Hattori Tenjingu

Quick facts

Address

1-2-17 Hattorimotomachi, Toyonaka, Osaka

Spiritual entities

Tenjin (天神, Sugawara no Michizane)

About this place

Hattori Tenjingu is in Toyonaka, Osaka. When Sugawara no Michizane was being sent down to Dazaifu, he fell ill in the legs and could not move a step, and prayed here for that illness to be healed. Afterwards his spirit was enshrined together with what was then only a small hokora, and the shrine came to draw reverence from across the country as the deity of feet. Prayers for healing illness of the feet, and prayers of protection for the feet of people in sport, are offered here; the shrine describes its work as standing beside those who value their feet and those troubled by them.

Origin and history

When Sugawara no Michizane was being sent down to Dazaifu, he fell ill in the legs and could not move a step, and prayed here for that illness of the feet to be healed.

Afterwards his spirit was enshrined together with this shrine, which was then only a small hokora, and it came to draw reverence from across the country as the deity of feet.

Today prayers for the healing of illness in the feet, and prayers of protection for the feet of those engaged in sport, are offered here.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotHealth & Healing

  The deity of feet

  Michizane’s spirit was enshrined together with what was then a small hokora, and the shrine came to draw reverence nationwide as the deity of feet.

  documented history

• Origin

  Where he could not take a step

  On the road down to Dazaifu, Michizane fell ill in the legs and could not move a step, and prayed here for that illness to be healed.

  documented history

• What people do here

  Two prayers for the feet

  Prayers for the healing of illness in the feet, and prayers of protection for the feet of people in sport.

  documented history

What this shrine takes on is one part of the body. Not healing in general but the healing of feet. There are two prayers: for illness of the feet to be healed, and for the protection of the feet of people in sport. The shrine describes its own work as standing beside those who value their feet and those troubled by them.

The reason is on a road. Being sent down to Dazaifu, Michizane fell ill in the legs and could not take a step, and prayed here to be healed. This is the place where a journey stopped.

Another place on that same journey is on this list. Osaka Tenmangu stands where Michizane prayed for safe travel. One place where he asked, one where his legs gave out — two points on the same road.

And this shrine was here first. It was a small hokora, and his spirit was enshrined into something already standing.

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. 足の祈願・各種ご祈願 — Hattori Tenjingu (accessed 2026-08-14)
2. 服部天神宮 — Hattori Tenjingu (accessed 2026-08-14)