Sumiyoshi Taisha

Sumiyoshi Taisha is the head shrine of the Sumiyoshi cult and the ichinomiya of Settsu Province, beside the old port of Suminoe no Tsu. Its founding in 211 is attributed to the local magnate Tamomi no Sukune, acting on an oracle given to Empress Jingū, who is enshrined beside the three Sumiyoshi kami, protectors of seafarers and gods of war on the sea.

The shrine guarded Yamato embassies sailing to China, and its hereditary priests of the Tsumori clan boarded those ships. As Jingū was mother of the deified Emperor Ōjin, it also ranks as an ancestor shrine of Hachiman and protector of the Kawachi Minamoto line.

In 965 Emperor Murakami numbered it among sixteen shrines receiving imperial offerings. Its honden, built in the Sumiyoshi-zukuri style of raised pillars and plank walls, is the oldest surviving example of the form.