Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine is a shrine located in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, and is the head shrine of more than 2,000 Sumiyoshi Shrines throughout Japan. The main deities of the festival are Nakatsukuri Nominee, Nakatsukuri Nominee, Omotsukuri Nominee, and Hiboronozukuri Hime-no-Mikoto, and the regular festival is held on July 31st of every year. It is said to have been founded in 211, and is well known to the people of Osaka as the guardian god of navigation and the god of business prosperity, with as many as 3 million people attending the first worship of the year at the beginning of each year.
The shrines of Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, from the first to the fourth main shrine, retain the oldest form of shrine architecture called "Sumiyoshi-zukuri" and have been designated as national treasures, making it one of the three major shrines in Japan, along with Sumiyoshi Shrine in Shimonoseki and Sumiyoshi Shrine in Hakata. In addition to the annual festival, major events such as the "Midasaki Shinto Festival" are held at the beginning of summer at the shrine. "It is a folkloric event to pray for a good harvest. During this event, women line up to plant rice seedlings in the fields, and while the rice seedlings are being planted, a variety of traditional folkloric events, including Sumiyoshi dances, are performed on the central stage and along the banks of the fields. This event has been designated as a national intangible cultural asset of Japan as it fully expresses the entirety of the Rice Planting Festival.
Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine is the most visited shrine in Osaka at the beginning of the year.
www.sumiyoshitaisha.net - 754 - Sumiyoshi Taisha
