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 Sumiyoshi neighborhood of

Hakata-ku, Fukuoka is a wards of Japan, ward of the city of Fukuoka in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Many of Fukuoka Prefecture and Fukuoka City's principal government, commercial, retail and entertainment establishments are located in the district. Hakata-ku is als ...

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

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

Chikuzen Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyūshū, corresponding to part of north and western Fukuoka Prefecture. Chikuzen bordered on Hizen to the east, and Buzen east, and Bungo to the southeast. Its abbreviated form name was (a ...

. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on October 13. Along with the more famous

Sumiyoshi-taisha , also known as Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine, is a Shinto shrine in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is the main shrine of all the Sumiyoshi shrines. It gives its name to a style of shrine architecture known as ''Sumiyoshi-zukuri''. T ...

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

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi 260px, Shimonoseki city hall is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 248,193 in 128,762 households and a population density of 350 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It is th ...

, it is one of the "Three Great Sumiyoshi" shrines.

Enshrined ''kami''

The ''

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 ...

'' enshrined at Sumiyoshi Jinja are: * * *

Origins

Per the shrine's legend (''Chikuzen Sumiyoshi Daimyojin Goengi''), the shrine is the birthplace of the Sumiyoshi cult and the origin for all Sumiyoshi shrines in the country. Unlike Hakata, which is located on sand dunes, the area surrounding the shrine grounds is located on the alluvial land of the Naka River, and topographically located on the cape of Reizeitsu, which juts out into the mouths of the Hie River and the Naka River. This was thought to be a suitable location for a place of worship for the guardian deity of navigation. Bronze spear and a bronze sword from the

Yayoi Period The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...

have been excavated from the shrine grounds, and it is theorized that this area was originally a sacred place for

Nakoku was a stateIn Japanese, the character 国/國, read as ''koku'' (in on'yomi) or ''kuni'' (in kun'yomi), can be translated as "country" or "province" which was located in and around modern-day Fukuoka City, on the Japanese island of Kyūsh ...

or the Amabe maritime tribe.

History

The foundation of the Sumitomo Shrine in Hakozaki is unknown. It first appears in historical documentation in an entry in the ''

Shoku Nihongi The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the '' Six National Histories'', coming directly after the and followed by ''Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as t ...

'' dated April 737, when it is recorded that offerings were made to "Chikushi Sumiyoshi" and to

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the solar goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami and the grain goddess Toyouke-hime (Toyouke Omikami). Also known simply as , Ise Shrine is a shrine complex composed of many Shi ...

in response to disrespectful actions by the kingdom of

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 ...

in 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 ...

. Per a survey dated 806, 36 shrines were dedicated to Sumiyoshi in Chikuzen Province, and in 847 the monk

Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and ...

and in 852 the monk

Enchin (814–891) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded of the Jimon school of Tendai Buddhism and Chief Abbot of Mii-dera at the foot of Mount Hiei. After succeeding to the post of Tendai , in 873, a strong rivalry developed between his followe ...

recited Buddhist sutras at the shrine on their return from

Tang China 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 ...

. In 878, it was placed under the direct protection of the Imperial Court after an oracle at Kashii-gū warned of a possible attack by Silla. In the ''

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 ...

'', the shrine is listed as a ''Myojin Taisha'' and in 1019, the shrine was entrusted to

Emperor Go-Ichijō was the 68th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 後一条天皇 (68)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Ichijō's reign spanned the years from 1016 through 1036. This 11th century sovereign was n ...

as a "once-in-a-generation" offering. It has been regarded as the ''ichinomiya'' of Chikuzen Province since the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

Takezaki Suenaga was a retainer of the Higo Province, Japan who fought in both the Battle of Bun'ei and the Battle of Kōan during the Mongol invasions of Japan. Suenaga commissioned the '' Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba'', an illustrated handscroll, in order to prov ...

's '' Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba'' depicts the vermilion torii gate of Sumiyoshi Shrine. In 1480, the ''

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 ...

'' master

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 ...

visited the shrine, and wrote about the devastation of Sumiyoshi Shrine due to war in the "Tsukushi Doki". During the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, 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 th ...

, the shrine records and old documents were taken by

Ōuchi Yoshitaka was the ''daimyō'' of Suō Province and the head of the Ōuchi clan, succeeding Ōuchi Yoshioki. In 1522, he fought the Amago clan along with his father, Yoshioki, to win the control of Aki Province. Upon Yoshioki's death in 1528, Yoshit ...

to Yamaguchi and were destroyed in the

Tainei-ji incident The was a '' coup d'etat'' in September 1551 led by Sue Takafusa (later known as Sue Harukata) against Ōuchi Yoshitaka, hegemon and ''shugo'' ''daimyō'' of western Japan, which ended in the latter's forced suicide in Tainei-ji, a temple in Na ...

of 1551. The current shrine was restored by

Kuroda Nagamasa was a ''daimyō'' during the late Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods. He was the son of Kuroda Kanbei, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's chief strategist and adviser. Biography Nagamasa's childhood name was Shojumaru (松寿丸). In 1577 his fathe ...

, the first ''

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

Fukuoka Domain 270px, Kuroda Nagamasa, the 1st daimyo of Fukuoka Domain 270px, Kuroda Nagahiro, the 11th next to last daimyo of Fukuoka Domain 270px, Kuroda Nagatomo, final daimyo of Fukuoka Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was assoc ...

in 1623. Subsequent rulers of the domain continued to support the shrine to 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 ...

. Under the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

State Shinto was Empire of Japan, Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for Kannushi, priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that ...

's system of ranked Shinto shrines, Sumiyoshi Shrine was ranked as a Prefectural Shrine in 1872, and promoted to a in 1925. In 2004,

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s began around the precincts. In a total of three excavations up to 2014, the remains of a mansion from the medieval to early modern period were discovered along with artifacts related to rituals.

Cultural Properties

* - The main hall of the shrine was built by Kuroda Nagamasa in 1623 during the early Edo period. It is in the ''Sumiyoshi-zukuri'' style, which is considered to be an older form of shrine architecture. It is a gabled structure and the roof is thatched with cypress bark. The pillars are painted vermilion and the wooden walls are painted white. It was designated as a National Important Cultural Property in 1922.

Gallery

Sumiyoshi-jinja (Fukuoka) torii.JPG, Torii Sumiyoshi-jinja (Fukuoka), honden.JPG, Honden (ICP) Sumiyoshi-jinja (Fukuoka) nougakuden.JPG, Noh Theatre

References

External links

Official home pageCultural Properties of Fukuoka CityFukuoka Tourism Web
{{Shinto shrine Shinto shrines in Fukuoka Prefecture Chikuzen Province Buildings and structures in Fukuoka Ichinomiya Beppyo shrines Myōjin Taisha Kanpei Shōsha Shrines dedicated to Empress Jingū Sumiyoshi shrines