, also known as Ōtori Grand Shrine, is a Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 shrine

Jinja (Shinto)

A Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house one or more Shinto kami....

 in Nishi-ku

Nishi-ku, Sakai

is a ward of the city of Sakai in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The ward has an area of 28.62 km² and a population of 133,583. The population density is 4,667 per square kilometer. The name means "West Ward."...

 ward in the city of Sakai

Sakai, Osaka

is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the Medieval era.Following the February 2005 annexation of the town of Mihara, from Minamikawachi District, the city has grown further and is now the fourteenth most populous city in...

, Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

History

The legend of the origin of the shrine states that the hero Yamatotakeru-no-Mikoto, who turned into a white swan upon his death, last stopped at the future site of the Otori Taisha. It is said that the people nearby built the shrine in order to worship white swans.
The prince Yamato Takeru

Yamato Takeru

, originally Prince Ousu was a Japanese legendary prince of the Yamato dynasty, son of Keikō of Yamato, a legendary monarch who is traditionally counted as the 12th Tennō or Emperor of Japan. The tragic tale of this impressive figure is told in the Japanese chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki...

 (originally prince Ousu), son of Emperor Keiko of the Yamato Dynasty, is enshrined here. The prince was praised for his bravery in battle and was given the name Yamato Takeru, or The Brave of Yamato, by his enemy as he died .
Ōtori Taisha is believed to be in the service of the gods of literature and martial arts, and it was said that warriors often visited in ancient times.

Ōtori was designated as the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) for the former Izumi province

Izumi Province

was a province of Japan. It is also referred to as . It lay in Kinai, and its area today composes the south-western part of Osaka Prefecture . The Ōshōji in Sakai was the border with Settsu Province, until the beginning of the Meiji period, when the boundary was changed to be at the Yamato River...

.
From 1871 through 1946, Ōtori was officially designated one of the , meaning that it stood in the first rank among government supported shrines.

Grounds

The shrine's grounds, which extend over 50,000 square meters, contain a quiet forest known as Chigusa-no-mori because of the seemingly endless variety of tree species which can be found there. The shrine is also known for its iris garden, which features over 100,000 flowers.
There is a monument in the shrine on which a tanka poem was inscribed by Tessai Tomioka.

Notable Architecture

The main building, Ōtori zukuri, is built in one of the oldest architectural styles used for Japanese shrines. This building burned down in 1905, but was rebuilt in 1909.

Visiting

There are no set hours and admission is free. To reach Ōtori taisha, take the JR Hanwa Line and get off at Otori Station.

External links

• Sakai City Site