref Japan01s3.jpg, 260px, Shimonoseki city hall is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 248,193 in 128,762 households and a pop ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is the ''

ichinomiya is a Japanese language, Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a Provinces of Japan, province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth.''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retr ...

'' of former

Nagato Province , often called , was a province of Japan. It was at the extreme western end of Honshū, in the area that is today Yamaguchi Prefecture. Nagato bordered on Iwami and Suō Provinces. History Although the ancient capital of the province was Shimono ...

. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on December 15. Along with the more famous Sumiyoshi-taisha in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

and the Sumiyoshi Jinja in

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

, it is one of the "Three Great Sumiyoshi" shrines; however whereas the Osaka Sumitomo-taisha enshrines the '' Nigi-Mitama'', or placid spirit of the Sumiyoshi ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

'', the shrine in Shimonoseki enshrines the ''Ara-Mitama'', or rough spirit of the ''kami''.

Enshrined ''kami''

The ''

'' enshrined at Sumiyoshi Jinja are: * * * * *

History

The origins of Itakiso Jinja are unknown. Per the ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

'', when the legendary

Empress Jingū was a Legend, legendary Japanese empress who ruled as a regent following her Emperor Chūai, husband's death in 200 AD. Both the and the (collectively known as the ''Kiki'') record events that took place during Jingū's alleged lifetime. Legen ...

embarked on her conquest of the

Korean Peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

, she entrusted the Sumitomo sanjin to protect her passage across the ocean. En route back to Japan, she had a message from the gods that their oracle was to be found in Nagato Province, where a shrine should be built. The shrine first appears in the historical record in an entry dated 859 in the ''

Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku , abbreviated as Sandai Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 901, it is the sixth and final text in the Six National Histories series. It covers the years 858–887. Background Following the earlier nati ...

''. In the 927 ''

Engishiki The is a Japanese book of laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ''Engishi ...

'' it is listed as a and is called the ''

'' of the province. The shrine was worshipped by the military classes and as a guardian of maritime traffic. From the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, it received donations from successive

shogun , officially , was the title of the military aristocracy, rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, exc ...

, including

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...

. Although the shrine declined in the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

, during the

Sengoku The was the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as the period's start ...

and

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

s it was patronized by the

Ōuchi clan was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 14th to 16th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi in the western tip of Honshu island, compris ...

and the

Mōri clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. Durin ...

, ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of

Chōshū Domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was based ...

. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, it was listed as a in 1871, and promoted to a in 1911. The shrine is located a twenty-minute walk from

Shin-Shimonoseki Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is also a freight depot for the Japan Freight Railway Company ...

on the

Sanyo Shinkansen is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own busi ...

Cultural properties

National Treasures

Honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined ''kami'', usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a sta ...

, built in 1370. This a unique structure based on a modification of the ''

nagare-zukuri The or is a traditional Shinto shrine architectural style characterized by a very asymmetrical gabled roof () projecting outwards on one of the non-gabled sides, above the main entrance, to form a portico (see photo).

'' style, but with five separate bays, each with its own small gable, to provide five sanctuaries, one for each of the five ''kami'' worshipped at the shrine. It interior is decorated with colored paintings.

National Important Cultural Properties

* Haiden, constructed in 1539. It is a three by one bay structure with a single-gable roof which is covered in cypress bark shingles. This hall of worship is built at right angles to the center of the front of the main hall. The floor is low and open on all sides. Detailed techniques of its construction are characteristic of the end of the Muromachi period. *Bronze Bell,

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

, with an overall height of 147.0 cm and a diameter of 78.3 cm is the largest Korean bell in Japan. The body is long and smooth, with a bulge on the waist, and a slightly squeezed rim. The body has lotus petal and cloud decorations with four celestial maidens flying in the air. *Horse fittings,

. These include a saddle, harness and stirrups with an old bronze peony arabesque decoration, in the style of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, used for festivals and ceremonies. The set was a donation by

Ouchi Yoshitaka Ouchi or Ōuchi may refer to: Geography * Ouchi, Hubei (), a town in Gong'an County, Jingzhou, Hubei, China Japan * Ōuchi, Akita, a town now merged into Yurihonjō, Akita * Ouchi, Saga, a town now merged into Karatsu City, Saga * Ōuchi-juku, ...

. *''Horaku Hyakushu Waka'' Strip, dated 1495.

Sōgi Iio Sōgi, (or Inō Sōgi) generally known as , was a Japanese people, Japanese poet. He came from a humble family from the province of Kii Province, Kii or Ōmi Province, Ōmi, and died in Hakone, Kanagawa, Hakone on September 1, 1502. Sōgi wa ...

, a leading figure in ''

renga ''Renga'' (, ''linked poem'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 morae (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets ...

'' poetry, came to Nagato twice (1480 and 1489) under the protection of

Ōuchi Masahiro was a member of the Ōuchi clan and general in the Ōnin War, serving Yamana Sōzen. He battled numerous times with Yamana's rival, Hosokawa Katsumoto, at one point commanding 20,000 men and 2,000 boats, moving his troops by land as well as by s ...

, where he played a major role in editing the ''Shinsen Tsukubashū''. He donated a strip of poetry with 30 works by famous people, including Sanjōnishi Sanetaka, Emperor Go-Kashiwabara, and others in a cedar box, It was later divided into individual works and placed in a lacquer box by Mōri Hidemoto.

Gallery

Romon gate and sando of Sumiyoshi Shrine.jpg, Romon Sumiyoshi-jinja (Shimonoseki) Haiden.JPG, Haiden 1st torii of Sumiyoshi Shrine 3.jpg, 1st Torii

References

External links

Prefecture Tourist Information
Shinto shrines in Yamaguchi Prefecture Nagato Province Shimonoseki Ichinomiya National Treasures of Japan Beppyo shrines Myōjin Taisha Kanpei Chūsha Shrines dedicated to Empress Jingū Sumiyoshi shrines Yamaguchi Prefecture designated tangible cultural property {{Sumiyoshi Faith