Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine（Osaka city)

Refer to my previous articles "Hakozaki-Gu shrine" and "Kashii-Gu shrine".

When the Empress Jingu and her imperial army were approaching to the Korean peninsula, Sumiyoshi-deities, the one who advised her to go to Silla and Paekche　instead of Kumaso area in Kyushu, supported her. The Sumiyoshis promised her that its Nigi-mitama (the calm spirit; refer to the article) secured her safety and its ara-mitama (the aggressive spirit) made strong sea winds to push the vessels forward. According to the legend, the Empress did conquer the countries without direct fights versus the local people in the countries, and actually succeeded in merging them into Japan.

After the triumph, she gave a birth to a son who the deities promised as the next emperor in the current Fukuoka, and the Empress and her newborn went back to the imperial capital in Yamato (the current Nara prefecture. On her way back, Sumiyoshis asked her to enshrine she asked head of a local clan in Kawachi area (a part of south Osaka currently), whose name was Tamomi-no-sukune, to enshrine the three of Sumiyoshis. Tamomi clan was called later "Tsumori clan" and the family has devoted their selves to manage the shrine and enshrinement of the deities for more than 1,800 years at this Sumiyoshi Shrine. The empress chose Tamomi for the special priest because of the Tamomi family' s connection to the heavenly deities; the clan is said to be an offspring of a heavenly deity called Ameno-hoakari.

As explained in my previous article, "Sumiyoshis" is comprised of the three deities representing layers of Ocean; Sokotsutsu-no-o who represents the bottom of an ocean, Nakatsutsu-no-o for the middle layer of an ocean and Uhatsutsu-no-o for the surface of an ocean. Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine has four of main buildings for enshrinement of these deities; the first main building for Sokotsutsu , the second for Nakatsutsu and the third for Uhatsutsu. The last fourth one is for the Empress herself. If you look at these four buildings from the sky, these look like a flotilla (a group of ships) on an ocean.

As also explained in my other article, deities have two spirits and those are enshrined separately in a shrine. However, at Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Osaka, there is only the Sumiyoshis' calm spirit (Nigi-mitma) enshrined. Its aggressive part (Ara-mitama) is enshrined in a different "Sumiyoshi" shrine in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, which is 540 km away from Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Osaka. As said previously, the two opposing spirits should be enshrined separately, and the empress decided to built a special shrine in Shimonoseki, near from the Korean peninsula, for the ara-mitama based on the deity's advise.

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