Tamayorihime Shrine

A Shikinai Shrine at the Foot of Mount Tenno

Tamayorihime Shrine (玉依比賣命神社, Tamayorihime-no-Mikoto Jinja, also written 玉依比売命神社) is a Shinto shrine at the southern foot of Mount Tennō in Tōjō, Matsushiro-machi, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture, which by shrine tradition moved to its present site in 1230; four of its buildings, dating from 1693 to 1854, were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2014.

Tamayorihime Shrine is named in the register of deities of the Engishiki, the body of court regulations presented in 927. It is one of the 48 shrines of Shinano Province recorded there, which makes it a shikinaisha, a shrine recognized by the imperial court more than a thousand years ago.

The principal deity is Tamayorihime-no-Mikoto, honored in the shrine's account as the mother of Emperor Jimmu, the legendary first emperor. Amaterasu, Takeminakatatomi-no-Mikoto and Susanoo are enshrined alongside her.

The founding story reaches back to the reign of Emperor Kōgen, a ruler known only from legend, when the deity is said to have been invited to a site in the hills to the east, now called Iwasawa. The shrine then moved to Isonami, present-day Nakagawa, and was known for a time as Isonami Sansha Daimyōjin. Accounts differ on the date of the last move. The Shinshu Matsushiro Tourism Association places it in the second year of the Kanki era, 1230, while the Nagano City cultural property database gives the first year, 1229.

The Four Registered Buildings of Tamayorihime Shrine

All four registered buildings of Tamayorihime Shrine were entered on the national register on the same day, December 19, 2014, under consecutive numbers 20-0461 to 20-0464. They fall into two pairs.

The first pair is the shrine proper. The main hall stands at the foot of the slope facing east, and the worship hall sits directly in front of it, so visitors arriving on the approach meet the worship hall first and the main hall rises behind. The main hall is dated only broadly to the late Edo period, between 1751 and 1830. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the worship hall to 1854. The tourism association, for its part, says the present shrine buildings were rebuilt in 1833 in a manner modeled on the many-gabled yatsumune style; the two dates have not been reconciled in the sources consulted.

The second pair belongs to the Munakatasha (宗形社), a subsidiary shrine in the eastern part of the grounds. Here a single south-facing thatched building, dated to between 1661 and 1751, serves both as a worship hall and as a shelter for a miniature main hall built in 1693, the oldest of the four structures.

Three of the buildings were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Munakatasha main hall alone was registered as a model of form, a recognition of the quality of its carpentry at a very small scale. The individual pages explain what to look for at each one.

New Year Rites at Tamayorihime Shrine

Tamayorihime Shrine is best known for three rites held at the start of the year. The Otamatsuri prays for a good rice harvest. The Kodamaishi Shinji counts the shrine's sacred beads, and a rise or fall in their number is read as an omen for the year. The Gohan Shinji divines the coming crops. Nagano City designated the three rites together as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property on February 9, 1985, and describes them as pre-harvest rituals held on the day of Nanakusa, January 7, and the evening before.

The beads themselves, known as the kodamaishi, are mostly jade and other stone comma-shaped magatama and tubular beads, some thought to go back to the Kofun period. They are listed as a Nagano Prefectural Treasure. The regular calendar also includes the Kinensai, the annual grand festival, the Niinamesai and the New Year rite.

Visiting Tamayorihime Shrine

Tamayorihime Shrine lies east of central Matsushiro. By public transport, take an Alpico bus from JR Nagano Station bound for Matsushiro via the prefectural office and get off at Matsushiro-eki, then continue about 10 minutes by taxi; Matsushiro Taxi can be reached on 026-278-7000. By car it is about 25 minutes from Nagano Station, or about 5 kilometers and 15 minutes from the Nagano interchange on the Joshin-etsu Expressway.

No admission fee or gate hours are published for the grounds of Tamayorihime Shrine, and no regular opening of the building interiors is advertised; the registered buildings are seen from outside. The sources consulted say nothing about photography, so please refrain during rites and prayers. The sources also do not say if visitors may watch the January rites. For questions, the Shinshu Matsushiro Tourism Association is on 026-278-3366.