Abe Oji Shrine

Abe Oji Shrine

Abe Oji Shrine (阿倍王子神社) stands beside the old Kumano Road in Abeno Motomachi, Abeno Ward, Osaka, and keeps two buildings registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on September 10, 2019: the former main hall of 1908 and the Kuzunoha Inari Shrine main hall of the late Edo period (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau says that in the Heian period, when pilgrimages to Kumano were at their height, it was one of the oji shrines set along the route from Kyoto to Kumano, known as the fourth oji. Tradition credits its founding to Emperor Nintoku, and a record says the monk Kūkai prayed here against an epidemic in 826. Abe Seimei Shrine is one of its subsidiary shrines.

The Two Buildings

The former main hall stands facing east on a cut-stone base on the south side of the precinct: a small nagare-style hall whose side middle posts rise all the way to the ridge (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Kuzunoha Inari Shrine main hall, first the main hall of Otokoyama Hachiman Shrine, faces south inside a shelter east of the worship hall, painted red throughout with rich colours at key points (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each building is described on its own page.

Visiting

According to the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau, the shrine is 5 minutes' walk southeast of Higashi-Tengachaya Station on the Hankai Uemachi tram line, 1 minute from the Ojicho Oji Jinja-mae bus stop, or about 15 minutes from exit 4 of Showacho Station on the Osaka Metro Midosuji Line.