Atsuta.Jingu

History

This first building in Nagoya that I know about is the famous Shinto shrine Atsuta Jingu which was founded around 1900 years ago (it is located roughly between Nagoya Station and the port). For around 2000 years Atsuta Jingu has been an important religious center.

The buildings of the shrine haves been remodeled and rebuilt many times and were also destroyed in WW2, the current buildings date from the 1950s. The shrine holds the sacred sword Kusanagi-no-tsurugi (the Japanese Excalibur) used by prince Yamato-Takeru in the 3rd century but it is not on public display. Today the shrine is known as the second most important Shinto shrine in Japan and it has around 9 million visitors annually.

Miya Station

When Tokugawa Ieyasu begun the Shogunate, he declared his base in Edo (Tokyo) as the new capital and required all Daimyo lords to spend one year out of every two at the capital. This meant that the main highways connecting to Tokyo, especially the Tōkaidō became very important as the Daimyo and their entourages traveled them on a regular basis.

In 1601 Atsuta Jingu was nominated as Miya (meaning Shrine) Station. At Miya station travelers on the road used a ferry to bypass the three rivers that exit around Nagoya city. The town which developed around the shrine merged with the town around Nagoya castle forming the core of the current city of Nagoya.

Shrine Layout

Map of the Shrine

The shrine is actually a large park with a number of buildings dotted around it. We had fun strolling down the wide avenues with old, moss covered trees towering above us and shading our walk.

Nothing was really elaborate or overdone, and we came away with a nice feeling of being close to nature.

What is Shinto-ism

Atsuta Jingu is the second most venerated Shinto shrine in Japan after the Ise shrine (also near Nagoya). Shinto started in Japan and was Japan's state religion until 1945. But what is shinto?

Shinto involves a reverence for nature and the worship of natural spirits called Kami. These spirits can be represented by natural features such as rocks, trees or mountains.
The most famous spirit is, Amaterasu, the Sun goddess, represented by Mount Fuji. Atsuta shrine houses the Kami, Atsuta-no-Ookami who is symbolized by the sacred sword Kusanagi-no-tsurugi.

"Shinto has no binding set of dogma, no holiest place for worshippers, no person or kami deemed holiest, and no defined set of prayers. Instead, Shinto is a collection of rituals and methods meant to mediate the relations of living humans and kami. " - Wikipedia Shinto Page.