Domyoji Tenmangu

Quick facts

Address

1-16-40 Domyoji, Fujiidera, Osaka

Spiritual entities

Ame-no-Hohi (天穂日命) · Tenjin (天神, Sugawara no Michizane)

About this place

Domyoji Tenmangu is in Fujiidera, Osaka. Three deities are enshrined: Sugawara no Michizane, whom the shrine calls the deity of learning; Ame-no-Hohi, a child of Amaterasu; and Kakujuni, Michizane’s aunt. In the thirty-second year of Emperor Suinin, Nomi no Sukune — said to be the founder of sumo — was granted the surname Haji and the land hereabouts for the merit of creating haniwa in place of the burial of the living, and from then his enshrining of his distant ancestor Ame-no-Hohi is the beginning of the Haji shrine. Michizane’s aunt Kakujuni lived here at Domyo-ji, and Michizane himself stayed here from April to July of his fortieth year, copying scriptures.

Origin and history

The deities are Sugawara no Michizane, whom the shrine calls the deity of learning; Ame-no-Hohi, a child of Amaterasu; and Kakujuni, Michizane’s aunt.

In the thirty-second year of Emperor Suinin, Nomi no Sukune, said to be the founder of sumo, was granted the surname Haji and the land hereabouts for the merit of creating haniwa in place of the burial of the living; from then, his enshrining of his distant ancestor Ame-no-Hohi is the beginning of the Haji shrine.

Michizane’s aunt Kakujuni lived here at Domyo-ji. Michizane stayed here from April to July of his fortieth year, and copied scriptures.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  Land granted for the haniwa

  Nomi no Sukune was granted the surname Haji and the land hereabouts for creating haniwa in place of the burial of the living, and enshrined his ancestor Ame-no-Hohi — the beginning of the Haji shrine.

  folk tradition

• Power spotExams & Study

  The deity of learning

  The shrine names one of its deities, Sugawara no Michizane, as the deity of learning.

  documented history

• What people do here

  An aunt’s house and four months

  Michizane’s aunt Kakujuni lived here, and Michizane stayed from April to July of his fortieth year, copying scriptures.

  documented history

This shrine begins with a reward for an invention that stopped people being killed. In the thirty-second year of Emperor Suinin, Nomi no Sukune, said to be the founder of sumo, made haniwa in place of the burial of the living — and for that merit he was granted the surname Haji and the land hereabouts, and enshrined his distant ancestor Ame-no-Hohi. That, the shrine records, is the beginning of the Haji shrine. It is some eight centuries before this became a Tenjin shrine at all.

Another of the three is a relative. Michizane’s aunt Kakujuni lived here at Domyo-ji, and she is enshrined as one of the deities. Not a rank and not a deed: a family relation, given a place in the sanctuary.

Michizane’s own stay has dates on it. From April to July of his fortieth year he was here, copying scriptures. Four months.

The shrine writes his name with a bracket after it: the deity of learning.

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Sources

1. 道明寺天満宮について — Domyoji Tenmangu (accessed 2026-08-15)