Otori Taisha

Quick facts

Address

1-1-2 Otorikitamachi, Nishi-ku, Sakai, Osaka

About this place

Otori Taisha is in Nishi-ku, Sakai, Osaka, and enshrines two deities: Yamato Takeru and the ancestral deity of the Otori no Muraji. The spirit of Yamato Takeru became a white bird and flew from his tomb. It first came down at Kotobikihara in Yamato; it rose again and next alighted at Furuichi in Kawachi province; after that, according to the shrine’s tradition, it rose high into the sky once more and came down here. A shrine was built on that spot and the deity enshrined, and that is the shrine’s origin — a matter of some nineteen hundred years ago. Its main hall is in the Otori style, which preserves a form of its own in the history of shrine architecture: closely resembling the Taisha style of Izumo, gable-roofed and entered from the gable end, and second in form only to Izumo Taisha. It is worshipped for fortune in winning, for opening fortune, for warding off misfortune and for safety in travel.

Origin and history

The deities are Yamato Takeru and the ancestral deity of the Otori no Muraji.

The spirit of Yamato Takeru became a white bird and flew up from his tomb. It first came down at Kotobikihara in Yamato; rising again, it next alighted at Furuichi in Kawachi province; after that, the shrine’s tradition says, it rose high into the sky once more and came down at this place. A shrine was built there and the deity enshrined, and that is this shrine’s origin — a matter of some nineteen hundred years ago.

The main hall is in the Otori style, preserving a form of its own in the history of shrine architecture. Its structure closely resembles the Taisha style of Izumo: gable-roofed, entered from the gable end, and second in form only to Izumo Taisha.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  The third landing

  Yamato Takeru’s spirit became a white bird and flew from his tomb, coming down at Kotobikihara, then Furuichi, and then here; a shrine was built on that spot.

  folk tradition

• Power spotProtection & Safety

  Winning, fortune, warding, safe travel

  It is worshipped for fortune in winning, for opening fortune, for warding off misfortune and for safety in travel.

  documented history

• What people do here

  The Otori style

  The main hall is in the Otori style, gable-roofed and entered from the gable end, closely resembling Izumo’s Taisha style and second in form only to it.

  documented history

This shrine is where a bird came down. The spirit of Yamato Takeru became a white bird and flew from his tomb, alighting first at Kotobikihara in Yamato, then at Furuichi in Kawachi, and the third time here — that is how the shrine’s tradition tells it. The flight has stages, and this ground is the end of them. A shrine was built on the spot, some nineteen hundred years ago.

The building has a name of its own too. The main hall is in the Otori style, which the shrine says preserves a distinct form in the history of shrine architecture: closely resembling Izumo’s Taisha style, gable-roofed and entered from the gable end, second in form only to Izumo Taisha. Not many shrines have an architectural style named after them.

What is named as its blessing: fortune in winning, opening fortune, warding off misfortune, and safety in travel.

Related guides

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• 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. 大鳥大社について — Otori Taisha (accessed 2026-08-15)