, also known as , is a Shinto shrine located in Sakurai,

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, Wakaya ...

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 n ...

. The shrine is noted because it contains no sacred images or objects because it is believed to serve Mount Miwa, the mountain on which it stands. For the same reason, it has a , but no . In this sense, it is a model of what the first Shinto shrines were like.Tamura, page 21 Ōmiwa Shrine is one of the oldest extant Shinto shrines in Japan and the site has been sacred ground for some of the earliest religious practices in Japan. Because of this, it has sometimes been named as Japan's first shrine. Ōmiwa Shrine is a tutelary shrine of the Japanese

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and in ...

brewers.

History

Ōmiwa Shrine's history is closely related to Mount Miwa and the religious practices surrounding the mountain. In the early

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

, Yamato kings and leaders had shifted their attention to ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' worship on Mount Miwa, and Ōmiwa Shrine was the major institution for this branch of worship. The style of Shinto surrounding Miwa became later known as

Miwa Shinto Miwa (みわ, ミワ) is a feminine Japanese given name which can also be used as a surname. Possible writings Miwa can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *三和 "three, harmony" *三輪 "three, wheel/ring" *美和 "beauty ...

, and is set apart from previous practices by a more structured theological philosophy. The shrine became the object of Imperial patronage during the early

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 Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

. In 965,

Emperor Murakami was the 62nd emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 村上天皇 (62)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Murakami's reign spanned the years from 946 to his death in 967. Biography Before he ascended to ...

ordered that Imperial messengers be sent to report important events to the guardian ''kami'' of Japan. These ''heihaku'' were initially presented to 16 shrines, including Ōmiwa. Ōmiwa was designated as the chief Shinto shrine (''

ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise ...

'') for the former Yamato Province. From 1871 through 1946, Ōmiwa was officially designated one of the , meaning that it stood in the first rank among government supported shrines.

Religious significance

The Ōmiwa Shrine is directly linked to Mount Miwa in that the mountain is the shrine's '' shintai'', or "kami-body", instead of a building housing a "kami-body". This type of mountain worship (''

shintai-zan 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 (Jinj ...

'') is found in the earliest forms of

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 ''Shint ...

, and has also been employed at Suwa Shrine in Nagano, and formerly at Isonokami Shrine in

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

and

Munakata Shrine is a collection of three Shinto shrines located in Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is the head of the approximately 6,000 Munakata shrines all over the country. Although the name Munakata Taisha refers to all three shrines—Hetsu-gū, N ...

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, 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 anc ...

. According to the chronicle '' Nihon Shoki'', Emperor Sujin appealed to Mount Miwa's ''

'' when Japan was crippled by

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

. In response, the ''kami''

Ōmononushi Ōmononushi ( ja, 大物主神, Ōmononushi-no-Kami; historical orthography: ''Ohomononushi'') is a ''kami'' in Japanese mythology associated with Mount Miwa (also known as Mount Mimoro) in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. He is closely linked in the ...

demanded rituals be performed for him at Mount Miwa. He then demanded that the rites be led by Ōtata Neko, his half-kami, half-human son born from the union with a woman of the

Miwa clan Miwa (みわ, ミワ) is a feminine Japanese given name which can also be used as a surname. Possible writings Miwa can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *三和 "three, harmony" *三輪 "three, wheel/ring" *美和 "beaut ...

. Ōta Taneko performed the rites to satisfaction, and the plague subsided. A building dedicated to Ōta Taneko was later erected in his honor. A legendary white snake is said to live in around the shrine, and is supposedly one of the kami worshiped there. Indeed, snakes and the snake cult figures importantly in the myths surrounding Mount Miwa as well as early Shinto in general.

Auxiliary shrines

The Ōmiwa shrine complex includes notable auxiliary shrines (''

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 c ...

''), including 12 and 28 which are marked by small structures falling under Ōmiwa's jurisdiction. For example, the ''sessha'' ''Ikuhi jinja'' enshrines the ''kami'' who was appointed Ōmiwa's sake brewer in the 4th month of the 8th year of the reign of Emperor Sujin. A poem associated with Ikuhi is said to have been composed by

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

on the occasion of a banquet for her son,

Emperor Ōjin , also known as (alternatively spelled 譽田別命, 誉田別命, 品陀和気命, 譽田分命, 誉田別尊, 品陀別命) or , was the 15th (possibly legendary) Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. No firm da ...

: ::This is sacred sake :::is not my sacred sake. ::This sacred sake brewed by Ōmononushi ::How long ago ::How long ago.

Architecture

Ōmiwa Shrine is situated in a quiet forest, and built directly in front of Mount Miwa. An ancient Japanese cedar tree (''Cryptomeria'') can be found on shrine compound, and is considered sacred. The mountain itself serves as the ''

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 s ...

'', or main hall, instead of a man-made building. AnneauxBorromeensFace

Decorations in the form of Borromean rings are found throughout the shrine's buildings. This ornamentation symbolizes the three rings, as "Miwa" is written with the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

for and . Built in 1984, at 32 m the ''torii'' on its sandō is the second highest in Japan. The shrine also has a great ''shime torii'', an ancient form of gate made only with two posts and a rope called '' shimenawa''. It is one of few shrines that has a "triple-''torii''" ('' miwa torii'') on its grounds. This gate is also one of the few to actually have doors, which bar access to the mountain it enshrines. The buildings at Ōmiwa Shrine are a mix of structures built from ancient times to the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

National treasures

Important Cultural Assets

*The entire shrine compound *The 17th century ''haiden'', or prayer hall, built with cypress

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, e ...

roofing *The "Triple-''torii''" (''miwa torii'')Ponsonby-Fane, '' Visiting Famous Shrines in Japan,'' p. 271; note that "threefold torii take the place of the ''shinden'' of other shrines" *The ''shinden'' dedicated to Ōtata Neko *Suit of bronze armor, lacquered red *A copy of the '' Book of Zhou'', scroll number 19

Notes

References

* Aston, William George. (2005). ''Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697''. Boston:

Tuttle Publishing Tuttle Publishing, originally the Charles E. Tuttle Company, is a book publishing company that includes Tuttle, Periplus Editions, and Journey Editions.

. . * Breen, John and Mark Teeuwen. (2000)
''Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami.''
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. * Brown, Delmer M. (1993). ''Cambridge History of Japan'', Volume 1. New York:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

. . * Kidder, Jonathan Edward (2007). ''Himiko and Japan's elusive chiefdom of Yamatai: archaeology, history, and mythology''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. . * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962).
''Studies in Shinto and Shrines.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 399449
* ____________. (1959)
''The Imperial House of Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 194887
* ____________. (1964)
''Visiting Famous Shrines in Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby-Fane Memorial Society. *

External links

Official Site
(Japanese)

(English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Omiwa Shrine Shinto shrines in Nara Prefecture Important Cultural Properties of Japan Historic Sites of Japan