Onoe Shrine

Onoe Shrine, the "Onoe of Takasago" in Poetry and Noh

Onoe Shrine (尾上神社, Onoe Jinja) in Onoe-cho, Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture, is a shrine to the Sumiyoshi deities of the sea whose four buildings, dating from the late Edo period to the Taisho era, were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on May 15, 2007.

The shrine stands in the old village of Nagata, close to where the Kakogawa River meets the Seto Inland Sea, and sailors long prayed here for safe passage. It honors the three Sumiyoshi gods (Sokotsutsuo, Nakatsutsuo and Uwatsutsuo) together with Empress Jingu. The shrine's own history says the empress landed on this shore on her way back from the Korean Peninsula, was held up by days of rain, purified herself at a pond called Kagami-no-ike and enshrined the Sumiyoshi deities to pray for clear skies.

The whole coast here was once known as Takasago, and the site of Onoe Shrine became the "Onoe of Takasago" of classical verse. In the Noh play Takasago, a priest of the Aso Shrine in Higo traveling to the capital stops to ask about the paired pines and meets an old man and woman who turn out to be the spirits of the trees. Onoe Shrine identifies that scene with its own grounds, and its reputation as a shrine for long and happy marriages grew from the story.

History and the four registered buildings of Onoe Shrine

The late sixteenth century was hard on the shrine. According to Onoe Shrine, during the Tensho era troops of the Mori clan, fighting Hashiba (later Toyotomi) Hideyoshi's siege of Miki Castle, landed on this beach and made camp, and they cut down the first Onoe pine for firewood. Recovery came in the early Edo period. In 1604 Ikeda Terumasa, lord of Himeji, moved the shrine buildings onto the roots of that first pine and restored them, and in 1625 Honda Tadamasa added a bell tower.

Edo-period gazetteers such as Harima Kagami and the illustrated guide Banshu Meisho Junran Zue of 1804 listed the shrine among the sights of the province. The painter Shiba Kokan, the surveyor Ino Tadataka and the late-Edo activist Kiyokawa Hachiro are all said to have visited.

The four buildings standing today all postdate that restoration. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Main Hall and the Zuishin Gate to the late Edo period, the Worship Hall to the early Meiji era and the Offering Hall to the Taisho era. All four entered the register on the same day in the 54th round of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, as numbers 28-0266 (Main Hall), 28-0267 (Offering Hall), 28-0268 (Worship Hall) and 28-0269 (Zuishin Gate), each for its contribution to the historic landscape.

The Worship Hall is the largest at 64 square meters, followed by the Offering Hall at 51, the gate at 23 and the Main Hall at 16. The Main Hall and the gate have copper-plate roofs (Dōban-buki), while the Worship Hall and Offering Hall are roofed in traditional round-and-flat tiles (Hongawarabuki). The gate was also repaired in the Taisho era and again in 1995.

Beyond its buildings, Onoe Shrine keeps a Korean temple bell known as the Onoe Bell. The shrine dates it to the Goryeo dynasty in the early eleventh century, and it has been under national protection since 1901. A local legend says pirates stole it in 1468 and dropped it into the sea off Cape Ashizuri in Tosa. Fishermen raised it and gave it to Mount Koya, but every strike of the bell seemed to sound "Onoe e, ino" ("back to Onoe"), so it was returned.

The layout of the Onoe Shrine grounds

At Onoe Shrine the Zuishin Gate marks the entrance, and the Worship Hall, Offering Hall and Main Hall stand in a single line straight ahead. The Agency's notes describe the shrine buildings facing the entrance, with the Main Hall at the very back. A small arched bridge and an offering-preparation room are attached to the rear of the Worship Hall, and the Offering Hall is built against the front of the Main Hall, whose front joins the Offering Hall's norito-za (the seat from which priests recite prayers). From front to back the three buildings share one axis.

The buildings face the gate. Onoe Shrine says that on New Year's morning the first sunrise appears right in the middle of the gateway when seen from inside the grounds. From the approach you mainly see the big tiled roof of the Worship Hall, with the Offering Hall and Main Hall stacked behind it. Each building's page explains where to stand to see it.

Beside the shrine buildings grows the Katae no Matsu, a pine whose branches are said to reach east in longing for Empress Jingu. The old tree died in 1949 and the present one is the third. During the Wawa no To rite on January 13, rice gruel used to be offered in front of it.

The grounds also hold the Onoe no Matsu, the "paired pine" in which a black pine and a red pine grow from one root, long read as a sign of a devoted couple. The shrine says the first tree was felled in the Tensho era and its stump is kept in the treasure house. The third tree was protected as a Natural Monument from 1924 until pine wilt killed it in 1949. The shrine calls the present pine the fifth, while some tourism guides call it the eighth, so the count depends on the source.

Visiting Onoe Shrine and getting there

Anyone may visit the Onoe Shrine grounds, and there is no admission fee. No official visiting hours are posted, though the shrine notes that New Year visits start at midnight on January 1. If you hope to see the Onoe Bell or would like a group explanation, contact the shrine in advance (079-422-5676).

The nearest station is Onoe-no-Matsu on the Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line, about 10 minutes away on foot according to the Kakogawa Tourism Association. From JR Kakogawa Station, the city's Kako Bus stops at Onoe Shimin Center-mae, right by the shrine. The shrine has a parking area for visitors who come by car.

The main festivals are the annual festival on September 30 and the autumn festival on the Saturday and Sunday around October 15, when goblin-masked tengu lead portable shrines, futon-roofed drum floats and danjiri carts through the neighborhood. On the last Sunday of July about 100 lanterns made by local children are lit in the grounds. To look at the buildings at leisure, choose a day outside the festivals.