Miyukimori Tenjingu Shrine

The Shrine of Emperor Nintoku in Old Ikaino

Miyukimori Tenjingu Shrine (御幸森天神宮, Miyukimori Tenjingū) is a Shinto shrine in Momodani, Ikuno-ku, Osaka City, dedicated chiefly to Emperor Nintoku and said by shrine tradition to have been founded in 407, and the four structures of its 1930 sanctuary, the main hall, offering hall, worship hall and lattice fence, were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan in 2000. It was long the tutelary shrine of Ikaino, a name that stayed in the shrine's address until it was changed to Momodani in 1973.

According to the shrine, this district was once Ikaitsu, a harbor on an inlet of ancient Naniwa where people who raised pigs for the court lived. The Nihon Shoki records that in the 14th year of Nintoku's reign a bridge named 小橋, the Small Bridge, was built at Ikaitsu, and the shrine identifies it with a crossing over the Kudara River, the old course of the Hirano River that once ran past its gate, making it the earliest bridge named in Japanese written records.

Nintoku ruled from Naniwa, and tradition holds that he often rested in a grove here on his way out hawking, or when going to see how settlers from the Korean kingdom of Baekje (Kudara) were faring to the southeast. The grove became known as Miyuki no Mori, the grove of the imperial outing. After his death people built a small sanctuary in it for his spirit and called it Miyuki no Hokora or Miyukinomiya.

The founding year is not settled. The shrine's current website gives the second year of Emperor Hanzei, which it equates with 407, while many other accounts give 406, and no source consulted for this page decides between them.

Why a Nintoku Shrine Is Called Tenjingu

Visitors who know Japan's Tenmangu shrines may expect Sugawara no Michizane here, but Miyukimori Tenjingu Shrine explains its name differently. In 853 smallpox swept the area, and a priest attached to the shrine, Okurain Yukitsuna, went into retreat at Gojo Tenjinsha in Kyoto to pray for relief. He brought back the spirit of Sukunahikona, a god of healing, and the epidemic is said to have ended. From about that time the shrine was also called Tenno Tenjinsha or Tenjingu.

The third deity, Oshisakahiko, came from another Tenjin shrine near Shimizudani in Tamatsukuri that burned in the Summer Siege of Osaka. Matsudaira Tadaakira, then lord of Osaka Castle, is said to have acted on a dream his daughter had urging the shrine's revival, and in 1616 the deity was enshrined at Miyukimori. Tadaakira also gave land on a sandbar of the old Hirano River and a stone lantern stand, which was repaired in 1744 and still stands in the grounds.

The 1930 Sanctuary and Its Four Registered Structures

The shrine's own chronology lists rebuildings in 1071 and 1616 and alterations in 1268, 1716 and 1867. The present buildings of Miyukimori Tenjingu Shrine went up together in 1930. From south to north they form a single line, worship hall, offering hall and main hall, with a lattice fence running back from behind the worship hall to enclose the offering hall and main hall.

All four were registered on April 28, 2000, under consecutive numbers 27-0093 to 27-0096 and the same criterion, that each serves as a model of design. In its note on the worship hall the Agency for Cultural Affairs treats the three halls as one building and calls them a fine example of early Showa shrine architecture that deliberately revived the forms of the Kamakura period.

The worship hall is the largest, with a footprint of 88 square meters, against 16 square meters for the offering hall and 15 square meters for the main hall, and the fence runs for 32 meters. The roofs were renewed in 2006 as part of the shrine's 1,600th-anniversary works.

Three smaller Keidaisha shrines stand in the grounds: Miyuki Ebisu Shrine, founded in 1952, an Inari shrine brought from Fushimi Inari in 1830, and Sugawara Shrine, built in 1885. A large muku tree (Aphananthe aspera) was made a protected tree by Osaka City in 1968.

The Wani Poem Stone and the Festival Year

A stone at Miyukimori Tenjingu Shrine carries the Naniwazu poem, which Wani, a scholar from Baekje, is said to have composed to celebrate Nintoku's accession: "In Naniwa Bay the flowers bloom; after the winter's hiding, now it is spring, and the flowers bloom." It was erected in October 2009 in the hope of lasting friendship and coexistence between Japan and Korea.

The ritual year opens with the New Year rite in January, the Miyuki Ebisu festival from January 9 to 11 and the tondo fire, followed by the Setsubun rite against misfortune in February, the Inari festival on April 16 and the summer festival in July. The autumn festival on October 15 and 16 is the high point, with the grand rite held in the main hall at 10:00 a.m. on the 16th. The date of the portable shrine procession varies by year and is announced on the shrine's website.

Getting to Miyukimori Tenjingu Shrine

The nearest station to Miyukimori Tenjingu Shrine is Momodani on the JR Osaka Loop Line, about 10 minutes' walk to the east. From the east exit of Kintetsu Tsuruhashi Station it is also about 10 minutes on foot, and from the JR and Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line stations at Tsuruhashi about 15 minutes. By Osaka City Bus, get off at the Miyukidori stop, which is right by the shrine.

The shrine publishes no admission fee and no opening or closing hours. Amulets, goshuin stamps and bookings for prayer rites are handled at the shrine office, telephone 06-6731-2816. All goshuin are handed out on separate sheets rather than written in your book, at 500 yen for the standard design and 600 yen for monthly and other limited designs.

The shrine reminds visitors that its grounds are private land, not a public park. Schools planning to use the precinct as a meeting point on field trips are asked to call ahead, groups of 50 or more are turned away, and school parties heading for Osaka Koreatown are directed to the nearby Miyukimori Daini Park instead. Cleaning staff work in the grounds on weekday mornings.

The main hall, offering hall, worship hall and lattice fence are all in use for worship, and no opening of their interiors to sightseers is announced. Where best to view each of them is covered on its own page.