Namba Jinja

Shrine · Osaka

Researched and translated with AI assistance. Every claim is linked to its source, but errors get through, so check the official site for opening times, fees and closures.About

In short

Transmitted as founded when Emperor Hanzei opened his palace at Shibagaki and enshrined his father, Emperor Nintoku.

Namba Jinja in Bakuromachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka.
jetsun / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Quick facts

Address
4-1-3 Bakuromachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka

About this place

Namba Jinja is in Chuo-ku, Osaka. Its deity is Emperor Nintoku, with Susanoo enshrined alongside. It is transmitted to have been founded when Emperor Hanzei opened the Shibagaki palace at what is now Matsubara, Osaka, enshrining his father Emperor Nintoku as its deity. In 1583 it moved to its present site when Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka Castle. It burned down entirely in the Osaka air raids of 1945 and was rebuilt in July 1974.

Origin and history

The deity is Emperor Nintoku, with Susanoo enshrined alongside.

It is transmitted to have been founded when Emperor Hanzei opened the Shibagaki palace at what is now Matsubara in Osaka, enshrining his father Emperor Nintoku as its deity.

In 1583 it moved to its present site when Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka Castle. It burned down entirely in the Osaka air raids of 1945, and was rebuilt in July 1974.

What it is locally associated with

  • Origin

    Founded for a father

    Transmitted as founded when Emperor Hanzei opened the Shibagaki palace and enshrined his father, Emperor Nintoku.

    folk tradition
  • What people do here

    One of three shrines moved for the castle

    In 1583 it moved to its present site when Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka Castle.

    documented history
  • What people do here

    Burned out and rebuilt

    It burned down entirely in the Osaka air raids of 1945 and was rebuilt in July 1974.

    documented history

This shrine begins with a son enshrining his father. When Emperor Hanzei opened his palace at Shibagaki, he founded it with his father Emperor Nintoku as its deity — the relationship between the one enshrined and the one who enshrined him is the reason the shrine exists.

The place moved. In 1583 it went to its present site because Hideyoshi was building Osaka Castle. Ikasuri Jinja and Kozu-gu, elsewhere on this list, moved for the same reason: one construction project displaced three shrines in one city.

And once, it was gone. It burned down entirely in the Osaka air raids of 1945, and was rebuilt in July 1974. The shrine writes that twenty-nine year gap into its own account.

About what this shrine grants, that account says nothing at all — so this page attaches no category of prayer.

Claims and evidence levels 3
  • Namba Jinja is transmitted to have been founded when Emperor Hanzei opened the Shibagaki palace and enshrined his father, Emperor Nintoku. folk tradition
  • It moved to its present site in 1583 when Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka Castle. documented history
  • It burned down entirely in the Osaka air raids of 1945 and was rebuilt in July 1974. documented history

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. 難波神社 — Namba Jinja (accessed 2026-08-15)

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