Kumata Jinja

Quick facts

Address

2-1-67 Hiranomiyacho, Hirano-ku, Osaka

Spiritual entities

Izanagi (伊邪那岐命) · Izanami (伊邪那美命) · Susanoo no Mikoto (素盞嗚尊)

About this place

Kumata Jinja is in Hirano, Osaka. It is transmitted to have begun in 862, when Sakanoue no Tomichi, son of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, invited the Gion sanctuary of Susanoo here. At that time, it is transmitted, there came an oracle: "I am the guardian deity of this land; if I am worshipped hereafter, I shall make the realm at peace and the people prosperous." The first main hall enshrines Susanoo; the second Izanami, Hayatama-o and Kotosaka-o; the third Izanagi. The second hall was built in 1190 and the third in 1321 by decree of Emperor Go-Daigo. The summer festival runs from 11 to 14 July, with nine danjiri floats from the nine neighbourhoods of Hirano.

Origin and history

Kumata Jinja is transmitted to have begun in 862, when Sakanoue no Tomichi, son of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, invited the Gion sanctuary of Susanoo to this place. At that time, it is transmitted, an oracle came: "I am the guardian deity of this land; if I am worshipped hereafter, I shall make the realm at peace and the people prosperous."

The first main hall enshrines Susanoo; the second, Izanami, Hayatama-o and Kotosaka-o; the third, Izanagi. The second hall was built in 1190 and the third in 1321, by decree of Emperor Go-Daigo.

The summer festival runs from 11 to 14 July, with nine danjiri floats from the nine neighbourhoods of Hirano.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotProtection & Safety

  The oracle of the guardian

  At the founding, it is transmitted, an oracle came: "I am the guardian deity of this land; if I am worshipped hereafter, I shall make the realm at peace and the people prosperous."

  folk tradition

• Origin

  Three halls, three centuries apart

  The first main hall dates to 862, the second to 1190, and the third to 1321, built by decree of Emperor Go-Daigo.

  documented history

• What people do here

  Nine floats for nine neighbourhoods

  The summer festival runs from 11 to 14 July with nine danjiri floats from the nine neighbourhoods of Hirano.

  documented history

At this shrine the deity sets out its own terms, in the first person. The oracle at the founding in 862: I am the guardian deity of this land; if I am worshipped hereafter, I shall make the realm at peace and the people prosperous. I will protect, therefore worship me. What is described is not what will be granted, but what follows from the worship.

There are three halls, and the years they were built stand three centuries apart. Susanoo’s hall in 862, the second in 1190, the third in 1321 by decree of Go-Daigo. This is not a shrine that went up at once, but one that grew a hall at a time.

The summer festival runs 11 to 14 July, with nine danjiri floats from the nine neighbourhoods of Hirano. That the number of floats matches the number of neighbourhoods says what kind of festival it is.

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. 杭全神社について — Kumata Jinja (accessed 2026-08-15)
2. 杭全神社 — Kumata Jinja (accessed 2026-08-15)