Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine

A Shrine to the Ancestral Gods of the Ōtomo Clan

Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine (伴林氏神社, Tomobayashi-no-uji-no-jinja) is a Shinto shrine in Hayashi 3-chome, Fujiidera City, Osaka Prefecture, first recorded as an officially recognized shrine in 867, and five of its buildings, put up in 1940 and 1941, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on June 29, 2022.

Three deities are enshrined here: Takamimusuhi no Kami, Ame no Oshihi no Mikoto and Michi no Omi no Mikoto. The shrine's own history names Ame no Oshihi as the distant forebear of the Ōtomo clan, the family that commanded the imperial guard in ancient Japan, and Michi no Omi as his descendant three generations on, the warrior god said to have led the army of the legendary Emperor Jinmu on his eastward campaign. Fujiidera City's tourism page describes Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine as the only shrine dedicated to Michi no Omi.

No one knows when the shrine was founded. The court chronicle Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku records that on the 26th day of the 2nd month of 867 the "Hayashi clan deity" of Shiki District in Kawachi Province was admitted to the list of state-supported shrines, and that in 873 Ame no Oshihi received the court rank of junior fifth. The shrine also appears in the Engishiki register of shrines, which makes it a shikinaisha, one of the shrines named in that 10th-century list.

Later centuries were harder. According to the shrine, its buildings burned in the wars of Oda Nobunaga in the 16th century and the Tomo family that had kept up the rites died out. Local farmers rebuilt a small hall and kept worshipping the deity as their tutelary god. Osaka Bunkazai Navi gives 1872 as the year it was ranked a village shrine.

The "Yasukuni of the West" and the 1940 Rebuilding

The precinct you see at Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine today is a product of the early Shōwa era. The shrine says that historians' research in 1932 drew attention to it as a shrine of the Ōtomo ancestral gods, and that in 1940, in wartime, the grounds were expanded and rebuilt under the name "Yasukuni of the West", a reference to the Tokyo shrine for the war dead. Its promotion to prefectural shrine rank came in the same years, although sources differ on the date: the shrine links it to the 1940 works, while Osaka Bunkazai Navi gives 1943.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main hall and the gate with its lattice wall to 1940, and the worship hall with its offering hall and the purification pavilion to 1941. The small Wakamiya Hachimangu hall was also built in 1940, but as a hoanden at Sawada Jinjō Elementary School, and was moved to the shrine later. The main hall and worship hall are Shiraki-zukuri work in Taiwanese cypress, left unpainted.

The purification pavilion is the one building that was not new. It stood at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and was moved here; Fujiidera City's tourism page says it was built in 1872. The nickname and the architecture are joined by that single structure.

Osaka Bunkazai Navi notes that apart from replacing the original cypress-bark roofs with copper sheet, the halls, pavilion and fence remain close to their first form. After the war the shrine became an independent religious corporation under the Association of Shinto Shrines. The shrine says the deities were formally installed in the new main hall on May 26, 1941, which made 2026 the 85th anniversary.

Five Registered Buildings and How to Walk the Precinct

The five Registered Tangible Cultural Properties at Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine carry consecutive numbers, 27-0859 to 27-0863, and were entered together in the 102nd round of registrations. The gate and lattice wall were registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country; the other four were registered as models of design.

The shrine stands just west of the Ichinoyama burial mound, and all its buildings face south. The purification pavilion sits outside the great torii at the south end, on the west side of the approach. Walk north through the torii and the worship hall rises ahead. Behind it the offering hall projects northward, with side corridors leading east to a ritual-implements room and west to a food-offerings room. The main hall stands beyond the offering hall, enclosed on the north, east and west by the lattice wall, whose gate opens in the middle of the north side. The Wakamiya Hachimangu hall is west of the main hall.

The great torii was first raised in 1941 on the west side of the grounds, facing west, and was moved to its present spot in 1989, according to Osaka Bunkazai Navi. The characters on its name tablet were written by Prince Konoe Fumimaro.

In floor area the worship hall and offering hall cover 219 square meters, the main hall 35, the purification pavilion 18 and the Wakamiya Hachimangu hall 6.7. The gate is 2.1 meters wide and the lattice wall runs 55 meters in total.

Repair dates differ by building. The main hall was refurbished in 1961; the worship hall and the gate and wall in 1983; the purification pavilion in 1983 and 1996. The Wakamiya Hachimangu hall was moved in 1973 and again in 2003.

Getting to Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine and Visiting

Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine is about an 8-minute walk from Hajinosato Station on the Kintetsu Minami-Osaka Line, according to the shrine; Fujiidera City puts it roughly 800 meters northwest of the station. Drivers can reach it in about 4 minutes heading east from the Fujiidera exit of the Nishi-Meihan Expressway. A free lot for about 5 cars sits on the east side of the shrine, and the shrine office can direct larger groups or buses to overflow parking.

Visiting hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from May to October and 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from November to April, and the shrine office keeps the same hours. No admission fee is listed for entering the grounds.

All five registered buildings are in active ritual use, and Osaka Bunkazai Navi lists their interiors as closed to the public. Their exteriors can be viewed from the grounds. The shrine publishes no photography rules, so it is courteous to put the camera away during ceremonies and prayer services.

The annual grand festival falls in October; the shrine has announced it for October 11 in 2026. What to look for at each building, and how close you can get, is covered on the individual building pages.