Tashima Shrine is a shrine situated on in Yobuko Town now, Karatsu City,

Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of roughly 780,000 and has a geographic area of . Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasaki Prefect ...

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 located in the area known as Matsurokoku, which is believed to be the first land of the mainland of

Wakoku Wa-koku (倭國, literally "Wa-nation") was the name used by early imperial China and its neighbouring states to refer to the nation usually identified as Japan. There are various theories regarding the extent of power of the early kings of Japan. ...

as per

Wajinden The ''Wajinden'' (倭人伝; "Treatise on the Wa People") are passages in the 30th fascicle of the Chinese history chronicle ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' that talk about the Wa people, who would later be known as the Japanese people. It de ...

records. It is an important point for safe sea crossings to the continent, and has received significant orders from the central government since ancient times. In earlier times, it was called 'Tajima Niimasu Kaminoyashiro'. It is the only

Myojin Taisha 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 ''Engishik ...

Hizen Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of the Saga Prefecture, Saga and Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen Province, Ch ...

, and was previously classified as Kokuhei Chusha due to renovations during the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

. Currently, it is a

beppyo shrine A ''Beppyō'' shrine () is a category of Shinto shrine, as defined by the Association of Shinto Shrines. They are considered to be remarkable in some way, and thus given a higher status than other shrines. It is considered the successor to the mo ...

of the

Association of Shinto Shrines The is a religious administrative organisation that oversees about 80,000 Shinto shrines in Japan. These shrines take the Ise Grand Shrine as the foundation of their belief. It is the largest Shrine Shinto organization in existence. Description ...

. It is associated with

Matsura Sayohime ('Lady Sayo of Matsura') or Matsuura Sayohime was a legendary heroine in Japanese mythology, the wife of the historical Ōtomo no Satehiko. She is referred to as Lady Otohi or Otohihime in an alternate ancient source. The core legend was that ...

who is said to be buried on the site.

Mythology

left, Sayohime Shrine Princess Sayo at Matsu-ura

According to a version of the legend of

, she prayed with such fervour that she was transformed into stone. This petrification lore of Sayohime appears to be of later development, with its earliest attestation identified as

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 ...

poet 's ''Sodeshita shū'' (c.

Ōei was a after '' Meitoku'' and before '' Shōchō''. This period spanned the years from July 1394 through April 1428. Reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1394 : The new era name was created because of plague. The previous era ended and ...

era, late 14th to early 15th century). This lore of Sayohime's petrification is thought to have developed from a misunderstanding: a misreading of (13th century), which ponders on the Sayohime legend and makes reference to the petrification motif taken from an old Chinese work called the ''Youminglu''. Sayohime's petrification is also mentioned in ''Nihon meijo monogatari'' (1670). Her supposed petrified remains, an example of a , is housed as the ''

shintai In Shinto, , or when the honorific prefix ''go''- is used, are physical objects worshipped at or near Shinto shrines as repositories in which spirits or ''kami'' reside.''Shintai'', Encyclopedia of Shinto ''Shintai'' used in Shrine Shinto (Jin ...

'' ("body of the kami") at the Sayohime Shrine, an undershrine of Tashima Shrine on Kabe Island. The claim regarding her petrification on this island is given in a late account of the origin of this undershrine, preserved in the 19th-century document called the (written during the

Bunka was a after '' Kyōwa'' and before ''Bunsei''. The period spanned the years from January 1804 to April 1818. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * February 11, 1804 (): The new era name of ''Bunka'' ( meaning "Culture" or "Civili ...

era). It states that the lady did not stop at the Scarf-Waving Peak bidding farewell, but she continued to a spot from whose vantage point she beheld an island nearby. She then hopped on a fishing boat to that island, called the island (present-day Kabe Island; ) where she climbed a "bit elevated spot" and there, out of sorrow, she turned intorock. Commentators identify this elevation as the or .

Explanatory notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * *
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* (English abstract) * al
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core.ac.uk * * * * * * Repr. from ''Minzoku'' 3 (2), Mar. 1927 * {{Munakata Faith Japanese mythology Beppyo shrines Myōjin Taisha Kokuhei Chūsha Shinto shrines in Saga Prefecture History of Saga Prefecture

Mythology

See also

Explanatory notes

References

Bibliography