is a

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

shrine located in Tenri,

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

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 ...

Monument of Japanese battleship Yamato in Oyamato Shrine

In the time of Emperor Sujin there was a crisis. Amaterasu ( via the Yata-no-Kagami and the Kusanagi sword) and Yamato Okunitama, the

tutelary deity A tutelary (; also tutelar) is a deity or a Nature spirit, spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept ...

of Yamato, were originally worshipped in the great hall of the imperial palace. When a series of plagues broke out during Emperor Sujin's reign, he "dreaded ..the power of these Gods, and did not feel secure in their dwelling together." He thus entrusted the mirror and the sword to his daughter Toyosukiirihime, who brought them to the village of Kasanuhi, and delegated the worship of Yamato Okunitama to another daughter, , but her health began to fail shortly afterward. It is recorded that Nunakiiri-hime became emaciated after losing all of her hair, which rendered her unable to perform her duties. would conduct the Okunitama rites replacing the emaciated . would be the ancestor of the Yamato clan. This replacement is taken as a shift towards more patriarchai religion. When the pestilence showed no sign of abating, he then performed

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

, which revealed the plague to have been caused by Ōmononushi, the god of Mount Miwa. When the god was offered proper worship as per his demands, the epidemic ceased. After this Ōyamato Shrine was founded for Yamato Okunitama and the descendants of the Yamato clan serve the shrine to this day. 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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. In 965,

Emperor Murakami The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother ( empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rul ...

ordered that Imperial messengers were sent to report important events to the guardian of Japan. These were initially presented to 16 shrines including the Ōyamato Shrine. From 1871 through 1946, the Ōyamato Shrine was officially designated one of the , meaning that it stood in the first rank of government supported shrines. The shrine was a guardian shrine of Japanese battleship Yamato.

References

Shinto shrines in Nara Prefecture Kanpei Taisha Beppyo shrines Myōjin Taisha Twenty-Two Shrines Yamato clan Kasuga-zukuri {{Shinto-shrine-stub

See also

References