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Himegamisha Shrine, Nara
The Himegamisha Shrine (Japanese language, Japanese: 比売神社, ''Himegamisha'') is a Jinja (shrine), Shinto shrine in the Municipality of Japan, city of Nara, Nara, Nara, in Nara prefecture, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It is built in 1981 by the people of this neighborhood on the tomb called ''Hime-zuka'' (princess' tomb) that is estimated to be a burial place of Princess Tōchi, an Empress-consort of Emperor Kōbun. It is a ''Setsumatsusha, sessha'' (subsidiary shrine) of the Kagami Shrine. History In 1930s, the ''Hime-zuka'' became nation's property and managed by Nara Bureau of Financial Affairs. Several decades later, this grave was disposed to the residents of this neighborhood. They tried to build a shrine and enshrine Princess Tōchi to it, for the revival of this area. The land was donated to the Shin-Yakushi-ji temple, and the Shinto ceremonies to be held in the shrine were delegated to the chief priest of the Kagami Shrine. A ground-breaking ceremony was held in the su ...
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Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoists'', although adherents rarely use that term themselves. There is no central authority in control of Shinto, with much diversity of belief and practice evident among practitioners. A polytheistic and animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the . The are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent landscape locations. The are worshiped at household shrines, family shrines, and ''jinja'' public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests, known as , who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony between humans and and to solicit the latter's blessing. Other common rituals include the dances, rites of pass ...
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Japanese Language
is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu, Austroasiatic, Koreanic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), there was a massive influx of Sino-Japanese vocabulary into the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords. The basis of the standard dialect moved f ...
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Jinja (shrine)
A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The ''honden''Also called (本殿, meaning: "main hall") is where a shrine's patron ''kami'' is/are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dictionary The ''honden'' may be absent in cases where a shrine stands on or near a sacred mountain, tree, or other object which can be worshipped directly or in cases where a shrine possesses either an altar-like structure, called a ''himorogi,'' or an object believed to be capable of attracting spirits, called a ''yorishiro,'' which can also serve as direct bonds to a ''kami''. There may be a and other structures as well. Although only one word ("shrine") is used in English, in Japanese, Shinto shrines may carry any one of many different, non-equivalent names like ''gongen'', ''-gū'', ''jinja'', ''jingū'', ''mori'', ''myōjin'', ''-sha'', ''taisha' ...
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Municipality Of Japan
Japan has three levels of governments: national, prefectural, and municipal. The nation is divided into 47 prefectures. Each prefecture consists of numerous municipalities, with 1,719 in total (January 2013 figures There are four types of municipalities in Japan: Cities of Japan, cities, towns, villages and special wards (the ''ku'' of Tokyo). In Japanese, this system is known as , where each kanji in the word represents one of the four types of municipalities. Some designated cities also have further administrative subdivisions, also known as wards. But, unlike the Special wards of Tokyo, these wards are not municipalities. Status The status of a municipality, if it is a village, town or city, is decided by the prefectural government. Generally, a village or town can be promoted to a city when its population increases above fifty thousand, and a city can (but need not) be demoted to a town or village when its population decreases below fifty thousand. The least-populated ...
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Nara, Nara
is the capital city of Nara Prefecture, Japan. As of 2022, Nara has an estimated population of 367,353 according to World Population Review, making it the largest city in Nara Prefecture and sixth-largest in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara is a core city located in the northern part of Nara Prefecture bordering the Kyoto Prefecture. Nara was the capital of Japan during the Nara period from 710 to 794 as the seat of the Emperor before the capital was moved to Kyoto. Nara is home to eight temples, shrines, and ruins, specifically Tōdai-ji, Saidai-ji, Kōfuku-ji, Kasuga Shrine, Gangō-ji, Yakushi-ji, Tōshōdai-ji, and the Heijō Palace, together with Kasugayama Primeval Forest, collectively form the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Etymology By the Heian period, a variety of different characters had been used to represent the name Nara: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . A number of theories for the origin of the name "Nara" have been pro ...
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Nara Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama Prefecture to the southwest, and Mie Prefecture to the east. Nara is the capital and largest city of Nara Prefecture, with other major cities including Kashihara, Ikoma, and Yamatokōriyama. Nara Prefecture is located in the center of the Kii Peninsula on Japan's Pacific Ocean coast, and is one of only eight landlocked prefectures. Nara Prefecture has the distinction of having more UNESCO World Heritage listings than any other prefecture in Japan. History Nara Prefecture region is considered one of the oldest regions in Japan, having been in existence for thousands of years, and is widely viewed as the Japanese cradle of civilization. Like Kyoto, Nara was one of Imperial Japan's earliest capital cities. The current form of Nara Prefec ...
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Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ...
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Princess Tōchi
was a Japanese Imperial House of Japan, Imperial princess during the Asuka period of Japanese history and the empress consort to her cousin Emperor Kōbun. Her name Tōchi is derived from the Tōchi district, a neighbourhood located a few miles north of Asuka. Princess Tōchi was daughter of Emperor Tenmu and Princess Nukata. She married Prince Ōtomo, who became Emperor Kōbun. They lived in the capital of Ōtsu in the Ōmi Province (currently Ōtsu, Shiga, Ōtsu, Shiga). He succeeded after his father, Emperor Tenji, died. She subsequently was Empress-consort until Emperor Kōbun was killed by her father in the Jinshin War. After the war, she returned to Asuka and lived with her mother and her son in the Asuka Kiyomihara palace. In 675 she visited the Ise Grand Shrine with Empress Genmei, Princess Abe. In 678, she was appointed a Saiō by Onmyōdō, divination and was supposed to leave her residence to stay in Saikū (斎宮) in the 7th day of the 4th month, when she suddenly ...
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Emperor Kōbun
was the 39th emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 弘文天皇 (39)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan'', p. 53. Kōbun's reign lasted only a few months in 672. Traditional narrative Emperor Kōbun was named the 39th emperor by the Meiji government in 1870; and since the late 19th century, he is known by the posthumous name accorded to him by Meiji scholars. In his lifetime, he was known as Prince Ōtomo (大友皇子, ''Ōtomo no ōji''). He was the favorite son of Emperor Tenji; and he was also the first to have been accorded the title of ''Daijō-daijin.'' Contemporary historians now place the reign of Emperor Kōbun between the reigns of Emperor Tenji and Emperor Tenmu; but the ''Nihongi'', the ''Gukanshō'', and the ''Jinnō Shōtōki'' do not recognize this reign. Prince Ōtomo was only given his posthumous title and name in 1870. :Post-Meiji chronology :* ''In ...
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Setsumatsusha
and , also called Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version. (collectively known as The term ''setsumatsusha'' is the combination of the two terms ''sessha'' and ''massha''.) are small or miniature shrines entrusted to the care of a larger shrine, generally due to some deep connection with the enshrined ''kami''. The two terms used to have legally different meanings, but are today synonyms. ''Setsumatsusha'' can lie either or the main shrine's premises. ''Setsumatsusha'' are usually 1x1 ''ken'' in size. They can however be as small as beehives or relatively large and have 1x2, 1x3 or even, in one case, 1x7 bays. History The practice of building ''sessha'' and ''massha'' shrines within a ''jinja'' predates written history. The earliest ''setsumatsusha'' usually had some strong connection to the history of the area or the family of the enshrined ''kami''. During the Heian period, Ise Shrine used to make a distinction between the two types based on whether a ...
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Shin-Yakushi-ji
is a Buddhist temple of the Kegon sect in Nara, Japan. It was founded in 747 by Empress Kōmyō. Initially a large complete Shichidō garan temple, it suffered from fire damage and deteriorated during the Heian period. The temple was revived during the Kamakura period. Only one building, the present main hall or , has survived from the 8th century. All other structures date to the Kamakura period. Shin-Yakushi-ji owns several cultural assets. The ''Hon-dō'', the principal image of Yakushi Nyorai and eleven statues of the Twelve Heavenly Generals have been designated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the government of Japan as National Treasures. Name The in the name is usually translated as ''new''. In the case of Shin-Yakushi-ji however it is said to have the meaning of . ''Yakushi'' refers to the principal image of the healing Buddha Yakushi Nyorai. Besides the veneration of Yakushi Nyorai, there is no connection to the famous Yaku ...
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Ema (Shintō)
are small wooden plaques, common to Japan, in which Shinto and Buddhist worshippers write prayers or wishes. are left hanging up at the shrine, where the (spirits or gods) are believed to receive them. Typically wide and tall, they often carry images or are shaped like animals, or symbols from the zodiac, Shinto, or the particular shrine or temple. In ancient times, people would donate horses to the shrines for good favor; over time this was transferred to a wooden plaque with a picture of a horse, and later still to the various wooden plaques sold today for the same purpose. Once inscribed with a wish, are hung at the shrine until they are ritually burned at special events, symbolic of the liberation of the wish from the writer. History In some early Shinto and folk traditions of Japan, horses were seen as carrying messages from the , and were usually used to transmit requests during droughts or famines. Horses were extremely expensive, and figures made of clay or wood ...
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