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Twenty-two special shrines　（二十二社）

The imperial family of Japan is deeply correlated to the nation's indigenous religion; shintoism. The mythology says that its founder-the first emperor is a divine descendant from the heaven above where divine beings are situated, and legendarily the current emperor Akihito is its 126th heir. Based on this custom, the emperor himself serves the religious festivals periodically in a special shrine alter located within his imperial palace in Tokyo（宮中三殿：Kyu-chu sanden –the three inner shrines in the palace). In some occasions, the empress Michiko is with him for its religious service. Some articles report that the crown prince Naruhito has represented some of his father’s religious duties as the father is too old to stand the physical stress coming from the services as they should appear with a heavy traditional outfits and solemn manners based on its 2673-year traditions during the service.

The imperial family held its court in Kyoto from 794 AD to 1869 AD and during the Kyoto time, the religious performances were sometimes done in the emperor’s favorite shrines near but outside of the court. The emperors in history sent his ambassadors to those outer shrines to represent his worship and prayer directly in front of the deities enshrined in the shrines. The number of favorites increased as time went by since the successive emperors chose the shrines individually and the number stopped at twenty-two when the 72nd emperor Shirakawa （白河天皇）added the last one to the favorite list in 1081 AD. With this number, the favorite shrines was formalized and started to be called “Twenty-two shrines” especially. Due to its geographic aspects, the twenty-two shrines were selected mainly from Kinki area (in Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka, Hyogo, Shiga and exceptionally in Ise). The selection was based on the enshrined deities’ wonders and the emperors’preferences.

When the nation faced to a great danger such as famine, drought, illness, wars and so forth, the emperor chose some shrines from the twenty-two favorites based on his prayer, and gave a special gift to the deities in the shrines in order to show them his obedience and prayed for his people's safety and recovery. The system was abolished after the court sent the ambassador to the shrines in 1449 AD.  The shrines lost the court’s periodical donations but with the special status as the emperor’s favorite, the shrines attracted many supporters and some of them did receive huge donations from business companies. I guess that the status also attracted many visitors who buy the goods (talisman, lucky charm and so forth), too. To this extent, the twenty-two shrines are still on service today.

The twenty–two shrines are ranked as “Upper”,“Middle” and “Lower”. The upper-class shrines are comprised of seven locations;

1. The Ise Grand shrine 神宮 (Ise, Mie pref,),
2. Iwashimizu-Hachiman Shrine 石清水八幡宮 (Yawata, Kyoto Pref.),
3. Kamo Shrines  賀茂社(Kamo-wakeikaduchi shrine 賀茂別雷神社and Kamo-mioya shrine 賀茂御祖神社, Kyoto-city, Kyoto pref.),
4. Matsuno-o Taisha Shrine 松尾大社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.),
5. Hirano Jinja Shrine 平野神社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.),
6. Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine 伏見稲荷大社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.),
7. Kasuga Taisha Shrine 春日大社(Nara-city, Nara Pref.).

The “middle” are of seven locations;
8. Oo-harano Jinja Shrine 大原野神社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.),
9. Oo-miwa Jinja Shrine 大神神社(Sakurai, Nara),
10. Iso-no-kami Jingu Shrine 石上神宮(Tenri, Nara),
11. Oo-yamato Jinja shrine 大和神社(Sakurai, Nara),
12. Hirose Jinja 廣瀬神社(Kita-katsuragi, Nara),
13. Tatsuta Taisha Shrine 龍田大社 (Ikoma, Nara)
14. Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine 住吉大社(Osaka-city, Osaka).

The “lower” are of eight locations;
15. Hiyoshi Taisha Shrine 日吉大社(Otsu, Shiga Pref.)
16. Umenomiya Taisha Shrine 梅宮大社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.)
17. Yoshida Jinja Shrine 吉田神社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.)
18. Hirota Jinja Shrine 廣田神社(Nishinomiya, Hyogo)
19. Yasaka Jinja Shrine 八坂神社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.)
20. Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine 北野天満宮(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.)
21. Niu-kawakami Jinja Shrine 丹生川上神社(Yoshino, Nara)
22. Kifune Jinja Shrine 貴船神社(Kyoto-city, Kyoto Pref.)

Some of the shrines have already been mentioned in this blog, but I would like to address each of them separately.
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