Abe Seimei Shrine

Abe Seimei Shrine

Abe Seimei Shrine (安倍晴明神社), a subsidiary of Abe Oji Shrine beside the old Kumano Road in Abeno Motomachi, Osaka, keeps three structures of 1924, the main hall, the worship and offering hall and the lattice fence, registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on September 10, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The shrine follows the tradition that the Heian-period diviner Abe no Seimei was born here; its records say it was completed in 1007, two years after his death, on the orders of the retired emperor Kazan. The Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau says it declined at the end of the Edo period and was revived in 1921 as a subsidiary of Abe Oji Shrine.

The Three Structures

The main hall, at the back of the precinct on a cut-stone base, is a one-bay nagare-style hall designed by Yoshida Tanejirō, formerly an architect to Nara Prefecture, and dressed in old-style beam ends and struts (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The hip-and-gable worship hall stands in front, with an offering hall projecting from its back towards the sanctuary, and the lattice fence runs 25 metres from the back of the worship hall around the main hall (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The tourism bureau dates the present buildings to 1925, while the Agency dates all three to 1924. Each structure 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, or 3 minutes from the Ojicho bus stop. Abe Oji Shrine is just to the south.