Arahito Shrine

Quick facts

Address

3-6-20 Naka, Nakagawa, Fukuoka

Spiritual entities

Empress Jingu (神功皇后)

About this place

Arahito Shrine is in Nakagawa, Fukuoka. Its chief deities are the three Sumiyoshi deities — Sokotsutsunoo, Nakatsutsunoo and Uwatsutsunoo — with Empress Jingu enshrined alongside. The shrine writes: of the more than two thousand shrines in the country that enshrine the three Sumiyoshi deities, Arahito Shrine is their root and the oldest. The three are held to have been born from Izanagi’s rite of purification. About eighteen hundred years ago, by Empress Jingu’s command, Fujiwara no Ason Saeki no Sukune came to serve as its priest. The shrine is known as a deity of fortune in work, who helps in seeing work through; further benefits attributed to Empress Jingu are safety in construction, the quieting of heaven and earth, the prospering of enterprises, abundant harvests, safe birth and the flourishing of a household.

Origin and history

Its chief deities are the three Sumiyoshi deities, with Empress Jingu enshrined alongside. The three are held to have been born from Izanagi’s rite of purification.

The shrine writes: of the more than two thousand shrines in the country that enshrine the three Sumiyoshi deities, Arahito Shrine is their root and the oldest.

About eighteen hundred years ago, by Empress Jingu’s command, Fujiwara no Ason Saeki no Sukune came to serve as its priest.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotCareer & WorkMoney & Prosperity

  The deity of fortune in work

  It is known as a deity of fortune in work who helps in seeing work through, with the prospering of enterprises among its benefits.

  documented history

• Origin

  A claim to be the Sumiyoshi root

  The shrine writes that of the two thousand-odd shrines to the three Sumiyoshi deities, it is their root and the oldest.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  A priest appointed by Empress Jingu

  About eighteen hundred years ago, by Empress Jingu’s command, Fujiwara no Ason Saeki no Sukune came to serve as its priest.

  folk tradition

The benefit here is written in the language of work. A deity of fortune in work, who helps in seeing work through — the object of prayer narrowed to one department of life. On this list, Himuro Shrine in Nara belongs to the ice makers, Hikosan Jingu to mines and factories, Sukunahikona Shrine in Osaka to the pharmacists’ street. This one takes on not a trade but working itself.

The shrine also claims to be where the three Sumiyoshi deities come from: of the two thousand-odd shrines to them, their root and the oldest. But two places on this list already say something of the same kind. Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka, and Sumiyoshi Shrine in Hakata, which states that among the country’s 2,129 Sumiyoshi shrines it is said to be the first. Three shrines, each calling itself the starting point. This page does not decide which is right; it records that each says so.

Of Empress Jingu in the second hall, the benefits given are safety in construction, the quieting of heaven and earth, the prospering of enterprises, abundant harvests, safe birth and the flourishing of a household. Writing out which benefit belongs to which deity is the same practice as at Kashiigu, also in Fukuoka.

Related guides

• How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
• What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
• Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
• Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.

Sources

1. 由緒と歴史 — Arahito Shrine (accessed 2026-08-15)