Munakata Taisha Nakatsu-gu

Quick facts

Address

1811 Oshima, Munakata, Fukuoka

Spiritual entities

Izanagi (伊邪那岐命) · Izanami (伊邪那美命)

About this place

Munakata Taisha Nakatsu-gu stands on the island of Oshima in Munakata, Fukuoka, and is one of the three halls of Munakata Taisha. Its deity is Tagitsuhime. The main hall dates from 1566 and is a prefecturally designated cultural property; the worship hall was built in 1928. Within the precinct stand the Weaver Shrine, enshrining Izanami, and the Herdsman Shrine, enshrining Izanagi. The page states no benefit that may be prayed for.

Origin and history

Munakata Taisha Nakatsu-gu stands on the island of Oshima, and its deity is Tagitsuhime.

The main hall dates from 1566 and is a prefecturally designated cultural property; the worship hall was built in 1928.

Within the precinct stand the Weaver Shrine, enshrining Izanami, and the Herdsman Shrine, enshrining Izanagi.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spot

  The Weaver and the Herdsman

  Within the precinct stand the Weaver Shrine, enshrining Izanami, and the Herdsman Shrine, enshrining Izanagi.

  documented history

• Origin

  One of three halls, to Tagitsuhime

  It stands on Oshima as one of the three halls of Munakata Taisha, and its deity is Tagitsuhime.

  documented history

• What people do here

  A main hall of 1566

  The main hall dates from 1566 and is a prefecturally designated cultural property; the worship hall was built in 1928.

  documented history

In this precinct the two figures of the star festival each stand as a shrine of their own — the Weaver Shrine and the Herdsman Shrine. But who is enshrined in them is the surprise: Izanami in the Weaver Shrine, Izanagi in the Herdsman Shrine. The woman at the loom and the man with the oxen are identified with the pair who made the land. That identification is the page’s own.

This hall is on an island. Munakata Taisha Hetsu-gu, also on this list, is the hall on the mainland, and the shrine as a whole is divided across Okitsu-gu, Nakatsu-gu and Hetsu-gu. One shrine in three places, two of them out at sea. Of the three goddesses, this hall holds Tagitsuhime.

The buildings carry dates. The main hall is of 1566 and prefecturally designated; the worship hall is of 1928 — two structures standing together with nearly four centuries between them.

The page names no benefit, so this page carries no tag for what may be prayed for.

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. 中津宮 — Munakata Taisha (accessed 2026-08-15)