Izumianashi Shrine

Izumianashi Shrine, the Second Shrine of Izumi Province

Izumianashi Shrine (泉穴師神社, Izumi Anashi Jinja) is an ancient shrine listed in the Engishiki, in Toyonaka, Izumiotsu City, Osaka Prefecture, where three halls, the oldest bearing a ridge-beam inscription dated 1273, were designated Important Cultural Properties on February 18, 1949.

The shrine calls itself Izumi Anashi Jinja, and Osaka Prefecture's list of cultural properties uses the same reading. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database and Cultural Heritage Online give it as Izu Anashi. According to the Kyoto National Museum, Izumianashi Shrine had close ties with Anashinimasu Hyozu Shrine in Sakurai, Nara, and the prefix Izumi seems to have been added to tell the two apart.

Shrine tradition places the founding in 672, the first year of Hakuho under Emperor Tenmu, and Izumiotsu City repeats that date. Osaka Bunkazai Navi cites a tradition of around 650, and the Kyoto National Museum speaks more broadly of the mid-seventh century. The register of shrines in the Engishiki, compiled in the Heian period, lists the shrine with two deities, and in the Middle Ages it ranked second among the five leading shrines of Izumi Province: Otori, Anashi, Hijiri, Tsugawa and Oizeki (Hine).

Two deities are worshipped here as a married couple: Ame-no-Oshihomimi-no-Mikoto, honored as a god of farming, and Takuhatachijihime-no-Mikoto, a goddess of weaving. The shrine's own history also quotes a red-seal letter of 1575 in which Oda Nobunaga confirmed the landholdings of the five shrines.

The Three Important Cultural Properties at Izumianashi Shrine

The protected buildings at Izumianashi Shrine are three halls standing side by side, east to west, behind the worship hall. In the middle is the main hall, recorded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as a three-bay Nagare-zukuri hall with two Chidori-hafu gables on the front and a cypress-bark roof. In fact it is two one-bay halls of that style joined by a connecting bay, built so that the two deities can be enshrined next to each other. Its Munafuda record that Toyotomi Hideyori rebuilt it in 1602, with Katagiri Katsumoto overseeing the work.

To the east of the main hall stands the Kasuga Shrine hall, and to the west the Sumiyoshi Shrine hall, both auxiliary shrines (sessha). They share one form: a one-bay Kasuga-zukuri hall with a Noki-karahafu curved gable over the front eave, a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof at the back, and cypress-bark roofing. The Sumiyoshi hall keeps a ridge beam inscribed with the tenth year of Bun'ei, or 1273, and Izumiotsu City introduces it as said to be the oldest shrine main hall in Osaka Prefecture. For the Kasuga hall, the Agency for Cultural Affairs gives a date of around 1602, while Osaka Bunkazai Navi thinks it was already standing before the Keicho era.

Each hall was designated together with its munafuda: five boards for the main hall, one for the Kasuga hall and two for the Sumiyoshi hall. The form and history of each building are covered on its own page.

Izumianashi Shrine also owns 80 wooden statues of Shinto deities, carved between the Heian and Kamakura periods and designated an Important Cultural Property. The Kyoto National Museum counts 83 statues at the shrine in all; they were conserved over four years starting in 2019.

Walking the Grounds of Izumianashi Shrine

Camphor trees 20 to 33 meters tall shade the grounds of Izumianashi Shrine. The grove is a natural monument of Izumiotsu City, and the city says the setting, trees included, has changed little since the Edo period.

Past the second torii a stone arched bridge, a taikobashi, spans the middle of the approach. The shrine says portable shrines were once carried over it; visitors now walk on the paved paths on either side, and the danjiri floats of the autumn festival enter along the left-hand path.

Ahead stands the worship hall, with a tiled hip-and-gable roof, thought to date from around the Keicho era (1596 to 1615). Two stone torii stand side by side in front of it, which the shrine explains as one for each of the two deities. The worship hall and the torii are designated cultural properties of Izumiotsu City. In front of the main hall stands a stone lantern said to have been offered by Kusunoki Masashige in 1331.

The three Important Cultural Properties stand together behind the worship hall, inside the Suzumon gate. Seen from the front of the worship hall, the Kasuga hall is on the east, the main hall in the center and the Sumiyoshi hall on the west.

Visiting Izumianashi Shrine and Getting There

The grounds of Izumianashi Shrine are open at all times, with no opening or closing hours. According to the shrine, the Suzumon gate that encloses the halls is opened on New Year's Day from midnight to 5:00 p.m., when visitors may pray at each hall inside; it is closed during the New Year rite itself. The shrine does not say whether the gate can be entered on other days, so if you want a closer look at the halls, check with the shrine office first (phone 0725-32-2610).

By train, the shrine is about a 16-minute walk from Izumifuchu Station on the JR Hanwa Line, or about 23 minutes from Izumiotsu Station on the Nankai Main Line. By car, turn off National Route 26 at the Hanwa Toyonaka intersection. There is free parking for 7 cars on the grounds, though it may be unavailable during festivals and events. The shrine's address is 1-1-1 Toyonaka-cho, Izumiotsu City; the Agency for Cultural Affairs records the location only as Toyonaka.

The main festivals are the spring festival on April 5, the autumn festival in October and the Takuhata festival in November. In the autumn festival local danjiri floats and portable shrines parade through the area, and the shrine holds the Ii-no-yama rite, in which steamed rice is heaped up as an offering. The Takuhata festival gives thanks to the weaving goddess and prays for the textile industry, and many people from local textile businesses attend.